Nov 11, 2010

You better shop aroundBy Topher ForheczGazette.net

The gift shop is the last — and for some, the most fun — stop on any museum tour. And organizers of Strathmore’s 21st annual Museum Shop Around have obliged those with that bent by bringing together some 18 local museum shops from Thursday through Sunday at the Mansion in North Bethesda.

Although the shops range from President Lincoln’s Cottage to the National Geographic Store, Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl says the one thing they have in common is unique wares.

“We prefer shops that have items that … are not mass produced, [that instead] feature the work of artists and handmade things,” he says. “Not-for-profit organizations are top among those who we invite. In other words, we don’t reach out generally to commercial entities.”

The first Museum Shop Around was held in 1990 after Mary Kay Harper, then-executive director of the Montgomery County Historical Society, approached Pfanstiehl with the idea.

“She had been invited to participate in one, I think over in Virginia,” Pfanstiehl recalls. “She said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we had one here in Montgomery County and wouldn’t the Mansion be a cool place to do it?'”

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