According to Diane Forsberg:
>
> Does anyone know of  a Convention and Visitors Bureau that has a museum or
> permanent exhibition in the same building?  The Clayton County Convention
> and Visitors Bureau has moved to Jonesboro's old train depot.  They are
> renting their space from  Historical Jonesboro Inc. and want to open a
> museum in the portion of the depot they do not use for offices, the
> visitors center and gift shop.  The proposed  exhibition space is 1500
> square feet. The audience they have in mind includes local adults, tourists
> and school groups.  They are also thinking of renting the "museum" space out
> for special events to help raise money to operate the new space.  Any ideas,
> warnings or information about similar arrangements would be appreciated.
>

I work in just such a building. Monticello rents its visitors
center from the city and we in turn sub-let one quarter of the
building back to the city for the convention and visitors
bureau. It is a more complicated arrangement than I have made
it sound, however it works quite well for us.

The building houses not only the visitors bureau run by the
city, but also Monticello's Department of Education (complete
with classroom and office space), a permanent exhibition on
Jefferson, a theatre with daily movie, and a museum shop. We do
not rent out the space to make money, but I can see this as a
possibility in other museums. We do use the exhibition for
school, adult and family programming.

I would be happy to answer any more questions or talk with you
in detail if you call me or write my personal e-mail address.

--
Robin Gabriel
Director of Education
Monticello
P.O. Box 316
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902
(804) 984-9854
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