We were lucky to catch up with Melanie Dellas Karen Lacy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Melanie Dellas , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

We wanted to come up with a name that represented the origins of the word “museum” and the goddesses that inspired the arts in Greek mythology. As a verb, “to muse” is to consider something thoughtfully. As a noun, it means a person — especially a woman — who is a source of artistic inspiration. Together, it was the inspiration for the word “Museum.”
The 7th century BC Greek poet Hesiod refers to the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne as The Muses. These goddesses each protected a different art form and were often the inspiration for artists and poets.

And so Muse Curatorial Consulting Group was born.

Melanie Dellas , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We were working at a museum together and we saw that private collectors and museums needed help caring for their objects. When we realized there weren’t any companies on this side of the country that combined all the services we wanted to provide, we knew our business plan would be successful.

Muse Curatorial Consulting Group (MCCG) seeks to be your protector for all things supporting collection care. MCCG understands that an organization’s public or private collection is the heart and inspiration of its mission, and needs to be cared for accordingly. Our cultural object preservation services, collections management and exhibit consulting offer proven solutions to museums and private collectors working with a tight budget or a tight timeframe. We help large and small collectors determine what their needs are and provide quality assistance to their teams. Muse offers customized solutions individually tailored to reflect the size, need and cultural importance of each client’s concerns.

We are very proud to be able to take care of so many cultural objects and help so many people around the country. We are also very proud of the fact that we are a woman-owned business, we are both mothers, and we maintain a good work-life balance. We not only support each other, but we also support other museum professionals by partnering on projects.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

COVID really affected everyone’s business, and we were no different. Because of the lock-down, we were not able to do any client work for a year. During that time, we sat down and had to figure out how we could supplement our business income until the lock-down was over. We revamped our website and decided to create and sell online classes and videos for museum professionals around the world who wanted to learn new skills or improve the ones they already have. It was pretty successful!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our reputation is built on our professionalism, reliability, and friendliness. We are also known for being able to get jobs done under budget and within tight timeframes, so clients really appreciate that. But probably the biggest thing that has helped build our reputation over the years has been the fact that we treat our clients like family, and they trust us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.musecuratorial.com/
• Instagram: @theUnusualHistoryOfEveryThing
• Facebook: @MuseCuratorial
• Linkedin: @MelanieDellas