The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC) has contracted with Klundt Hosmer Design, the Spokane-based visual-communications firm, to develop an advertising and marketing campaign that the museum hopes will appeal to families.


The contract, worth $12,000, was effective Aug. 1 and lasts one year with an option for the MAC to renew at the end of the year, says Joyce Cameron, the MACs director of development and communications. It doesnt include media buying, which the museum handles itself, she says.


The museum chose Klundt Hosmer over nine other agencies because of its ability to stretch a small advertising budget through its relationships with printing companies and because of its ideas to attract more children to the MAC, she says.


Were focusing on getting more families in the door this year, Cameron says. Well have more hands-on programs. Youre going to see an educational component attached to almost every one of our exhibits next year.


Cameron says the museums advertisements during the year will feature a getting-people-in-the-door theme rather than emphasizing the exhibits themselves. The MAC doesnt plan to change its mix of exhibits to cater to kids, she says.


Klundt Hosmer and WhiteRunkle Associates, the Spokane-based ad agency, as well as other local design and communications firms have done small projects for the museum since it opened almost a year and a half ago, she says. The museum hadnt entered into an extended-duration contract with an agency to design its visual messages, though, until now, Cameron says.


By promoting its programs for children, the museum hopes to bolster attendance and membership she says. About 1,500 people visit the MAC each month, which is 1,000 less than the goal the museum had set for itself before it opened, Cameron says. Also, it has about 3,500 members, but had hoped to recruit 4,500 by now, she says.


The museum soon will begin advertising a new program, which offers free one-year memberships to either fifth- or sixth-grade students. The MAC hasnt decided yet which grade level will be part of the promotion, but hopes those students will encourage their family members, who will have to pay admission, to come to the museum.


The MACs gift shop has begun offering more inexpensive and child-geared products, and its caf, which is under new management, has developed a childrens menu.


Deb Green, who also owns a catering company here called Shake, Rattle & Boil, is managing the caf now, Cameron says. Fugazzi Inc. had managed it previously, but declined to renew its contract when it expired, she says.