The first two questions are: where is the director? And, where is the
Board? If they are not weighing in on the proposed exhibit plans, then you
have bigger trouble than just the rich guy trying to tell his story.
Someone has to speak up for balance in your plans, and I'm presuming that it
cannot be you.
If the committee head cannot be made to see that devoting 86% of your
available exhibit space to tell his story is excessive, then can the board
remove him? It is always difficult to "fire" a volunteer, especially one
that is flush with cash, but it sounds necessary.
And permanent exhibits are never truly permanent anyway.
If you cannot do anything about this exhibit juggernaut, there are other
ways to show potential donors that you value what they've given you. If
your collection could potentially be of interest to scholars, promote it to
them, and make your county historical society a key place for scholarship.
Encourage students working on History Day projects to visit and use your
collection. Beef up your website (or create one), showcasing some of you
most important stuff. Write articles yourself on the wonderful stories that
you collection can tell. Incorporate 3-dimensional artifacts into your
educational programs so that visitors can encounter more than what you are
able to show on a regular basis. It is possible to overcome a large,
limited permanent exhibit with donors. (Plus, you can always tell them that
by keeping them off exhibit will preserve them way longer than if they were
put on exhibit for 10 years . . . It doesn't work with every donor, but
appeals to those with a desire for immortality.)
When you're given lemons, SOMETIMES you can make lemonade.
Good luck,
Claudia
--
Claudia J. Nicholson
Executive Director
North Star Museum of Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting
2640 E. Seventh Avenue
North St. Paul, MN 55109
651-748-2880
[log in to unmask]
Visit us on the web at www.NorthStarMuseum.org!
On 6/22/07 9:40 AM, "archives" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> We have a expensive new permanent museum project in the works for our small
> town
> historical society headquarters that is focused on a very narrow subject (land
> preservation-our county has 16% of its area under conservation easements).
> Agreed, that
> our county history was peopled early with those rich enough to have
> plantations, and
> that there were/are enough rich people left to get sliding-scale zoning passed
> in the
> late 1960s is a great story, and their foresight has saved us from the
> exploding urban
> sprawl of our surrounding counties, but it leaves out the history of all the
> other
> people who made our county what it is today.
> The head of the committee (who is well off) is dedicated to telling this
> story, to
> the exclusion of the wider county history. He is very narrow in what he feels
> needs to
> be shown to support his vision, and he is the driving force (and contentious
> force)
> behind this whole project. Even tho our board members have had quibbles about
> the
> project, they are not going to confront this man or try to rein him in because
> they
> might have to take over.
> At the moment 16 sq. feet of rotating exhibit space is what we have
> desiginated in
> the whole building (and this is debatable as the chairman feels it would take
> away from
> his story). As their historical society archivist/curator, I (and the museum
> design
> team) are frustrated that I/we cannot make this man understand that if the
> permanent
> exhibits are only to support his story, that two things will be apparent: 1.
> it will
> limit our audience (most of whom will never own a historic house or own 600
> acres of
> land they can put in easement; besides it seems to be a political stand which
> a hist.
> soc. should not be involved with); & 2. it will dry up the flow of artifacts
> into our
> society when people know that 99.5% of our artifacts will be in permanent
> storage and
> never seen, because of the tight focus and permanency of the displays.
> At this point in the project, a lot of people are almost hoping that the
> project
> funds appeal will not raise the funds to go into the second stage (at least
> not in this
> narrow configuration).
> If indeed this project comes to fruition, what can I or the members of the
> society
> do to reach possible donors and make them understand that we still do care
> about their
> artifacts (archival materials will not be affected as I have that well in
> hand) and
> wish to have them in our collection. I would hate not to get an artifact
> tomorrow that
> might be very significant to a new exhibit in the future. Any other
> suggestions on
> this would also be appreciated.
> M.T. Morris-CCHA, Virginia
>
>
> --
> Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/
> . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a
> one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the
> message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
> [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
