Our staff has been approached by a local
organization which wants to run a haunted house on the museum's grounds, NOT in
the museum proper. I have been asked to see what others in the museum
field are doing about non-standard use of the facilities. None of the
activities will take place in historic structures and, at this time, we are not
considering details such as insurance. What we would like to know is, do
other sites allow the use of their grounds like this? What happens when
items such as "tombstones" are left on the lawn for a week? Does the idea
of scaring children conflict with our mission as an educational facility?
We would get lots a free publicity and, hopefully, lots of people to the museum
that might not otherwise come. BUT, this is not what a museum stands for
(the organization has already rejected our suggestion of a historical themed fun
festival). Even though this would not be our event, we would be connected
with it. Of course, this all has to go through our Board of Directors but
we on the staff would like to have some idea of what we think is
appropriate.
Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Betsy Crawford-Gore, Curator
Santa Fe Trail Center
Larned,
Kansas