| Incorporated in
2000, the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum is dedicated to
telling the story of South Central Texas’s proud contribution
to the twin legends of the Texas cowboy and the Longhorn.
The museum’s mission is to chronicle a fifty-year
period beginning in 1866 and to make significant cultural,
social, and education contributions by interpreting the
historical relevance of a story that begins right in their
own community. The museum is on a fast-moving plan to move
into a remodeled historic facility within two years.
Year 1 | Year
2| Year 3 | Year 4
Click
image for slideshow
Year
1:
Apron Strings: Ties
to the Past
Goals:
With a technical assistance focus in volunteerism, the
Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum created the following goals:
recruit
a reliable volunteer pool for the museum’s opening;
recruit, organize, and stabilize a group of volunteers to
handle the biannual fundraising event; and energize volunteers
from the museum’s current membership.
Accomplishments:
Every aspect of the HELP project was new and experimental
for Cuero’s museum. Held at the local library, the
exhibition was curated by a volunteer who mounted the aprons
on upturned metal tomato stakes stuffed with acid-free
tissue.
To augment the exhibition, the curator displayed a collection
of aprons from the DeWitt County Historical Museum, as
well
as aprons from private collectors. A small-scale tea party
was featured in the room, adding a dimension that was especially
appealing to children.
Activities in conjunction with the exhibition began with
a preview for invited guests, which was covered by the local
newspaper. The museum staff chose to share the benefit of
their professional consultation with Becky Fertitta with
other community organizations, thereby underscoring the
importance of community volunteerism as a whole and solidifying
the volunteer spirit among those involved with the museum.
Key participants will now become great volunteer recruiters
for the museum.
Improvements:
-
First-time hosting of traveling exhibition
-
Partnerships created with the business community, teachers,
the Chamber of Commerce, and the library, thus galvanizing
community investment in the creation of the new museum
-
Recruitment of a volunteer pool for the new museum
Goals for Year Two: This Contest is
for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s:
Concentrating on marketing in Year Two of HELP, the Chisholm
Trail Heritage Museum has established several worthy goals:
increase local awareness of the museum; develop interactive
components; host a lecture; develop a Web site; conduct
outreach to schools and civic clubs; partner with local
festivals and museums; write articles for regional and statewide
magazines; and create an e-mail contact list. Staff also
plans to build relationships with the regional press and
produce a biannual newsletter.
A board retreat will focus on marketing components, and
the museum hopes to determine exactly who their target markets
are through visitor surveys and logs. Finally, the museum
hopes to improve funfundraising efforts and visitation based
on these activities.
Year Two:
This Contest is for
Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s
Goals:
During the second year of Texas HELP, the Chisholm
Trail Heritage Museum was able to purchase their building
and focus on preparing for the restoration process. In the
meantime, they created a list of goals aimed at expanding
their marketing capabilities. They attempted to increase
local awareness of museum activities and events, reach a
wider audience by attracting new visitors and tourists,
and improve their Web site. They also worked with the board
to develop new marketing strategies and they hosted a board
retreat last fall.
Accomplishments:
In order to better publicize their progress, the
museum began production of a biannual newsletter. They purchased
Past Perfect software and had database training with marketing
consultant Seth Davidson. The museum also hosted two traveling
exhibitions, This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs
of the 1930s and Photographs and Paragraphs which featured
the writings of O. Henry. The museum began soliciting oral
histories from local ranch families for future exhibitions
and published an article in the February issue of Preservation
Texas. They partnered with local Boy Scouts who will be
helping to renovate building and began discussing plans
to use the second story of the museum as a meeting space
for civic groups. Effective planning, coalition building,
and community service-minded museum volunteers have helped
this institution make great strides toward developing a
successful community institution.
Improvements:
Recruited local former rodeo celebrity Katie Doell
to speak on the exhibition topic of trick-riding Expanded the exhibition by collecting additional
photographs from the community to accompany the exhibition
Updated the museum Web site Purchased and received training on database software
Goals for Year 3: El Caballo: The Horse in
Mexican Folk Art
Concentrating on exhibition design and development
in year three, the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum has set
goals to begin creating future exhibitions for the museum.
They intend to embark on a capital campaign and would like
to begin researching a local Italian immigrant family in
order to create a permanent exhibition for the new space.
Year
Three:
El Caballo:
The Horse in Mexican Folk Art
Goals:
In year three, the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum worked
with consultant Kit Neumann on exhibition design. Since
the museum is still in the process of renovating their
museum space, their exhibition design goals for year three
were aimed at creating an effective exhibition space in
the local bank lobby. They also wanted to maximize viewing
opportunities of their HELP exhibition and planned to do
this by creating off site exhibitions for schools and nursing
homes. Another goal was to implement new design techniques
learned through the fall workshop and their consultations
with Kit. Hosting an opening reception and publicizing
it in new ways was also on their list of priorities.
Accomplishments:
The board members (there is no staff currently) easily achieved
their goal of creating a dynamic, interesting display in
the lobby of the Cuero National Bank. They acquired pedestals
with vitrines to protect the objects from daily bank traffic.
They also spruced up the display cases by recovering the
bases in new fabric. They were successful in achieving
all of their other goals as well. The museum expanded its
educational outreach by sponsoring exhibition related activities
for school kids. They organized a treasure hunt that was
enormously popular with all of the students who participated.
Also, a student art contest was hosted with the winning
entries receiving savings bonds. To expand on El Caballo’s
horse theme, board members put together a side exhibition
of spurs to enhance the exhibition.
Improvements:
Redesigned the museum Web site Created exhibition banner to hang on museum façade Documented the exhibition and posted digital photographs
on the museum Web site Brought in scholar Bruce Shakelford to speak at the exhibition
opening, through a grant from Humanities Texas Researched and curated related exhibition
Goals for Year 4: Grand Ole Opry
In year four, the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum will focus
on a training area that is of particular strength for them,
fundraising and development. They have written up a list
of goals with consultant Scott Cooksey that will help them
in the process of restoring their building and preparing
for the museum’s opening. They plan to develop and
print a capital campaign brochure, initiate an endowment,
initiate an odd numbered year, fall fundraising event, and
begin raising the $455,000 needed to complete phases II and
III of the restoration of their building.
Year 4
Grand Ole Opry
Goals:
For their final year of the Texas HELP program, the Chisholm
Trail Heritage Museum focused their attention on fundraising
and development, an area in which they already had some experience.
Since the museum was incorporated in 2000, board president
Robert
Oliver
has
done
an expert
job
securing
state and federal funding for the restoration of historic
building that will be the home to their new museum. Fundraising
consultant Scott Cooksey was delighted to assist the board
of directors in finding ways to diversify the museum’s
support by focusing their goals on increasing private contributions
to compliment the public support. Robert set a number of
ambitious goals including beginning an endowment fund, increasing
the fundraising goal 15 percent for their "Taste of
the Trail" event,
increasing their membership by fifteen percent, and developing
a professional-looking brochure for their capital campaign.
Accomplishments:
The Chisholm Trail Museum had a very successful year. They
were able to accomplish nearly all of their goals. They utilized
their consultant’s expertise in working out the logistics
of designating all memorial funds to establish their new
endowment. Their $500 HELP grant was used to offsetting the
costs of working with a designer and printing their capital
campaign mailing.
Already experts at hosting fundraising
events, the museum tried a new format this year. They raised
$40,000 with a "Pasture Golf" event, and had a
great deal of fun in the process.They also held their
first-ever membership recruitment party that took place
at the museum
building.
Their historic "Knights of Pythias" building
recently completed phase II of the restoration process.
The façade was completely renovated, and one-eighth
of an inch of accumulated paint was removed from the exterior.
The aluminum front door and garage door on the front
of the
building
were
also replaced with more architecturally appropriate doors;
the museum remains on track to open the museum to visitors
in 2008.
Improvements:
Completed phase II of museum building restoration
Raised $40,000 through the pasture golf tournament
Created a capital campaign brochure
Raised over $70,000 of a $200,000 capital campaign goal
Hosted two new fundraising and membership events
|
|
|
