MFA Houston Shop

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MFA Houston Shop

New York magazine once said,"Moss brokered the marriage of the store and the museum..."

Moss Bureau offers museums a new retail paradigm, one that seeks to position museum retail as a full partner with other departments, with our specialized service that addresses all aspects of a retail operation. The process is both analytic and highly curatorial, focusing deeply on the attributes and opportunities provided by the museum. This bespoke approach to both merchandise and presentation renders the ubiquitous generic shop obsolete. The Post-Generic museum store has a proprietary branded identity and is a platform for both extending the museum's mission and driving higher sales revenue.

Since 2013, Moss Bureau has been in the field working with museums across the country. With some we analyze and recommend, and with others we follow through to a full implementation. This work has led to a refinement of our methods and expectations of what can reasonably be accomplished in the real world context of donor politics, shifting priorities, capital campaigns for expansion, and myriad demands on time and money.

To date Moss Bureau has worked with the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the High Museum Atlanta, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Jewish Museum, New York. Work with the latter two is ongoing.

Notes, examples and reviews below:

New York magazine once said,"Moss brokered the marriage of the store and the museum..."

Moss Bureau offers museums a new retail paradigm, one that seeks to position museum retail as a full partner with other departments, with our specialized service that addresses all aspects of a retail operation. The process is both analytic and highly curatorial, focusing deeply on the attributes and opportunities provided by the museum. This bespoke approach to both merchandise and presentation renders the ubiquitous generic shop obsolete. The Post-Generic museum store has a proprietary branded identity and is a platform for both extending the museum's mission and driving higher sales revenue.

Since 2013, Moss Bureau has been in the field working with museums across the country. With some we analyze and recommend, and with others we follow through to a full implementation. This work has led to a refinement of our methods and expectations of what can reasonably be accomplished in the real world context of donor politics, shifting priorities, capital campaigns for expansion, and myriad demands on time and money.

To date Moss Bureau has worked with the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the High Museum Atlanta, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Jewish Museum, New York. Work with the latter two is ongoing.

Notes, examples and reviews below:

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON

Moss Bureau was hired by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in the autumn of 2014 to do a thorough analysis of the museum's retail operation. Upon submission of the report, Moss Bureau was contracted to implement its recommendations. This took place during the summer and fall of 2015.

We will be continuing our collaboration into 2019, including ongoing refinements to the shop merchandising, as well as recommendations and implementation of modular Exhibition Shops and also an online shop.

MFAH Shop Window: Color

MFAH Shop "Tiffany" window

MFAH Shop display case

Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, CT

In 2013, Moss Bureau was contracted by the Philip Johnson Glass House, a site of the National Historic Trust, to do an analysis of their retail operation. That analysis also contained recommendations for changes which the Bureau was then contracted to implement.

Click here for Case Study.

Philip Johnson Glass House

"The Glass House Design Store is one of the five Best Museum Gift Shops". —Wall Street Journal, 12.20.13

The Glass House Design Store is included as one of "Ten Museum Gift Shops That Might Be Better Than the Museums Themselves"

--Food & Wine, 2018

Philip Johnson Glass House

All our brilliant work would come to nothing if there weren't people on site who got it and were not only totally able to carry on with the program but actually improve on it as time goes by. At the Glass House, the store manager, Crista Bazoian, became our partner. She was so enthusiastic, in fact, she decided to do her Master's Thesis on Murray. See it here. This was, in our opinion, above and beyond.

The Shop at the Jewish Museum, New York

In mid-2016, MOSSBUREAU was contracted by the Jewish Museum to analyze their retail operation and to create a plan for increasing its effectiveness. While several major changes were made fairly quickly, others remained to be funded. Our work there has continued on an incremental basis and is still in progress.