A small yet vibrant gift shop opened near the entrance to the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History this summer. While the museum has always offered a single shelf of name-drop souvenirs and books near the entrance for its visitors, the new gift shop has allowed the museum to expand its retail offerings.
“The museum store is now a more fun, artistic and unique space that better reflects the quirkiness of Santa Cruz in general and the museum in particular,” says Executive Director Ginger Shulick Porcella.
Porcella stepped in as the museum’s executive director in January and quickly recognized that the museum “needed a real museum gift shop.”
“The museum has had different shop iterations over the years, but not in its current location and nothing significant for over a decade,” she says. “Now more than ever with cuts to federal funding and decreased individual giving and membership, it is critical for the museum to have this important earned income stream.”
Porcella and her team planned for a museum store this spring, hoping to come up with a solution that would be both permanent and flexible.
“The shop is located in the museum’s atrium, a high-traffic multi-use space for museum events and community rentals. All of the fixtures have to be multi-use, componential and movable,” she explains. “So the store is made up of these ‘mini moments’ — different curated products on movable pedestals, platforms and shelving on wheels.”
Visitors have enjoyed the new gift shop’s art-themed souvenirs, such as DIY art-making kits, puzzles as well as stickers, pins and prints by local artists, according to Porcella. A new museum experience supervisor helps to oversee the new gift shop and other front-of-house museum experiences, including messaging and training for guest services staff and volunteers.
The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History hosted a grand opening for its new gift shop July 3.
“On our opening day of the store, we sold $1,000 in merchandise, which is more than we would typically sell in a month,” says Porcella. “People keep commenting on how fun and well-curated the space is, the variety of products ranging from international design items to local art, as well as the affordability and accessibility of items.”
Porcella says the museum plans to continue to expand its gift shop over the course of the year, building out additional fixtures throughout the downstairs level of the museum. She adds, “Once we understand more deeply what our audiences are interested in buying and bring on new co-signers, we’ll continue adding more and more products.”
