Gala and members' night auctions

Museums run two very different evenings and frequently try to run the same auction at both.

The gala is a smaller room with higher capacity, a seated programme, and guests who came for the occasion. Members' night is a larger, standing, moving crowd with moderate capacity and considerably more genuine interest in the collection.

Two catalogues, not one

• Gala: a small number of substantial lots. Travel, a commissioned work, a private dinner in a gallery, the headline curator experience. Twenty items is plenty in a seated room
• Members' night: more items at accessible levels. Curator tours, store visits, membership upgrades, editions and prints, shop bundles. This is where a wide catalogue works, because people are moving and browsing

The same items at both events is the mistake. Gala guests scroll past a shop bundle and members are priced out of a travel lot, so both rooms see a catalogue that was mostly not for them.

Running an auction in galleries

A museum is a beautiful venue and an awkward one. Things that catch people out:

• Objects cannot be displayed near collection material without the department's agreement, and often not at all
• Signal is frequently poor in older buildings and in basements — test it, at the hour, in the rooms you will use
• Lighting is designed for objects, not for reading a bid sheet
• A moving crowd in galleries needs QR signage at intervals rather than one table
• Front of house and security have views on where people may stand and what may be carried. Ask early

Printable display material comes from the items you have already entered: display sheets and catalogs.

Sequencing against a live auction

If the gala has a live auction or a paddle raise, close the silent auction before it starts — in sections if the catalogue has any size. Two bidding mechanics running at once in one room split the guests' attention and both do less.

Open it before either night

Bidding online several days ahead reaches members who did not buy a gala ticket and supporters who cannot attend, and brings items into the room with bids already on them. For a museum this matters more than for most organizations, because the membership is far larger than any room the museum has.

See hybrid auctions and silent auction checkout.