MAAA | Programs | Prof. Development | Texas | HELP

The Wharton County Historical Museum was established in 1979 to help preserve the rich heritage of the county. The museum is housed on ten acres, and the museum itself has 15,000 square feet of exhibition space, including displays of over one hundred exotic game animals from the 1960s. Housing primarily historical artifacts from Wharton County, the museum preserves abundant biographical information of Whartonians from the past and present.

Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4

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Year 1:
This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s

Goals:
With technical assistance focused on volunteerism, the Wharton County Museum set several goals: energize the current volunteer pool; establish committees to oversee school tour guides, Christmas activities, volunteer training, and the gift shop; and cultivate a relationship with youth groups and service organizations in order to involve them in the museum’s special events.

Accomplishments:
Hosting their very first traveling exhibition, the Wharton County Museum achieved an installation of the exhibition that beautifully evoked the feeling of ranching in the West. The exhibition was hung on a rustic fence that was constructed on site; cowboy, ranching, and rodeo artifacts from the permanent collection augmented the exhibition.

An opening reception was held for volunteers and members, and a committee of volunteers refurbished the museum gift shop. The museum director took a group of volunteers to the McFaddin-Ward House in Beaumont to see firsthand how they work with their volunteers. The director did an extraordinary job of attracting, utilizing, and retaining his volunteers.

Improvements:

• A regular meeting time was established for volunteers to gather, eat lunch, and discuss upcoming events

• Committees were formed for the gift shop, Christmas activities, special volunteer events, school tours, etc.

• Better records of volunteer hours and contributions are being kept

• Two new volunteers were recruited

Goals for Year 2: Apron Strings: Ties to the Past:
To improve in the technical assistance area of marketing, the Wharton County Museum has established several goals for the coming year. They hope to expand the number of people who know about museum activities by redeveloping the Web site and developing a new brochure. They will also market directly to area schools and will market more intensively and actively to local residents. They will also establish a phone log to improve feedback from visitors and supporters.



Year 2:
Apron Strings: Ties to the Past

Goals:
With training in year two focused on marketing and PR, the Wharton County Museum set goals aimed at bringing in new audiences. They worked on updating their Web site, and kept a phone log aimed at improving feedback from visitors. The museum was interested in marketing more intensively to local residents and planned to do this by sending out a mailing about the Apron Strings: Ties to the Past exhibition and hosting art and flower shows.

Accomplishments:
The museum was able to achieve their goal of bringing in new audiences and partnering with local groups. They held a “Cowboy Christmas” in December, combining music provided by local musicians and events for kids and their parents. Another successful community event held at the museum was the “Speak Out” organized by the junior college. This involved students choosing a subject to speak on by visiting the museum.

The students voted on the best speaker, who was then invited to speak at the museum to the public. The winner also received a $1000 scholarship donated by a museum patron. The museum director added that the most interesting speeches were those given by students who had lived in Wharton all of their lives and had never visited the museum. Several of them came back, wanting to share the museum with friends and family.

Improvements:

• Reorganized and changed stock of gift shop to promote local artisans

• Redesigned the museum newsletter

• Digitized the photo collection

• Added a comment section to the museum register and began asking visitors how they heard about the museum

• Partnered with regional tourism groups and downtown Wharton on publicizing local tourism

Goals for Year 3: Grand Ole Opry
The focus for year three will be exhibition design with Kit Neumann. This is a strong area for museum director Marvin Albrecht, and a cohesive set of goals has been set. The museum intends to change their lighting system from fluorescent to incandescent. This will both protect the artifacts and better highlight the exhibitions. They also plan to build a “sound stage” unit for Opry presentations done by local musicians. They will rework their old display units from bi-fold to A-frame and repaint them to better accommodate the Opry photographs.

Year 3:
Grand Ole Opry

Goals:

The Wharton County Museum worked with consultant Kit Neumann in year three on exhibition design. Kit toured the museum with director Marvin Albrecht and helped them establish a list of goals aimed at improving their temporary exhibitions. Marvin set out to improve lighting in the galleries by changing the existing lights from fluorescent to incandescent. In keeping with the theme of their HELP exhibition Grand Ole Opry, Marvin wanted to create a “stage” area within the exhibition where local musicians could perform. Also on the list of improvements was to refurbish old display units on which to display the photographs.

Accomplishments:

The museum tried a new “modular” style of exhibition design that they’d never worked with before. They displayed the photographs on panels that were arranged around the focal point of the stage. Marvin created vignettes designed to evoke the feeling of a living room of the 1950’s where Opry fans would gather around the radio. His intent was to attract a new audience, an older group of people who are more familiar with the Grand Ole Opry.

Improvements:

• Converted fluorescent gallery lighting in the main gallery to incandescent
  
  
• Built a “sound stage” in the exhibition gallery and invited local musicians to perform on stage during public programs
  
  
• Redesigned and painted temporary wall for the exhibition display
  
  
• Met with local cultural and tourism groups to coordinate the scheduling of future temporary exhibitions with other complementary events in the community

Goals for Year 4: El Caballo: The Horse in Mexican Folk Art
In the final year of Texas HELP, the Wharton County Museum will work with consultant Scott Cooksey on fundraising and development. Their fundraising efforts will be focused on raising money to support educational activities and basic operating support. They’ve made a list of goals and intend to begin an annual dinner or other food-tasting event in order to raise funds for operational needs, and to initiate an education program geared towards grades 4-7. They also plan to raise funds for additional museum landscaping and signage and they’re looking into having an historic local church donated and installed on the museum grounds.

Goals:

In their final year of Texas HELP training, the Wharton County Historical Museum worked with Consultant Scott Cooksey on fundraising and development. They set a reasonable list of goals principally aimed at raising general operating funds. Director Marvin Albrecht set forth plans to contact the City Manager and request additional hotel/motel tax funding. Another of his fundraising ideas was to contact local funeral homes about memorial gifts to the museum. Scott Cooksey urged the museum to take advantage of an annual funder to the museum, Dan Rather, and ask him for a $100,000 endowment to maintain his boyhood home, which is located on the museum grounds.

Improvements:

This year the museum expanded its collection by accepting an historic doll collection accompanied by a $25,000 grant to create a doll exhibition. Marvin is currently working with the city manager on securing hotel/motel tax funding.

Accomplishments

• Raised $25,000 through the "Gourmet Guys" fundraiser

• Received $6,000 gift from Dan Rather toward preservation of his boyhood home

• Created an Ethnic Family Heritage program with emphasis on reaching ethnic groups that do not participate in museum functions, especially membership

• Working with city manager to get a portion of the
  hotel/motel tax

• Accepted a large historical Doll Collection that comes with a $25,000+ grant to help create the exhibit

• Creating a new brochure to entice out of town people to come to the museum and hopefully join the membership