Musical Instrument Museum Reviews

The MIM is not run like most other museums. They themselves trumpet that fact all the time, not for a moment thinking that it could be a negative thing. They chose early on not to pursue accreditation in the American Association of Museums. For the most part they do not act as stewards protecting objects- the museum is lit like a department store (the founder was the former chairman and CEO of Target Corp, and felt museums are to dark and uninviting) and so almost everything is being light damaged. Unique pieces were rented out to a Hollywood composer so his crew could sample their sounds for his movie scores- in the process these antiques were damaged. Most of the collection is treated as "replaceable." At the time I worked there most employees were "contract" and could be terminated at any time without warning, which was oft the case. For an organization that has only been open 5 years, they have had tremendous turnover-- both from constant hatcheting, and many employees just plain walking out. The previous museum I worked for had quite a lot of staff that had been there 20+ years. There was a big emphasis on micro managing and an attempt to quantify everything. All employees had to write reports and spreadsheets at the end of the day of every little thing they had done, and then at the end of the pay period summarize all those reports. There were meetings about meetings about meetings. To do the smallest task required all sorts of bureaucratic rigmarole- every department had to have their petty say about everything. Making even the smallest changes to an exhibit would involve advance paperwork, schedule coordination, and ultimately sometimes as many as 6 people from 3 or 4 different departments just take a harmonica down. I've worked with Rembrandts with far less supervision at other museums. On good days work was like a Dilbert comic. On bad days it was like the movie Office Space, but not funny, and no rap soundtrack.