Jerrie,

     In my experience with small museums, it might be hard to find
consistent answers to most of your questions….each museum seems to take
advantage of whatever help and funding they’ve been able to get, and that
varies with what funders are willing to pay for.  Almost always, however,
care and management of the collection is the responsibility of the entity
that owns it. In general, municipalities seem more willing to pay for the
educational components and the exhibits if they are seen as attracting
tourism or serving the community. 

 

At our local museum with somewhat smaller budget:

 

What is the number of full-time staff and part-time staff?

 

Staffing: there is one full-time staff, a “Museum Manager.”  The entire
exhibit about once a year except for asmall permanent exhibit on the history
of the town.  Exhibits are installed on a contract basis with local people,
some grads of local Museum Studies program (i.e. not the expensive
professional exhibit contractors); all else is done with volunteers.  There
is no collection manager or curator, which is a huge detriment to the
community and the collection. 

 

From where do the funds for personnel costs come?

 

The City provides some of the staff cost through hotel/motel tax money. 

All other funding comes from memberships and fundraisers and some grants.

 

Who owns the museum’s collections?  NFP owns collections

 

Who owns the building?  City owns building.

 

Do you charge for school group visits?  No.  There is no real educational
program, but volunteers do school tours.

 

Do you charge local groups to hold meetings or programs at the museum?  If
so, how much?  No space for meetings

 

If the local government does not own the collections, what kind of help or
support does it give, if any, to the museum?

The City provides building and major maintenance for $1 a year. 

 

In the end, it seems to me to boil down to how much a City or community
values its museum, and how much it understands the need for and value of
professional level collection care, educational programming and exhibits.

 

 

Lucy Sperlin

 

 

  _____  

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Jerrie Clarke
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 4:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Seeking information about small museums and their
funding....

 

The Sheldon Museum is facing a significant cut to its personnel
appropriation when the fiscal year begins on July 1.  This small local
history museum and archive has a budget of around $250,000 and whatever
grants we can obtain for projects.  It has a staff of one full-time director
and six part-time positions with varying hours (4 to 10-hours a week janitor
to ¾- time operations coordinator), seasons and responsibilities.  The
Borough owns the building and gives an annual appropriation for personnel
costs.  The collection is owned by Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center, Inc.
Operating expenses are paid by the museum with funds from admissions, store,
donations, and grants.  The cut will make it necessary to eliminate a
position, the collections and exhibits coordinator position.  It was either
that or the Educator.  Both are ½ time positions for less than a full year.
I’ve also thought of splitting the loss between the two positions and seek
grants to compensate.

 

In discussions with the Mayor and an Assembly person, I was asked about
other museums --  What are their budgets? Who owns the collections?
Etcetera.  Would you please answer the questions below?  I would like to see
how other small museums are funded and what kind of financial and other
support they have.  You can send them to me and I’ll compile the results for
the list so that there aren’t so many posts going to all of the inboxes
(assuming that my questions are answered).

 

What is the number of full-time staff and part-time staff?

 

From where do the funds for personnel costs come?

 

From where do the operating costs come?

 

Who owns the museum’s collections?

 

Who owns the building?

 

Do you charge for school group visits?

 

Do you charge local groups to hold meetings or programs at the museum?  If
so, how much?

 

If the local government does not own the collections, what kind of help or
support does it give, if any, to the museum?

 

Thank you, 

Jerrie

 

Jerrie Clarke
Director
Sheldon Museum
PO Box 269
Haines, AK 99827
(907) 766-2366
fax: (907) 766-2368 
www.sheldonmuseum.org

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