| The Scurry County
Museum serves as a repository for artifacts and information
related to the history of Scurry County and the greater
West Texas region. The museum opened in 1975 on the campus
of Western Texas College and features exhibitions on the
history of ranching, cotton and farming, and oil. The museum
also sponsors rotating exhibitions ranging in topics from
major art shows to the legacies of the Hispanic community.
Year 1 | Year
2 | Year 3 | Year 4
Click image for slideshow
Year
1:
Apron Strings: Ties
to the Past
Goals:
With a focus on exhibition development, the Scurry County
Museum had the clever idea to design the exhibition as a
series of different rooms to showcase different types of
aprons, with appropriate room décor to match. They
also aimed to increase community awareness of the museum
through the exhibition, increase visitor interaction via
the exhibition, and provide information about aprons in
a stimulating manner.
Accomplishments:
All of the museum’s goals were achieved with great
success. The large gallery space was divided into functional
areas or “rooms” by means of furniture and by
the type of aprons displayed in the area. This made the
aprons more meaningful and kept the visitor interested and
moving through the exhibition. A treasure hunt also encouraged
visitors to look closely at the components of the exhibition,
and a poster publicizing the exhibition used the treasure
hunt as a draw. Another game was given to teachers and students
after they viewed the exhibition, with the hope of reinforcing
their experience.
In addition, 149 aprons were borrowed from the community,
and all were displayed. Various pieces of furniture placed
throughout the area and aprons hung on clotheslines added
an effective three-dimensional element to the exhibition.
The aprons swayed in the breeze provided by an electric
fan, creating a sense of movement in the exhibition, and
some aprons were place on full-sized wooden silhouettes
of people (a simple, inexpensive, and effective means of
creating a mannequin-like device). An apron icon cut from
red-and-white tablecloth fabric served as the background
for labels and provided visual continuity throughout the
exhibition.
A collection of period cookbooks was borrowed and displayed
with the kitchen aprons in a separate area of the gallery,
and the provided try-on aprons were supplemented with aprons
from the community and the permanent collection, along with
hats borrowed from the college drama department. Both the
aprons and the hats were enormously popular with school-age
visitors.
Improvements:
Based on experience, will now provide interactive
components to future exhibitions, including the “treasure
hunt” device -
Established a mutually beneficial relationship with
the local library
Experimented broadly in exhibition design and
installation techniques -
Improved experience in calling for temporary object
loans from community
Goals for Year 2: Grand Ole Opry
In Year Two of the HELP project, the Scurry County Museum
will focus its goals on marketing while working with consultant
Seth Davidson. Specifically, the museum’s goals include
developing a Web page for the museum; creating a database
for mailings, fundraising, and newsletters (and thereby
expanding the awareness of museum activities); marketing
directly to Western Texas College students and more intensely
to local and regional residents; increasing hands-on components
in conjunction with the exhibition; expanding visitor interest
by using the traveling educational materials; and developing
a visitor feedback system.
Year
2:
Apron Strings: Ties
to the Past
Goals:
The Scurry County Museum focused on PR and marketing
in year two of HELP. They identified a need to expand local
interest in the museum and made this their primary goal,
using the Grand Ole Opry exhibit as a tool. They hoped to
achieve renewed interest by adding an audio/visual element
to the display. They planned to market more intensely to
local and regional residents, specifically West Texas college
students. The also wanted to increase the number of people
in the community that are aware of museum activities. They
developed a marketing strategy of advertising in new publications
and on radio stations and creating a Web site to assist
in reaching these goals.
Accomplishments:
A successful opening reception was held for the
Opry exhibition, which included live music by local musicians.
The event was well attended, and two-thirds of participants
were new visitors to the museum. The exhibit itself was
enhanced by a 1950’s sitting room created by museum
director Charlene Ackers. Twenty five artifacts from the
museum’s collection and ten pieces from the community
were used in creating the accompanying display. Marketing
consultant Seth Davidson urged the Scurry County Museum
to view their visitors as “customers” with needs
and expectations. As a result of an outreach effort into
a new constituency, the museum attracted local college students,
who produced a video for the campus television channel that
included images of the Opry photographs and other information
about the exhibition.
Improvements:
Applied for and received an IMLS grant to digitize
the museum’s collection and research ways a new artifact
database could be used by the community Recruited four new volunteers as a result of the
exhibition Purchased a new computer to be used for updating
the museum database Acquired a new computer for the museum
Goals for Year 3:
In year three of Texas HELP, the Scurry County
Museum will focus on their next area of training, fundraising.
They will work closely with fundraising consultant Scott
Cooksey on motivating, training, and educating the staff
and board on nonprofit fundraising. They plan to apply for
a number of grants that will hopefully enable them to renovate
the long-term gallery and create a new exhibition, and to
purchase Past Perfect software for the museum.
Year
3:
Rags to
Riches: Handcrafted Rugs
Goals:
In year three of Texas HELP, the Scurry County Museum
focused on their third area of training, fundraising. Fundraising
has been a strong suit for the museum and director Charlene
Akers was already an experienced grant writer. She drafted
a list of goals the most ambitious of which was to match
a $54,000 grant from the NEH to update their permanent
exhibitions. They planned to achieve this goal by diversifying
their fundraising efforts and learning new ways to increase
capital. Other goals set for year three were to motivate,
educate and train the museum board and staff on the techniques
of non-profit fundraising, and to create a power point
presentation on fundraising to enhance community awareness
of charitable giving.
Accomplishments:
Director Charlene Akers dove into her fundraising goals
with enthusiasm. They solicited county oil royalty owners
for the first time and were rewarded for their efforts
by a $5,000 donation. Scott Cooksey prepared and delivered
a board training session on the board’s fundraising
involvement and responsibilities.
Improvements:
Created a new Web site Received $25,000 from the Diamond M Foundation. Purchased a digital camera and Past Perfect in order to
began digitally cataloging the collection Started a museum Web log to update the community and museum
members on the status of grant projects
Goals for Year 4: Keep ‘em Flying: Everyday
Life in a WWII Fighter Squadron
In the final year of Texas HELP, the Scurry County Museum
moves on to its last area of training, volunteerism, with
consultant Norma Seals. Their goals are focused on recruiting
volunteers for specific projects that the museum is working
on. By early fall Charlene plans to have conducted an inventory
of the museum’s volunteer needs. She hopes to recruit
new volunteers to help with the IMLS grant project of digitizing
the collection. She’ll solicit each of the county’s
three service clubs to try and recruit new volunteers.
Year 4
Keep ‘Em Flying!
Everyday Life in a WWII Fighter Squadron
Goals
The Scurry County Museum worked with consultant Norma
Seals in year four on their last training area, volunteerism.
While the museum already has a number of volunteers they
can count on to help them with special projects, Norma
encouraged director Charlene Akers to set goals that would
help them organize their volunteer program and focus on
improving their record keeping. Charlene set some basic
volunteer goals including conducting an inventory of the
museum’s volunteer needs, recruiting additional volunteers
for their collection digitization project, and soliciting
volunteers from each of Snyder’s three service clubs:
the Lion’s Club, Kiwanis Club, and the Rotary Club.
Accomplishments:
As Charlene contemplated the museum’s volunteer
needs, she determined that one of the most crucial support
tasks was their ongoing data entry. She
used her $500 HELP grant to send her volunteers to Past
Perfect database training. Charlene also took the advice
of her consultant and wrote a set of job descriptions for
her Chocolate Festival fundraiser volunteers.
Their HELP exhibition, Keep ‘em Flying! Everyday
Life in a WWII Fighter Squadron, proved an effective
volunteer recruitment tool, as they attracted several
new volunteers
as people came to see it. The exhibition was very popular
with the community, and they borrowed objects from the
Texas Air Museum to display with the photographs. They
held two
special events in conjunction with the exhibition featuring
guest speakers who lectured about the P-38 planes depicted
in the photographs. The events were well attended with
75 people participating.
Improvements:
Created 7 volunteer job descriptions for the Chocolate
Festival
Recruited 75 new volunteers
Supplemented the exhibition with items from both their
collection and from local collectors
More than doubled visitation to their HELP exhibition
Used their Texas HELP grant to train volunteers to use
the Past Perfect database program
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