\u201cWay back when to combat Cyber Monday, I started Museum Store Monday,\u201d said Kristen Kreider<\/a>, the Weitzman\u2019s store curator and managing director of business operations. \u201cWe did that for a number of years, and it was very successful. It was mostly an online event, because typically the museum wasn\u2019t even open on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n Kreider is part of the Museum Store Association<\/a>, a national nonprofit that promotes retail operations within cultural institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMuseums tend to have a lot of attendance all that entire weekend, because of people in town for holidays, and everybody\u2019s having fun and entertaining friends and family,\u201d Kreider said. \u201cSo it\u2019s already kind of a natural time to just elaborate on what\u2019s going on and just celebrate more.\u201d<\/p>\n When the association caught wind of her idea, the day switched from Monday to Sunday (a day most museums are actually open) and institutions across the country began adopting it. According to the Museum Store Association, over 2,200 museum<\/a> stores across the globe now participate in the holiday fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n To celebrate Museum Store Sunday, the Weitzman will have a Hanukkah Makers Market <\/a>with local artisans, as well as food and drink from 11 to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n Tia Bianchini<\/a>, merchandise manager at the Barnes Foundation<\/a> and Calder Gardens<\/a>, hopes that shoppers will look at Museum Store Sunday as not just a shopping event but a way to engage with some of Philadelphia\u2019s favorite local institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBeing in a museum store just feels like a totally different environment, where you\u2019re not there to fight someone for a cheap TV,\u201d Bianchini said. \u201cYou are there to really learn and investigate and find something cool that you\u2019ve never seen before, so I really love that Museum Store Sunday is also this rejection of Black Friday and just this expectation of quantity over quality.\u201d<\/p>\n Meghan Coppola, senior manager of visitor services at the M\u00fctter Museum, said that museum stores work hard to reflect the institutions they represent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you choose something that doesn\u2019t say M\u00fctter Museum on it,\u201d she said, \u201cwe want something that is so specifically us and unusual that it\u2019s going to remind you of your visit here anytime that you interact with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Curating the selection at the M\u00fctter store allows her to \u201clean into things that are more unusual\u201d or unique items \u201cyou\u2019re not going to find everywhere else.\u201d Some examples at her store include an ornament<\/a> inspired by the museum\u2019s wax eye display collection<\/a>, or a \u201cplague doctor\u201d plush toy<\/a>. She even mentioned a M\u00fctter Museum perfume.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very Patchouli forward fragrance,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s made by a local perfumery, and they make this fragranced oil. To me, it\u2019s a very sort of deep patchouli, woodsy, dark, spicy kind of fragrance. So it\u2019s good for winter.\u201d<\/p>\n Julie Steiner, the senior director of admissions and retail operations at the Barnes Foundation highlighted different jewelry and accessories in the Barnes store. She said the stores are an extension of the museum spaces, and many items are inspired by the museum\u2019s collection \u2014 impressionist and early modern paintings from Matisse to Modigliani \u2014 including custom socks and knit headbands.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you buy something in a museum store and you take it away, you\u2019re holding on to that experience for years to come,\u201d Steiner said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a really valuable additive on the products in a museum store compared to the same products in a commercial space.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, shopping at a museum store often means not just supporting local institutions, but also local artisans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the key things about museum stores is that most of us are deeply embedded in the communities of the museum,\u201d Steiner said. \u201cA lot of the products come from local and regional vendors. So when you\u2019re buying products from those vendors, you\u2019re keeping money in the whole economy by supporting jewelry artists or other suppliers who are right in our Philadelphia community.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20241201-_R1A9251.jpg\")
The Weitzman\u2019s Hanukkah Makers Market. (Photo by Shoot From Within Photography)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Painted-Eye-Ornament.jpg\")
A painted eye ornament from the M\u00fctter Museum Store. (Courtesy of the M\u00fctter Museum Store)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Barnes-Shop-2025-Rousseau-1.jpg\")
Gifts inspired by Henri Rousseau\u2019s art, whose work is featured in a current exhibition at the Barnes. (Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation)<\/p>\n
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