THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 22, 1995 TAG: 9505200439
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: By MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
Shelia Harrison isn't holding her breath.
As public relations director for the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, she has heard predictions of a resurgence in the tourism industry.
But the Mariners' Museum, by moderating its traditionally high-brow scholarly approach to its mission, is assuming responsibility to improve its attendance and widen its audience base.
And Harrison, an African American woman in charge of marketing the institution, would simply tell you that she represents the changing face of the Peninsula institution.
After living off its trust for decades, the Mariners' Museum recently has been forced to solicit outside funding to expand its collection.
The museum is also adapting to the changing environment by coupling its efforts with neighboring attractions and targeting wider audiences.
Government financial resources to promote tourism started shrinking in the late '80s. Locally, they reached a significant low in 1993 when the Virginia Peninsula Tourism office was shut down.
The Peninsula agency, which marketed the region for almost 12 years, was dissolved because member localities began concentrating on their own attractions.
Hampton pulled its funding to concentrate on its Virginia Air and Space Museum.
Newport News formed its own tourism development department to focus on the Virginia Living Museum, a wildlife exhibit; the Mariners' Museum, and others within its jurisdiction. The agency operates, however, on a slim budget of $200,000.
Attendance at the museum has fallen about 5 percent in four years, partially because of the novelty of new exhibits like Nauticus in Norfolk, Harrison said.
``Everyone's vying for the tourism dollar,'' she said.
``The American family is taking shorter and shorter vacations. Our competition is for the time of our visitor,'' said Jim Rollings, director of development and marketing at the Virginia Living Museum.
The Mariners' Museum itself faces dwindling resources for expansion of its collection. A non-profit organization with a $3.5 million annual operating budget, the Mariners' had been funded solely by income from a trust established by the museum's founders, Archer and Anna Huntington.
Opened in 1933 the museum offers one of the largest collections of model ships in the world. Colorful ship figureheads, oil paintings and other sea-related artifacts grace the grounds. Information about maritime exploration and technology, illustrated through murals or in display cases, are also scattered throughout the buildings.
The museum began to solicit donations from outside the trust for the first time in 1989.
``In the next five to 10 years we'll be looking for support in the community,'' Harrison said.
Harrison, who has held the position of public relations director for three years, has been a big part of the museum's new approach to its survival, according to local tourism professionals.
``I think the PR (public relations) for the Mariner is colorblind to who Shelia is. She's a professional. You can feel her excitement about the institution,'' said Donna Sawyer, public relations director for the Chrysler Museum.
Like other smaller attractions, the Mariners' Museum piggy-backs on the attention drawn by better known tourist destinations like Colonial Williamsburg and Virginia Beach.
But Harrison does her part in championing cooperation among the local cultural attractions by sharing information, materials, names and networking on behalf of the city, the Peninsula and Hampton Roads as well as her own employer.
``She's not only a team player, she's often trying to form the team, not just play on it,'' said Jim Rollings, development and marketing director at the Virginia Living Museum. ``Shelia has a high energy level and enthusiasm, two major prerequisites for a marketing director. I think she translates that into effective communication efforts for the museum.''
As the youngest of 10 children, the Camden, N.C., native learned how to fend for herself. She moved up to Hampton Roads from the Elizabeth City, N.C., area to enter school. She graduated from high school in 1978 and enrolled in what is now known as the Commonwealth College system in 1979.
In the fall of 1979, Harrison enrolled at Norfolk State University where she earned a journalism degree with an emphasis on public relations.
She joined a year-long journalism program at American University in Washington, D.C., and received a master's degree.
Harrison joined the Mariners' Museum as the communications officer in 1989. She directed its publications and media relations while becoming an integral part of the museum's effort to diversify its marketing and exhibits. She was promoted to public relations director three years later when she assumed more marketing duties and the title.
Harrison didn't intend to go into the museum field but found herself in love with it once she entered it.
``This is a great statement about multiculturalism,'' the Chrysler's Sawyer said. ``She's total comfortable with her environment, her material and herself,'' Sawyer said about Harrison. ``All the supposed cultural barriers to adapt and understand - she's living proof that that doesn't exist. She simply has an interest in what she does for a living.''
As an African American woman, Harrison is conscious of the role she plays in the museum's efforts to widen its audience.
``I think it's important as an institution that we're realizing it is important to market to all your audience,'' she said. ``Our marketing plan includes efforts to get African Americans here. They're one of our target audiences.''
The standard profile of a Mariners' Museum visitor has always been a predominantly white, middle-class, family-oriented audience, she said.
But the Mariners' has launched a conscious effort to change that by widening its visitor base and exhibit collection, beginning with inclusion of those specific goals in its five-year strategic plan. The museum now promotes itself in publications targeting blacks like the Hampton Roads Voice, the Black Pages of the USA, a phone directory of black professionals, and the African American travel guide to Virginia.
It tries to emphasize other multicultural influences on maritime history in its newest section, the Chesapeake Bay Gallery.
This portion of the museum includes oral histories from fishermen, information about the slave trade - brought about by the British colonists' need for labor on their tobacco farms - and the Native American influence in the Chesapeake Bay region.
New theme exhibits that stress different cultures from around the world during the Christmas holidays have focused on events like Kwanza, the mid-December African American celebration.
Tourism industry professionals say that the Mariners' has moved away from mostly scholarly, high-brow presentations to more family programming and educational events.
Other efforts have emphasized increased programming to children, such as hands-on explanations involving sea animals and story hours in the museum's whaling room.
It is trying to draw more local residents by offering free admission on Sundays in slow months like January.
Ads for the Mariners' Museum will be running on the cable TV Vacation Channel and on the National Cinema Network, which markets organizations during movie previews.
Harrison and others are exploring the Internet as an option for more publicity, too. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover] [Color Photo]
NAVIGATING NEW WATERS
Shelia Harrison, public relations director for the Mariners' Museum,
hopes to draw more visitors by broadening the cultural range of the
exhibits.
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
[Color Photos]
STAFF CHART
POINTS OF INTEREST
1994 ATTENDANCE
COSTS OF ADMISSION
SOURCE: Staff Research
[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB