The history, art, and natural environment of a city never belongs to the museum exclusively. But the museum can act as a catalyst, enabling citizens and visitors to understand the city's stresses, treasures, pleasures, and sense of place.

Authenticity, a connection to the original, is and will remain at the center of the museum experience. But no museum houses or owns all the authentic cultural or natural resources of its community.

Many museums remain on the periphery of their community because they place the burden of the visit on the visitor. The museum's program distribution system might not have changed since the founders sketched out a rough outline of gallery exhibitions, slide lectures, and a scholarly quarterly.

One of the most dramatic changes in distribution came when Sears Roebuck produced their first catalog in the nineteenth century, known as The Wish Book to millions of Americans well into the 1960s. When asked which American book he would like every Russian to have, Franklin D. Rossevelt answered the Sears catalog! This brilliant distribution innovation enabled Sears to capture the country. The US Postal Service was the enabling technology for Sears.

The Internet looms large as a technology with the potential to enable cultural organizations to distribute their services to a wider audience. And the targeted distribution of surrogates for the authentic object is a way of creating interest in the original. On the other hand, distributing the value of the museum to the local community can be accomplishedand fundedby our strategy called Capturing the City.

A recent study of the San Francisco Bay Area revealed that only 25% of a person's free timeregardless of race, education, or economic statusis spent away from the home. Staying homecalled cocooning by the Faith Popcornis a trend expected to increase as the baby boomers move into retirement. If your museum is off the beaten path, if personal safety is perceived as an issue by suburban visitors to your urban site, if parking, or cost, or distance challenges the potential visitor, even slightly, the old distribution systems will increasingly fail to attract new audiences.

In the world of astronomy, John Dobson captured the wonders of the night sky for many San Franciscans by setting up his telescope night after night in the heart of the city. He rejected the normal thinking about teaching astronomydo it in a darkened observatory with a powerful, precision-mounted lensbecause his mission was to teach the general public about astronomy. Observatories and large telescopes cost a lot. He found a way to teach astronomy with a $250 telescope in the normal light of city streets.

The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) has captured it's city, Cape May, New Jersey, by matching the needs of the city with the interests of the citizens and tourists.

Collaborations between MAC, local environmentalists and the business community have allowed visitors to enjoy this beach-front community at the remote tip of southern New Jersey, beginning with the first thaw and ending after the new year. Efforts to capture the city include a co-sponsorship of a harbor safari, a history tour by boat, musical reviews, lectures on Victorian textiles, paint analysis, and collection documentation. Most of MAC's programs are held in city churches, restaurants, and hotels.

Cape May has become the Bed and Breakfast capital of the nation; MAC provides classes on how to run a B'&'B. To alleviate Cape May's parking problem, MAC runs trolley tours which interpret community history and architecture to the widest possible audience. MAC's success shows on the bottom line, in sustained visitation increases, and in enthusiastic board and staff commitments. MAC's central mission is the preservation and interpretation of the historic Physick Estate and the Cape May Point Lighthouse. Its programs support that mission by capturing the city.

Inspired by Anne Marie Collins, "The City is the Museum," Museum International, UNESCO, 1995