Michael Widmer, Vice Chair of Development, Museum Council Steering Committee, recently worked with his Sub-Committee to create a short survey of the Museum Council membership. “We had heard anecdotally from some members that they would prefer a slightly later start time so we wanted to poll the membership to see what timing was preferred. We also had really positive feedback last year from our event with the Boston Chorale Ensemble, so we wanted to learn more about the kind of collaborations people might be interested in seeing in the future. Overall we were really pleased with the response rate from the Council, over 20% members participated!” says Michael.

Highlights from the Survey

• Timing of Museum Council Events: We’re all busy, that much is clear. I can tell you how much we value and appreciate the time you spend with us at the MFA. This year we will be starting some of our events at 6:30 pm and some at 7 pm as we heard from many of you that a 6 or 6:30 pm start time can be hard to get to.
• More Offsite Events: Many of you shared your interest in Museum Council hosting off-site events this year, so please keep an eye out for an additional one or two Bonus events this season that will take place in the city. We are working on some great ideas now and will be announcing those Bonus events in the coming months.
• More Collection-Based Events: We were thrilled to learn that many Museum Council members want more opportunities to connect with the MFA’s permanent collection. As we did last year, we will be adding a few smaller-scale, limited capacity Bonus events with different MFA curators on different areas of the collection throughout the season. Stay tuned!
• Opportunities to Meet New People: Part of what make the Museum Council a great group to be a part of is all of you! Lots of you mentioned that you would like more opportunities to meet new people within the Council. To that end, we will be hosting a Bonus Event at the December 6 MFA First Fridays and hope you will join us. There won’t be an agenda for the evening, but rather a time to connect over cocktails with fellow Museum Council members at the MFA’s popular evening event. We will have a section of the party reserved for the Council so we can meet up as a group!