Texas HELP Pilot

The Texas HELP Pilot was a four-year project. Museums from across three regions of Texas (Panhandle, East Texas, and Southeast Texas) were invited to apply. Participants received up to four traveling exhibitions from ExhibitsUSA, each fully supported with technical assistance and staff and volunteer learning opportunities. Through supporting workshops and on-site professional consultations, participating museums furthered their museum skills in areas critical to successful museums today.

HELP is rooted in the premise that experiential or "on-the-job" learning offers the most effective means to receive and retain professional training. We believe that technical assistance, offered in conjunction with a traveling exhibition experience, can address the particular needs of individual museums through immediate and practical application. The Texas HELP Pilot project aimed to:

• provide practical, "on-the-job" experiential training to selected museums in specific areas of acute need
• provide participant museums affordable temporary exhibitions that feature strong arts and humanities content, universal appeal, and local interest
• utilize affordable and professional museum training resources that reinforce "best practices" in museumship
• establish formal and informal museum networks among participating museums so as to facilitate routine resource sharing

With each exhibition an outside consultant assisted participating museums with setting goals, implementing new concepts, and evaluating the results. The consultant worked in partnership with staff, volunteers, and boards of directors to ensure that the project's lessons were effectively incorporated into the museum's ongoing operations.

Download Texas HELP final results (PDF)

To see individual museum goals and achievements for

HELP, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance in partnership with the Texas Association of Museums, is made possible through the combined vision and generosity of The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston; The Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc.; The Meadows Foundation; the Texas Commission on the Arts; and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership, and a lifetime of learning.

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NECAP

The Nebraska Community Arts Project was developed in partnership with the Nebraska Arts Council to serve the needs of small performing arts presenters in Nebraska.

Research was conducted over the spring and summer of 2005 when Mid-America Arts Alliance staff and consultant Robert Bluestone, a classical guitarist from Santa Fe, conducted telephone interviews and on-site visits with a number of presenters around the state to find out about their greatest needs. The research findings were complied into a report to the Nebraska Arts Council in September 2005.

Six communities were selected to participate in an artist-in-residence training program with Robert Bluestone. Those communities were Brownville, Norfolk, Valentine, Albion, David City, and Kearney. Community development was the emphasis of the training aspect of the project.

Brownville Fine Arts Association, Brownville, Nebraska

Norfolk Arts Center, Norfolk, Nebraska

Valentine Area Arts Council, Valentine, Nebraska

Albion Area Arts Council, Albion, Nebraska

Butler County Arts Council, David City, Nebraska

Kearney Performing Arts Center, Kearney, Nebraska