I can tell you from experience, that letting people try on the gear works wonders for exposure and fund raising. At events and public shows, we would have a part of our table set up for 'get your photo taken with a knight and/or lady' and you could wear the armour or a gown, depending on what you wanted. We charged $1 per photo and took Polaroid photos. The public *loved* it, and would often give us more than the $1. We also sold gingerbreads in the shape of shields, iced with various heraldic designs, and banners, with the same icing. Those went for 4 for $1. And we had mini wooden shields, painted with the heraldic designs that we sold for $5 each. Every time, all of those went like hot cakes. Leather bookmarks, illuminated pages, all sold cheap and were usually gone by midday.
So if your museum is open to the idea of photos for cheap to raise money, it really does raise a lot. We were able to pay our insurance one year from members dues and proceeds from those sales. And of course, the public remembers how much fun they had, they have a memento of it, (plus the oodles of photos their friends/families take on top of the Polaroid we gave them), and they'd come to shows we were at because of their earlier experiences.
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I can tell you from experience, that letting people try on the gear works wonders for exposure and fund raising. At events and public shows, we would have a part of our table set up for 'get your photo taken with a knight and/or lady' and you could wear the armour or a gown, depending on what you wanted. We charged $1 per photo and took Polaroid photos. The public *loved* it, and would often give us more than the $1. We also sold gingerbreads in the shape of shields, iced with various heraldic designs, and banners, with the same icing. Those went for 4 for $1. And we had mini wooden shields, painted with the heraldic designs that we sold for $5 each. Every time, all of those went like hot cakes. Leather bookmarks, illuminated pages, all sold cheap and were usually gone by midday.
So if your museum is open to the idea of photos for cheap to raise money, it really does raise a lot. We were able to pay our insurance one year from members dues and proceeds from those sales. And of course, the public remembers how much fun they had, they have a memento of it, (plus the oodles of photos their friends/families take on top of the Polaroid we gave them), and they'd come to shows we were at because of their earlier experiences.