Eliza M. Benington is the Senior Director of Marketing and Engagement at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, where she has worked since 1990. She oversees the museum’s communications and marketing activities, publications, digital engagement, guest services, exhibitions, and programs.

She is Chair of the Art Museum Marketing Association Board and a Vice President and Marketing Committee Chair of the Museum Association of New York (MANY) Board.

A former member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) board, Benington is past chair of the Public Relations and Marketing (PRAM) Professional Network of AAM.

She is an active member of Visit Rochester and is a past president of its active volunteer arm, the Visitor Industry Council. She is a recipient of the I Love New York Award for Cultural Tourism Promotion.

We spoke with Eliza to learn more about her career journey and what motivates her. 

MANY: What’s the first museum experience that you remember?

Eliza: My mom was from Boston, and I remember visiting the Boston Children’s Museum. I remember these very large objects, like a desk and a massive phone, that you climb on top of. I’m probably remembering them larger than they were because I was a child. This exhibit also had a big bowl-like mortar and pestle, focusing on maize and its use in many food products. It was a very hands-on experience, which is why I probably remember it, and it made such a lasting impression.

But when I think of the earliest museum experience that impacted me in the sense of a love for museums, I grew up in Washington, DC. The Smithsonian Museum of American History, there was a large house, which, as a child, I remember thinking of it just as a large doll house. You would climb up these steps to look into it. It was “The Dolls’ House,” donated by Faith Bradford, which depicted a romantic view of the life of a large and affluent American family in the early 1900s. It has 23 rooms and contains more than 800 miniature items. I loved looking in and seeing these miniature dioramas  I felt transported back in time. I could stare at it forever.  My dad built me a doll’s house, which influenced me to collect miniatures, and I remember visiting “The Dolls’ House” with my son because it’s still on view. 

Can you tell me what growing up in Washington, DC was like?

It certainly fed my love of museums, especially growing up around the Smithsonian museums. My mom would take my siblings and me to museums often, and we would visit them all, anytime there was a new exhibition. I remember when the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum was built and visiting it when it opened. Having museums intertwined with my childhood memories definitely impacted my career and is why I love museums. 

What experiences from previous jobs have been most helpful for your current role as the Senior Director of Marketing and Engagement at the George Eastman Museum?

I just celebrated 34 years at the Museum, so in some ways, I think I didn’t have many other museum jobs before my current role beyond the many different roles I’ve had at this museum and all the hats I’ve worn here over time. I worked in retail, which was a helpful experience in learning how to meet someone’s needs, develop customer service skills, and engage with the public. Then, right before I started at the Museum, I worked for an ad agency where I worked many different types of clients, including business-to-business public relations marketing. I appreciated this role because it was great to work on active problem-solving to understand each client's needs, what tools we use to help get the word out, etc. I used those skills when I started working at the Museum because our marketing department is a mini ad agency working on many different projects, from big picture things, our photograph or moving image collection or George Eastman’s Legacy Mansion Gardens. Each project we do reminds me of different projects within an agency, but here, we’re in-house. 

Because of this experience, I frequently tell museum people when they want to hire any marketing communications role to look to ad agencies. It’s a great resource for people, and I knew that I wanted to be intrinsically motivated in my job, so rather than having clients who were business-to-business, working at the Eastman Museum let me promote something I was passionate about: museums and photography. 

Over the past 34 years, my role has grown and changed, which I love. I started as the public relations manager and then expanded into marketing and visitor services, and now includes programming and education. It all works so well together, and it’s all very much part of the museum's public-facing part, providing the various programs but also connecting with the community, connecting with our audiences to help engage them, and all the different programs and offerings that we have.

What motivates you to do what you do? What do you get excited about? 

It’s sort of twofold. First, it’s the people I work with who keep me motivated. We have a great team with wonderful ideas and energy. I love working within a team.

Then, it’s the times when I’m interacting directly with visitors. If I could be in two places at once, I would want to be on the Museum floor all the time because you learn so much from the visitors, and you’re reminded that so much of what we’re doing is for the people walking through our doors. Whenever I can stop and chat with a visitor, I take it. 

What are some of your goals in your role?

The overarching goal is connecting with visitors. We never have the complete picture because it changes, but connecting with our visitors helps us understand our audiences, who we aren’t reaching, and how we can engage more with our local community. We’re a tourist destination with a high percentage of visitors from outside Rochester, though a our significant goal is connecting with our community. Right now we have a community outreach initiative that many staff members are involved with. We identify events in the community where we want to have a presence or, if we can, sponsor. It’s important to us to show up and support other community organizations and hopefully grow and create future partnership opportunities.

A number of those connections have helped us with projects in our new community gallery, Gallery Obscura, especially promoting youth photography and poetry. It’s really fulfilling to see projects like these come together. 

It's so important to expose students to career opportunities and we recently introduced an initiative where GEM employees present to middle school students in our programs about their own role at the museum in order to expose them to potential careers in the field.

Did your 18-year-old self imagine that you would be where you are today?

Absolutely not. Even when I saw the museum job posted, I thought I would need an art history background in order to work at a museum. I didn’t go to schools for museums, so I was unsure if I had the transferable skills from the ad agency in order to work within a museum. But every time I visited a museum, I would look for the photo exhibits, which was my passion. I saw it as an opportunity to work in an environment where I’m surrounded by history and art. 

We’re seeing more and more people coming from outside the museum field to take on museum marketing positions. It’s great to bring those varied perspectives. 

Can you describe a favorite day on the job?

In the broadest sense, my favorite day on the job is when we have large events because I can engage with so many people and work alongside our team. It’s times when I’m on the floor where something big is happening, and it’s exciting. I enjoyed our 50th anniversary where we had about 25,000 people through the museum as part of a celebration weekend. It was amazing energy.

Another memorable day was the one-year anniversary of 9/11. We had a series of exhibitions and held a candlelight vigil on the museum grounds, and about 2,000 people joined us. It was such a reminder that our community spaces can provide a space for people to come together. 

What is your superpower?

My superpower is that I am ridiculously positive. I think it’s a survival mechanism in some ways because it’s the attitude that we can figure it out, and it will all be ok. But I like the fact that I can bring that to the table. I think it’s good when you have a group of people around the table to have someone who’s the cheerleader.

Do you have any key mentors or someone who has deeply influenced you? Can you tell me about them?

I’ve been fortunate to have people that I could learn from. One was a public relations person manager at Kodak who took me under his wing and knew a lot about the Museum, was passionate about the Museum, and knew a lot about the photography world. He was a tremendous mentor early on in my career. Then I’ve had chairs of our marketing committee on our board who have been staunch advocates for marketing. It is important to know that you have those people in your corner, especially at the board level. 

Then, one of my supervisors, who was our Development Director, advocated for me to take on visitor services and then become senior staff. I learned a lot from her about how she managed people. She was a real champion for me.

Lastly, my ultimate mentor was my mom. She was a single working mom for most of my life and worked just shy of her 80th birthday. She would figure out how to fix things and had an incredible can-do attitude—the same attitude that I bring to the Museum. My mom had a tremendous influence on how I approached anything and gave me confidence that I could do anything.