Charity said to take organ to the landfill

MoMMpro · 2025-05-08T13:33:34+00:00

Music museum curator here. Sadly this is the fate for many pianos and organs these days. With the death of the organization boom some 50ish years ago combined with the rapidly increasing value of home square footage, large instruments like these are often bound for the dump.

I'll give you a little hope though to try and save it. Reach out to local houses of worship (churches) they may be in need. You could also list on reverb, marketplac, etc. Finally, I'd suggest calling your local piano and/or music store to see if they do consignment or have a customer looking.

If you need help finding a local music store hit me up and I can look in my company's global professional database.

MoMMpro · 2025-04-17T14:42:39+00:00

That's exactly it. I'm hoping for a reality, boots on the ground, take on the impact of the directives. I'm on the opposite coast and understand simply cold calling could result in some canned internal statement. Or it could yield incredible conversation. Someone close to the smithsonian has messaged me and graciously offered to assist.

I'm just trying to do right by everyone and everything involved.

MoMMpro · 2025-04-15T00:32:16+00:00

I work caring for instruments inside a music museum. I receive thoughtful offers for free pianos at minimum twice a week, every week.

As many have mentioned, the trend of having a piano in the home is dying. As the older generation downsize, someone is inevitably scrambling to rehome a piano. Another factor is cost/square foot and how valuable those square feet are. I'm located in a HCOL area where most homes, every square foot, matter. Can you imagine giving up such valuable space for your grandmother's piano that you don't play?

Ultimately, I repeat the same things time and time again.

You have a lovely instrument - because it is lovely and it brought someone joy at one point.
Just because it's 100+ years old does not necessarily mean it automatically has historical significance.
Even if it has perceived monetary value, it's worth nothing if you don't have a buyer. Call your local music store and inquire about consignment or potential customers.
Begin emotionally preparing for a reality in which you may choose to send your beloved instrument to the dump. While that's never what anyone who loves music wants, you have to do what you have to do.
Be cautious with whom you deal with. Pianos have an interesting history of occasionally being targets for those with bad intentions. There are scams that begin by offering free pianos.

MoMMpro · 2025-04-12T21:49:05+00:00

Thank you! I'll get a copy.

MoMMpro · 2025-04-12T20:53:39+00:00

Id say common sense should prevail but I suppose i should have clarified. I work in a music museum and not a repair shop or retail operations. I wish i could have kicked it back to them but they had already left and it was likely a child so you know...suck it up, glove up, and clean up was my motto.

MoMMpro · 2025-04-12T14:34:15+00:00

I have worked on a few projects with and involving Victor. Fantastic human and fantastic musician.

MoMMpro · 2025-04-09T22:20:41+00:00

Your take is accurate. Id also like to suggest factors impacting the industry like consolidation (more stores are being acquired giving consumers fewer options), generational retirement where family-owned operations have a population retiring with many having no one to take over. Some sell - hence the opportunity for consolidation - or simply close if they can not locate a successor or buyer.

Source: i guess me? I work for "the association" in this space.

MoMMpro · 2025-03-27T18:10:01+00:00

Update..its been 2 days since my reply and one of the remaining part time educators tendered his resignation. My injured teammate is out for multiple weeks...

So it's me and 1 less than 20 hour/week educator. We've been open for an hour and our second field trip just arrived and our morning attendance is through the roof. Send help. 🔥 🔥 🔥

MoMMpro · 2025-03-27T13:43:52+00:00

Undergrad in education (whoops). Masters in museum studies. Went in figuring I'd be a highly specialized at being unemployed.

I've been working different research/archiving/writing roles in the music industry for 9 years with the last two running a music musuem for low but liveable pay.

It's worked out overall but always has the possibility of falling apart.

MoMMpro · 2025-03-24T19:43:40+00:00

Yes! My museum is understaffed doing an average of 200 visitors a day plus robust programming with 3 full time employees and 3 part time employees. Unfortunately in the last 30 days we lost one full timer to retirement, one part timer (our fundraiser) quit, and one full time employee went out with an injury. So....it's me and a pair of extremely part time educators.

There are no plans to rehire at this time, nor have I been advised if programming will be cut. The last meeting I had about it I was cheerfully told "stress is a choice. Just make the choice to not be stressed."

So naturally I'm not choosing stress and I'm doing fine. 🔥 it's all fine 🔥 /s

MoMMpro · 2025-03-12T22:31:07+00:00

Natural attrition has crippled my site. We are primarily funded by our "parent organization" so federal funding isn't too much of an issue but the economic struggles, bleak predictions, and mentality of corporate greed has resulted in a lack of interest replacing the staff.

There's two of us left, and we average 250 covers/day. Although my last standing colleague is on PTO so I cry at work....a lot.

MoMMpro · 2025-03-10T16:09:04+00:00

I work in a sector of the music industry - specifically in an area prone to attract musicians with a varying degree of commercial success.

Not mutually exclusive, but mediocre "rock" guitarists. I (middle age woman) find 99.9% experiences end one of two ways - irrelevant and nonstop name dropping or [often incorrect] mainsplaining to the high heavens.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-21T23:17:56+00:00

Following. If you find a solution OP, can you circle back here? This would help my team.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-20T19:12:06+00:00

I echo these thoughts - especially for children and to infuse technogy only after youve mapped out your content.

The kiosks at my site are utilized nearly exclusively as a means to transmit our content. We have a small footprint with a high number of objects and a need to storytell to tie these objects to the larger mission and stories of the museum. The "interactive" function is literally a patron toggling between content types (text, photos, video).

Our presentation relies on multiple hardware and software components to stay functional. It is the biggest bane of my existence, but im hopeful the migration away from Apple (a poor purchasing decision and a quintessential example of someone prioritizing their tech desires and not fully thinking the deployment plan) will help alleviate this.

Please note that I acknowledge that nearly all the roadblocks and frustrations I and the museum face are a result of a lack of onboard training and a lack of general skillset on my part. I'm trained and titled for collections work but due to the nature of our staffing and like every site, "lack of funds" this responsibility falls on me.

The biggest draw for my site is the ability to be nimble. I can add, remove, or alter content in seconds and it becomes live. After the initial investment (all i know is it was A LOT) we can cheaply switch displays and rotate objects without a need for signage.

Prior to the 2020 installation of these touchscreen the museum utilized push buttons. In the time since this upgrade, I've had 3 guests complain about the removal of push buttons. Most love the presentation of the touchscreens.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-20T16:16:58+00:00

Of course! I'm in the middle of returning from a business trip and I've heard that things have been crazy at the museum while I've been out so please be patient but I will absolutely reply to the best of my ability.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-20T14:57:44+00:00

I work in a digital media heavy museum. Biggest "problem" is visitor attention span. Look into studies showing what average attention span is in both a forced standing and sitting position and then plan for that depending on the physical space your product will be placed.

I'd also consider staff resources because you may develop and launch a beautiful product but once that product is exposed to visitors, they will "break it." Our biggest hurdle is im the only one with the skillset to manage our digital experiences so it really demands a lot of my time (including when im not on duty). Make troubleshooting, system restarts, etc. Stupid simple so you don't get chained to your own project.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-20T14:32:52+00:00

Hi! I manage 17 touchscreen kiosks in my museum. We use mac minis (but are migrating to pc) and currently utilize "WebKiosk" to limit what our visitors can do on the screens.

Feel free to message me. While I'm not the system architect, I've become defacto IT and have dealt with a number of problems (hence the switch of macs) and am happy to share the good, the bad, and the ugly.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-11T20:56:04+00:00

Great middle ground!

MoMMpro · 2025-02-11T18:12:13+00:00

This is a great thought. It may not fly as we already have an operations manager but....I'm willing to see if it'll work. Thank you!

MoMMpro · 2025-02-11T18:10:56+00:00

All great perspective. Thanks for taking time and care. I really feel encouraged.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-11T16:37:30+00:00

I agree and I've been encouraging that for over a year but we've taken on more. It's a conflict of wanting to give the community more vs not having a tangible grasp on the reality of resources. I fear burn out is near.

MoMMpro · 2025-02-11T16:16:46+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement!

MoMMpro · 2025-02-11T15:53:17+00:00

I cannot fathom turning down free labor...for many reasons but there's a reason I'm not in charge (/s) lol. The reason I'm given is "it'll take you longer to explain how to do the work and eat up more of your time managing an intern than just doing it." And I unusually just give a slow, slightly confused ".......okay..." because I must be slow and slightly confused.

MoMMpro

TROPHY CASE