Tarot Museum

I'm a museum studies college student given an assignment to create a museum to understand its management processes. I've decided to do a Tarot museum, a physical instutition, not a database unlike the splendid Trionfi.

Does anyone know of attempts to make an actual museum? My only result turned up this gallery TarotHaven operating out of a man's house:

http://www.soul-guidance.com/tarotdecks/page_35.htm

This is a fictional project but I'd love to hear suggestions from real life Tarot enthusiasts like yourselves.

Here is the Museum's mandate I created, which relays objectives as part of official documentation.

"To acquire, document, preserve and maintain, a growing collection of Tarot cards that were created and used worldwide from the fifteenth century to present day, including other related divination artifacts and memorabilia of significant historic importance.

To instruct, educate and entertain the general public through the maintenance and rotation of displays, divination sessions, special events and activities; and encourage people of all ages to become actively involved in the collection, preservation, and use of these items.

To provide facilities for the restoration, protection, interpretation, and exhibits of the collection. These will be displayed with emphasis on all aspects of safety and legal obligations in relation to both the artifacts and public; and to deliver programs that meet the standards for community museums in (location to be determined).

To maintain supportive exhibits to the men and women who designed, created, and used these objects, and who continue to do so to present day."

This would likely be a small community museum also functioning as an art gallery, with the potential for growth through promotion and networking.

Questions we must address include:

How is it managed?
What are day to day operations?
How is the collection used?
What themes are on display?
Public or privately funded, what is the operating budget?
What are staff jobs?

When and why was the museum established?
How does it achieve its goals?

Of course I'm not looking for people to write the paper for me, but I'd love to garner some ideas. What would YOU want if you were to walk into a public building dedicated to showcasing Tarot? If I hired you to work there, what you like to do?

Things I've considered are:

The evolution of Tarrochi to Tarot
Special Exhibitions showcasing living and deceased artists (Pam Smith, etc.)
Workshops to create own decks and other divy tools
Misconceptions: Playing cards are not descended from Tarot, RWS not the first, etc.
Daily divination sessions (volunteers, proceeds go to funding. Good for your personal promotion)
Boutique of mostly decks and books, also other divy objects for sale

Job issues include:

Curators
Collections Management: proper storage, handling and display of cards and card stock, paintings, etc.
Conservator: preserves the deterioration of the artifacts
Program Planner: designs programs and events for the public

Religious sensitivity is a complex issue I must address as part of a public facility. I'll worry about that, I'd just like some creative input from you. This will be for an unpublished college essay on museum management. Thanks!

Tarot museum?

Wow! What a concept for you to do! I wish you every success!

Have you tried contacting the man in Belguim and seeing what he can tell you about some of the aspects of his museum that relate to your paper?

There is the Spielkartenmuseum in Leinfelden-Echterdingen here in Germany. Maybe you wish to contact them?

I'm in the process of contacting Guido, I haven't gotten a response yet, but I hope to soon.

As for the Spielkartenmuseum, it looks like the site concerns the evolution of playing cards specifically, not Tarot cards. It's too difficult for me to read, but running a few of the paragraphs through Babelfish make it seem like the focus is on the history of playing cards in early Europe. This will be good for a particular section of my paper, but not the focus.

Anyone have ideas? What does your dream Tarot museum hold?

Well, Glaucus, there was a tarot exhibition in the Spielkartenmuseum some years ago but of course main topic is still "normal" playing cards.

You have lots of excellent ideas already, but here's my two cents.

This is entirely personal opinion, but I think your museum, and all museums for that matter should be privately funded (of course, I'm a hypocrite and only go to the Art Institute on free Tuesday). That being said, how do you make money? First, you ask all of your rich friends at Aeclectic to invest. But seriously, a gift shop is a must. Also, because Tarot enthusiasts don't make up a large section of the population, workshops for beginners might bring in more patrons.

What would I want from a Tarot museum? I've think you've already mentioned everything on my list. I'm just saying I agree.
1) A reader or two depending on traffic.
2) I like the idea of a gallery for originals. Although I only go to the Art Institute on free Tuesdays, I will occasionally pay to see a special exhibit.
3) Educators who really know their tarot.

How are you going to market your museum? Where will you advertise?

I would like to apply for buyer in the boutique. But really I would probably just be happy to mop the floors.

Can you show your paper when it's finished? Good luck!

Peace,
April

Has your research taken you to http://trionfi.com or http://www.letarot.com/ ? Lots of great stuff there.
Bob

I haven't quite worked out the operating budget yet, but for a small community museum our advertising would likely center around websites, word of mouth, and perhaps buying ads in community papers or newsletters. We would also have a table present at any local psychic fairs to gain publicity.

I've also arranged with other classmates who are also doing fictional museums with religious/magical themes (Voodoo museum, Harry Potter museum) that we would have ads and travelling exhibits to those institutions and also host some at the Tarot museum.

The Museum's readers would consist of staff as well as professional community readers who volunteer their time. It would be impossible for such an institution to hire paid readers without promoting favouritism in the psychic community, and a salary without further commission to us wouldn't be affordable. If Tarot enthusiasts want to get the message out to the public from our building, we can arrange to display their personal advertisements for free and to add them to a mailing list of our volunteer psychics, to enhance public rep for their own paying jobs. The Museum would be an open base for all readers to promote themselves for free.

It would at best be a non-profit Museum whose collection is donated by enthusiasts. There are issues about only needing so many copies of one deck in the collection, so we would welcome patrons who are willing to relinquish ownership of rarer decks. I haven't decided what Membership opportunities we would offer.

I have been to trionfi and letarot for information about Tarot, but those sites are digital databases and not physical institutions.

Acquisitions would be your hugest money expenditure, that and paying for the travelling exhibits from other museums and collections. Our local museum was under very poor management and the facts and figures came out in news stories last fall--it's been in the red for over a year and operating funds were down to zero.

Many museums rely on donations from the rich, on fundraisers with the general public, and on a huge turnout for a travelling exhibit (we currently have a 5,000 piece exhibit from the Vatican in the city, we're the last stop on the tour--it got a huge turnout but the planned walk throughs were supposed to take 1 hour, and people were staying an average of 4 hours each, which cut down on the number of people who they could move through--at $17 a head to get into it, people didn't want to be rushed!).

Don't forget the gift shop has to be self suffient, and any specialty displays (ours has a walk in live butterfly exhibit in connection to the rainforest section) can be a separate charge from the museum admission. (Butterflies were $3 and the IMAX theater is $8 to see the show).

You'll need security people, a security system monitored by police or a security business, also insurance costs for liability against theft, janitorial staff, cooks for the lunch bar, city fees for property taxes and food vending, an accounting staff, museum personell that'll do reconstruction on the damaged 'hidden' collections that researchers will pay to have access to that may be too expensive to show, or too damaged to put out. You'll need an electrician group on call, plumbers, etc. in case something damages the equipment or building. A general handyman for smaller things, cleaning staff, geez, the list is endless.

That's quite some project you took on.

My ideal Tarot museum would include an amazing coffee/tea shop so people could hang out there and get readings from staff or guest readers (or to learn from them for a fee of course). This could be associated with a gift shop and/or book store (of course it would also be a wireless broadband hotspot). I read somewhere that the profit margin on coffee drinks is astronomical so if people hung out, the shop could earn additional money for the museum.

There would also be areas for world class seminars/conferences and educational facilities available for small or large groups.

valeria