Hi Carol,

Thank you for the opportunity to respond.  I wish Dan was here to offer his thoughts since he organized the last two MoMS tours in Kansas, but the sunny beaches of Galveston beckon.  Our loss.  Anyway....

POSTERS

Some Kansas communities think the posters are too large.  This came about as we encouraged them to place them in storefronts, and we found out that store owners think the posters take up too much space!   Many of them use clear labels to put their information on the posters, and we really encourage that. Otherwise, the connection between the local venue and the Smithsonian weakens.  Primarily the posters are used as promotional materials, but they are also used as give-aways or gift shop items.  50 posters is likely too many.  They could handle 30.  KHC does not need that many to use as a council.

POSTCARDS

The postcards are more popular in Kansas then the posters.  Any size is fine.  Any number of images is fine.  They would even be fine with only 1 image.  The postcards are used primarily as invitations, thank you notes, and gift shop items.  KHC communities use anywhere between 350-500.  I really like having the Kansas Humanities Council on the back of the postcard.  I use them as invitations and thank you notes to legislators and other statewide funders.  Not having it there removes us from the partnership.  I confess; I would prefer fewer images printed but keeping the councils listed on the postcard.

Julie

Julie Mulvihill

Executive Director

Kansas Humanities Council

www.kansashumanities.org

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785-357-0359

On Aug 16, 2010, at 12:10 PM, Harsh, Carol wrote:

Hi all,

 

Hope you are having a wonderful summer and have enjoyed some time of relaxation.

 

We are in the early stages of designing and printing the posters and postcards for The Way We Worked and we want to get some quick feedback about posters and postcards.

 

We are considering a horizontal poster for The Way We Worked that may be about 15” tall x 22” wide.  As you know we design them in such a way as to leave space for the  host communities to  overprint their names and exhibition dates on the poster.  Council names and logos are on the posters, too.

·         Is this size about right, or should the posters be smaller? 

·         Do your host towns use clear labels to put their info on the posters or do they go to a printer and have them done?

·         Is 50 posters per town about right? Or is that too many?

·         Do you think your venues find the posters useful? Or should we change them in some way?

 

For the postcards, we are considering changing things up a bit and making them a little larger, 5” x 7” rather than 4” x 6”—and using 6 images rather than 10 images. This will give the host communities more space to print their program schedule or other info that they want to put on the postcards. 

·         How popular are the postcards?

·         How are the postcards used in your states?

·         Currently we print enough for each town to get  500 postcards.  Is that a good number?

·         On the back of each postcard, we currently include a statement like, “Brought to you by the XXX Humanities Council.” It would save MoMS a ton of money if we didn’t customize the postcards.  How important is it to keep that phrase on them?

 

We would appreciate your responses to these questions.  It will help us plan appropriately and spend MoMS money wisely.

 

All the best,

 

Carol

 

Carol G. Harsh

Director, Museum on Main Street

Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

P.O. Box 37012, MRC 941

Washington, DC  20013-7012

202-633-5333

202-465-5267 (cell)