​A Challenge for Museums with a Single Focus: Attracting the Non-Enthusiast

By Andrea Jones, Museum Maverick for Southern Tier Session

When I arrived at the Finger Lakes Boating Museum to discover dozens and dozens of recreational wooden boats so lovingly displayed, I could tell there was a lot of passion for this collection.  There are legions of volunteers, dedicated board members, and a three-person staff with the energy of fifteen. You don’t want to say the “F-word” around this bunch. That’s right, “fiberglass” – the lightweight, synthetic assassin of the handcrafted wooden boats industry. This museum is on a steadfast mission to save the boats and the skills to build them.
 
The Finger Lakes Boating Museum was founded like many other specialty museums – a group of diehard enthusiasts wanted to preserve a collection of disappearing antiques and share their love with others. Similar examples dot the country. See an amazing 8,000 square foot model train diorama at Roadside America in Pennsylvania. Or get your gruesome bone saw and tourniquet fix at the National Civil War Medicine Museum in Maryland. 

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