If you've been following the Museum for a while you know how much I despise New Year's. I find it depressing and awful for numerous reasons, and I NEVER make resolutions or set goals because I feel horrible when I inevitably don't meet them. That said, I do enjoy exploring what I would like to see happen in the coming year for the Makeup Museum – aspirations rather than resolutions. And while I know you're probably sick of seeing end-of-year blog entries, I do want to take a quick look back on 2012 at the Museum and see if any of the aspirations I listed last year came to fruition.
What I aspired to do last year:
"Research pop-up museums and see if something like that would be doable." I did research them, but still didn't have any idea how to make it happen. I think I might abandon the idea for now unless someone makes it incredibly easy for me – i.e., approaches me with an appropriate space rather than me having to hunt for one.
"Continue making exhibitions a little more 'museum-y' by adding accompanying labels." Done and done, and I must thank the husband for laying them out, printing them, and helping me select the paper.
"Unveil a series of special exhibitions." Check! Only two special exhibitions appeared in 2012, but I think a total of six exhibitions per year (including the four seasonal ones) is pretty good for a fledgling museum.
"Make some progress on the long-talked-about coffee table book." Okay, completely dropped the ball on this. Oops.
"Be more organized
about blogging so that I actually write posts on time (gasp!) rather
than writing a bunch and back-dating them all. It's a very bad habit." I was doing really well with this until I had a major career upheaval in May. I tried to get back on track but in the end, was still fairly tardy in posting things on the day they were supposed to be posted. Still, I managed to write 202 posts, a significant increase over 2011's 121 posts.
"Do a couple of giveaways." Yay, did this! One in January and one in November.
"Most importantly,
research social media to see how to get more people interested in the
Museum and following the blog. A corollary aspiration to this is to not
get too down when I still get no substantial increase in
interest/followers, and continue posting as if people actually read this
blog. I've been basically talking to myself since the Museum's
inception, but I'll keep doing so because I believe in what I'm doing." Well, I did really try to get more interest and it sort of worked. Subscribers in Google Reader more than doubled in 2012. It's still a tiny number, but it's an improvement. I also got over 100 followers on Twitter. To those of you whose followers are in the thousands, this is definitely small potatoes, but it's a lot to me. Finally, I got several very nice emails inquiring how to make an appointment for a Museum tour. While I had to explain that the Museum only exists online at the moment, I was still tickled that people wanted to visit in person. One of the inquirers was a professor from the UK who asked if she could take her class on a tour!
One thing I didn't set out to do was create new blog series. In 2012 I came up with two: MM Musings and Color Connections. They're nice additions…maybe not groundbreaking, but I think they definitely make the idea of a Makeup Museum more cohesive.
As for 2013, I hope to continue making progress in all areas. Specifically:
– Overhaul the website to make it more of an online museum and less of a blog. I'd still be blogging away, of course, but I definitely want the website to look more like these examples. I also would love to add a searchable inventory/database of all the objects in the collection.
– Related to this would be to take better pics of the objects. I think this will involve buying a new, fancy camera (my current one is 5 years old and is a very basic model) as well as lessons on how to use it.
– Both a website overhaul and a new camera will be expensive, so if I find that I can't afford one (or both), I want to at least be able to keep up with writing and posting on time.
– Get more into collecting vintage items. I have a couple of collector's guides on the way to me from Amazon, so I hope with their help I'll get some quality pieces that also somehow won't break the bank. It will be tricky to buy vintage items because I already spend quite a bit on contemporary pieces, but I think going forward it will be important to have at least a couple vintage pieces in the Museum's collection.
– Continue doing special exhibitions in addition to the seasonal ones.
– Make some damn progress on the coffee table book already! Even just one paragraph would be good.
– Lastly, this is a total pipe dream that I'm not going to pursue, but I'd love to create a sort of sister site to the Museum that would be a traditional beauty blog with product reviews and swatches – no collectibles. I am primarily a collector of makeup, but I also buy a ton of it to actually use, and since my stash is so big I could do lots of helpful shade comparisons. Ah, if only I could quit my day job and blog full time!
So that concludes what I want to achieve on the Museum front in 2013. What do you hope to accomplish, personally and/or professionally?