Case Analysis)
Taos Museum of Southwestern Arts and Craft
The answers to this case are cumulative. You can not skip any section and do the next,
You may make whatever assumptions you think are necessary to answer any question, Be sure to state
every assumption explicitly. You may work with other students to complete the problem set, But, you
must (urn in your owa answers, You may want to use Excel or another spreadsheet to check your work,
but use a calculator for the initial calculations to give yourself practice for the midterm,
All of the information that you need to answer a given question is provided in the text that immediately
precedes the question and the answers to the questions that precede it. Read the entire problem set before
you begin, Make sure you understand the questions before vou try to answer them!
The Taos Museum of Southwestern Arts and Crafts (TMSAC) presents rotating exhibits of the works of
artists and artisans from the Southwestern United States. Historically, the museum has derived its support
from three sources: grants, annual memberships, and visitor revenues. For the 1999 fiscal year, TMSAC
ows that it will receive $564,000 in grants from various sources, It also expects 1,255 people to be
supporting members of the museum, On average, supporting members give TMSAC $112.75 per year
The museum expects the following mix of visitors during 1999, each paying the amount shown in the
right column of the schedule
Type of Visitor Percent of Total | Price
Regular 65%) $6.00)
[Group 15%] - $3.00)
Senior Citizen 10%] $2.00
10%| $1.00)
AC has $985,000 of fixed expenses each year. In addition, the museum spends an average of $.55
visitor for handouts that deseribe the exhibits on display. TMSAC estimates that it has variable
electric costs of $.15 per visitor. Plus, the museum offers each visitor the option of receiving an audio
cassette which describes the featured exhibit of the month, Visitors are allowed to keep the tape as a
memento of their visit, Historically, these tapes have cost the museum $1.25 per copy to produce and
replicate, On average, 30% of the people visiting the museum have taken advantage of the free tape offer.
Problem 1. The Director of the museum has asked you to tell her the minimum number of visitors that
must come 10 the museum each year in order for TMSAC to break even., Using the information given
above, what is TMSAC's break-even visitor volume?
Because of Tans’s lo
ation in the mountains of New Mexico, the museum tends to have a scasonal
Pattern to its visitor flow with proportionally more people visiting TMSAC in the summer than in the
winter. In addition, revenue from grants and memberships tend to flow into the museum unevenly
throughout the year, The seasonal flow of visitor, grants and membership revenues distributed
throughout the year as follows
‘Taos Museum Case and its solution were written by Robert Purell, Robert F, Wagner
Graduate School of Public Service, New York University. Used with permission.