MAAA | Programs | Prof. Development | Texas | HELP

The Beaumont Heritage Society and John Jay French Historical House Museum chronicles rural pioneer life in East Texas during the mid-nineteenth century. The house is the oldest surviving home in the area, built by a prosperous Texas frontiersman in the Greek Revival style. Its extensive grounds include a corncrib, smokehouse, laundry shed, tannery, smithy, and cemetery. In addition, a small archival library adjacent to the museum attracts researchers from throughout the region.

Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4


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Year 1:
Apron Strings: Ties to the Past

Goals:
The museum set the following goals to improve their public programming: host a ladies’ luncheon with a speaker as an exhibition opening, and test new strategies to attract children to the museum, specifically, a contest for school-aged children.

Accomplishments:
The Beaumont Heritage Society and John Jay French Historical House Museum utilized HELP to test the response of an opening Ladies’ Luncheon to spark new interest in the museum. The luncheon was a colorful and enjoyable event, highlighted by a speaker from Texas Woman’s University.

Apron Strings, the museum’s first-ever traveling exhibition, was displayed in a new space and was augmented with try-on aprons, many loaned from community members.

To test promotional strategies aimed at children, the museum staff purchased advertisements in the local newspaper; pursued television coverage; sent out personal invitations; and planned programs in conjunction with the Youth Audience-sponsored Southeast Texas Roundup, thereby targeting new audiences such as homeschoolers, scouting groups, and specific school groups with interest in the apron themes.

Experimental activities within the museum itself included a story time area, apron-making activity booth, and an apron-making contest with awards. Contacts made with area teachers were particularly strong and will have a positive effect on future programming.

Improvements:

• Use of special opening event

• First-time hosting of traveling exhibition

• Story times and reading areas

• Special contests and other special-interest promotions used

• Identification and contact of specific community groups with invitations for visitation and participation

• Preliminary program contacts made with area teachers

Goals for Year 2: Rags to Riches: Handcrafted Rugs
With a focus in exhibition development and design, the Beaumont Heritage Society has established the following goals for Year Two of HELP: utilize interactive elements with the exhibition by providing a variety of hands-on activities; increase museum attendance with activities for school groups, adults, and children’s organizations; and develop more versatile exhibition furniture, such as temporary walls, for the display of the rugs.



Year 2:
Rags to Riches: Handcrafted Rugs


Goals:
Focusing on exhibition design as their training area in year two of HELP, the Beaumont Heritage Society set a number of goals for themselves that focused on engaging the visitor in the exhibition. They planned to use interactive elements by providing a variety of hands-on activities. They also set out to develop versatile exhibit furniture, which was one of the lessons of the fall booster meeting. In the process of improving exhibition design, they hoped to increase museum visitation.

Accomplishments:
The Beaumont Heritage Society accomplished all of the goals they set in year two. With the help of exhibition design consultant Kit Neumann, they were able to create inexpensive and flexible display panels, which they have used again since hosting their HELP exhibition. They also collaborated with two local high school interior design classes who had toured the exhibition on a school field trip. Former director Denise Rousell developed a relationship with the students, and they came back later in the year to help with other projects and to decorate the museum for the annual Christmas Candlelight Tour. They also hosted a successful “fun night” aimed at children and families.

Improvements:

• Learned to cut foam core to create more finished, professional-looking labels

• Attracted new volunteers to the museum

• Borrowed artifacts from the community and used their own collection to supplement the exhibition

Goals for Year 3:
In year three of the HELP program, the Beaumont Heritage Society looks forward to their next training area, marketing and PR. They will work with Seth Davidson on creating a press kit, improving their database, identifying new markets, and increasing museum traffic. The exhibition they’ve chosen as a vehicle for these goals is El Caballo: the Horse in Mexican Folk Art.

Year 3:
El Caballo: The Horse in Mexican Folk Art

Goals:
The Beaumont Heritage Society focused on PR and marketing as their training area in year two. Working with consultant Seth Davidson, they constructed a list of goals aimed at publicizing the museum and its exhibitions. The set out to do this by adding an extensive media section to their Web site and creating a press kit and distributing it personally to local newspapers. They also set out to reach new audiences, specifically school children by developing lesson plans to be used in conjunction with the exhibition. Purchasing museum database software Past Perfect and training at least 3 staff members to use it was another goal high on their list.

Accomplishments:
The museum was able to accomplish a number of their goals, an amazing feat given the obstacles that were put in their way. Just after their display of El Caballo was installed, their director resigned. Although this was a setback for the museum, it did give the remaining staff and the board the opportunity to participate in the exhibition process and the HELP program in a way they hadn’t done before. Shortly thereafter, the museum’s computer crashed and they lost most of their data. Through the sheer determination of their part-time staff and volunteers, they were able to recreate documents and databases and continue their day-to-day work. They purchased Past Perfect software and have made plans to begin digitally accessioning the Chambers House collection.

Improvements:

• Created a press kit including a cd of photos of the museum

• Redesigned the Web site, added a press kit downloadable as a PDF

• Staff learned HTML code and posts regular updates to the Web site

• Organized Beaumont museum association to help promote each other and create a list serv

• Began Young Texans program aimed at getting high school students involved with the museum

• Supplemented the exhibition with items from the museum’s collection

• Recruited new volunteers

Goals for Year 4: Out of the Nest: Artists’ Birdhouses
The Beaumont Heritage Society will turn its training focus to fundraising and development in year 4. They already have plans for an ambitious new fundraising event for “Young Texans” which will hopefully raise $40,000 for general operating support. The highly successful dinner theatre will continue this summer and the museum hopes to raise funds to support personnel for the Chambers House.

Goals:

The Beaumont Heritage Society’s new director, Darlene Chodzinski, started her job in the summer of 2005. She joined the HELP program with great enthusiasm and began creating a list of fundraising goals with consultant Scott Cooksey. These goals included establishing a strong relationship with her board, which she intended to accomplish through one-on-one meetings with each member and applying for at least four grants to fund educational programming.

Also on her list was to update their computer operating systems and software in order to better track the museum’s finances, and to develop long and short-term fundraising goals with board support and participation in achieving those goals.

Accomplishments:

Darlene had gotten an excellent start on tackling her goals when Hurricane Rita hit and completely changed the museum’s priorities for the year. The Beaumont Heritage Society is located directly in the area most severely damaged by Hurricane Rita. Unfortunately, the hurricane hit during their display of the HELP exhibition Out of the Nest: Artists’ Birdhouses. Nearly every building on the museum grounds was damaged. Holes were torn into the roofs of several buildings and the water that rained in shorted out air conditioners and alarm systems. Damage was so severe that museum staff was unable to access the museum buildings until two weeks after the storm. As a result, the entire roof of their Heritage Hall will have to be replaced, as will several storage sheds and outbuildings.

Amazingly, things got back to normal relatively quickly for the museum. Darlene met with each of her board members individually to update them on happenings at the museum and to talk about their shared visions for the its future. The result of these meetings has been renewed board enthusiasm, with nearly one hundred percent of the board attending every museum meeting and event.

Darlene also sent proposals to two private foundations and was awarded $35,000 in grant money (their goal had been set at only $17,000). The installation of Out of the Nest was a success as well. They were able to borrow items from the Museum of Natural Science in Houston and got the community involved by including a wide variety of birdhouses made by local artists.

Improvements:

• Strengthened board support

• Participated in the Winedale fundraising workshop

• Received a private foundation grant and a matching grant totaling $35,000

• Borrowed items from the Museum of Natural Science in Houston to complement the exhibition

• Worked with the board on establishing 3-year and 5-year strategic plans