As a librarian, when my library was renovated, I was excited to plan open wall space that could be dedicated as gallery area. Given my past, I believed I was well prepared. Prior to our first show, I prepared a policy that outlined everyone’s responsibilities and liabilities. I researched various hanging systems and chose one that appeared easy to use and would not mar walls. I even received several suggestions for artists to contact.

Our gallery space has now completed three cycles. My library board and the public love the space; they are thrilled to see original art work in the library. However, I am now learning that I was not as prepared as I believed.

While our hanging system certainly prevents nail holes in our walls, it does not prevent the walls from minor damage.  It has become clear that a repainting schedule is going to need to be implemented and not on the time frame of decades like our past experience. Frames and hanging wires brush against the paint, causing scratches and wear. The removable labels that identify our artist’s work, do remove with relative efficiency, but while they do not remove patches of paint or worse, wall board, they are not removed without signs of wear.

While it is stated up front, that artists show their work at their own risk, I cannot help but worry. I see our young adults throw themselves into chairs near the wall. I see unaware adults stroll past, brushing the walls as they travel. Worse, I see the curious and the admirers reaching to touch. Thankfully, we have had no ‘accidents,’ but I am well aware that should one occur the costs, both financial and to good will would be great.

Last, I had always imagined an ‘if you build it, they will come’ approach to the showing of art work. I believed that of course, artists, upon hearing of an opportunity would seize the chance. What I did not anticipate was that artists are no different than any other group of humans. They forget. They procrastinate. They change their mind. Thankfully our gallery space operates on a quarterly showing basis or I would spend half of my job engaging in the administration of this one program.

Ultimately, is the gallery space worth it? I think it is. It certainly makes our library prettier. By the end of their shows, our artists always appear grateful. Some have even gotten sales as a result. But before anyone ventures into this task, I would advise them to remember, like a garden, gallery space is something that must be tended to, not planted and forgotten!

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MELSA previously offered a program called Museum Adventure Pass, which allowed patrons to check out physical passes to local museums and other institutions.  This program was well-loved by patrons but had downsides, including the fact that patrons had to physically go to a library branch to obtain one of a limited number of passes, which often ran out early in the day, and patrons had no limits on repeat checkouts.[ii]

With the new smARTpass, patrons can obtain tickets and passes straight from an app on their smartphones, making them more widely available to MELSA patrons.  These tickets are still limited and still run out quickly, sometimes within hours, but new policies help spread the cultural wealth among patrons.[iii]  First, patrons can generally only reserve one pair of free admissions to each institution per year, unless the institution permits more, and once reserved the admissions cannot be returned – if they are not used the patron still cannot reserve another set that year.  Second, patrons can have only two active reservations at a time, with reservation slots available up to two months in advance.  With this policy, if a patron reserves a set of tickets to two different institutions for the next month, they cannot reserve a set of tickets for another institution until they’ve used the first of their reserved tickets.[iv]

“It works best if you have a lot of cultural organizations that can contribute, so lots of people can take advantage of it,” said Sally Lederer, communications manager for MELSA. “Luckily for us here we have a lot of great arts partners.”[v]

MELSA has partnered with more than two dozen organizations to provide passes and tickets for this program.[vi]  The tickets are provided by the organizations and are not paid for by MELSA; it is up to each institution to decide how many tickets they will offer, with what restrictions, and for what specific dates.  Partners can also offer discounted tickets, which are usually not limited by the free ticket policies, allowing interested patrons further admission to their favorite institutions.[vii]

“The good thing about [smARTpass] is that it’s really scalable for different sizes of organizations,” said Lederer.  “It can be a small theater company or a large museum that’s open every day; it just depends on what the organization has to offer.”[viii]  Current smARTpass partners include museums, orchestras, smaller music ensembles, theaters, and even a dance studio.[ix]

The smARTpass app was built by Nerdery, a Minnesota-based web developer, and the app and website are maintained by MELSA staff.  The app’s backend allows partners to generate reports to see how many people are using the partner’s offered tickets and which libraries the users come from.[x]

The program is marketed with ads on local news sites,  MELSA’s website,  websites of its member libraries, and in individual branches via bookmarks and posters. Currently, smARTpass has about 16,000 registered users, a small percentage of the library population, and “the ones on there are pretty serious about making reservations,” said Lederer.[xi]

References

[i] “Partners.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/partners/

[ii] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] “How it Works.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/how-it-works/

[v] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[vi] “Partners.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/partners/

[vii] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] “Partners.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/partners/

[x] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[xi] Ibid.

The post Patrons Can Check Out a Museum Pass with smARTpass App first appeared on Public Libraries Online.