MAAA | Programs | Prof. Development | Texas | HELP

Founded in 1976, the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum is an art and history museum dedicated to preserving the county’s history, acting as a public custodian of the cultural heritage of the county, and inspiring area residents by offering an exciting array of educational and cultural opportunities.

Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4

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Year 1:
Rags to Riches: Handcrafted Rugs

Goals:
The Wolf Creek Heritage Museum concentrated on exhibition design and development and established several goals specific to this training focus. They hoped to increase visitor awareness about rug making techniques, display rugs throughout the museum, and improve community awareness of the exhibition and the museum, thereby increasing museum visitation.

Accomplishments:
Hosting its very first traveling exhibition, the museum was able to meet all of its goals with great success. The museum has only a small room dedicated to temporary exhibitions, so the staff merged rugs with their permanent exhibitions. Displaying rugs on a quilt rack and vertical boards in an open area inside the front door provided a three-dimensional component and striking introduction to the exhibition. This “total design integration” approach was new for them; they also used hands-on examples of rugs on the floor.

They successfully used the Treasure Hunt provided in the Programming Guide to coax visitors to view the entire museum, and this gallery game will be a continuing legacy of the experience. The videotapes traveling with the exhibition were available for viewing, adding an audiovisual component to the exhibition. The museum also provided copies of the bibliography from the Programming Guide to county libraries, one of which purchased several books and did a cooperative display of books and rug photographs.

The museum responded to queries about the exhibition by mailing copies of the bibliography and patterns for rug making obtained from the literature provided with the exhibition. This smart public relations move encouraged visitation to the exhibition and expanded the exhibition’s educational reach outside the museum.

Improvements:

• Gained first-time experience handling art and artifacts

• Established first-time partnerships with county libraries

• Learned to integrate objects throughout the museum, incorporating design lessons in texture, color, and shape

• Developed museum games to coax visitors to pay closer attention to the exhibitions

• Mixed two- and three-dimensional exhibition techniques with interactive activities and audiovisual components

• Increased visitation from neighboring communities

• Expanded marketing efforts with local NPR station and print media

Goals for Year 2: This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s
The Wolf Creek Heritage Museum’s goals are focused on marketing and public relations for Year Two. These goals include: producing an electronic database; creating a visitor feedback system; and developing a marketing strategy comprised of a Web site and increased listings in state and area publications.

Goals:
Focusing on a training area of PR and marketing in year two of HELP, the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum set up a very structured list of goals for themselves and set out enthusiastically to achieve them. They planned on developing an effective new marketing strategy that would increase their profile within the community, and they wanted to develop a feedback system to get information from museum visitors on the success of exhibits and what they would like to see in the future. They also wanted to expand their database’s capacity for entering visitor information by importing it into Past Perfect.

Accomplishments:
The Wolf Creek Heritage Museum staff is very motivated and had no difficulty meeting its goals. Marketing consultant Seth Davidson helped them to install Past Perfect on the museum computer and worked with them on importing their Excel database into the new program. They were successful in creating a new visitor survey and collecting visitor information, which resulted in plans for a new windmill exhibit, of special interest they found to local residents. They began distributing museum brochures to major tourism offices in the area and added highway signs advertising the museum and its clean restrooms. The also have targeted media outlets not previously approached,such as the local NPR affiliate and the Amarillo newspaper.

Improvements:

• Published historical local newspapers in book format through a grant from Xcel Energy

• Created a museum Web site and began regular updates to the e-mail list

• Replaced carpet throughout the museum

• Advertised in the Texas Travel Guide for the first time

• Received IMLS grant for a CAP assessment

• Participated in the Panhandle Regional Tourism Marketing Council, placing their rack card in tourist destinations all over the area

Goals for Year 3:
In the next year of Texas HELP, the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum will focus on fundraising as their area of training. They’ll be working with consultant Scott Cooksey to develop and implement a fundraising plan. The plan will include long, and short-term goals, identification of funding sources, and a five-year strategic plan. New funding will be used towards improving the museum’s printed materials for solicitation and restoration of a Lipscomb county mural and windmill.

Goals:

In year three of the HELP program, the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum worked with consultant Scott Cooksey on their latest area of training, fundraising and development. The museum wanted to focus their energies on creating long and short-term fundraising goals that would help to identify new funding sources and create a five-year strategic plan. Their goals for the year included creating a brochure to help solicit funds, and to raise money to facilitate the restoration and exhibition of a Lipscomb county mural and windmill.

Accomplishments:

Once again, the museum had little difficulty in achieving all of their goals. They were pleased that the exhibition brought in so many local veterans and were glad to have them share their stories. Items from the museum’s collection were used in the exhibition including photos and diaries of WWII vets. The windmill project was met with great success. The museum applied for a $10,000 restoration grant from the Paine Foundation. When they received only $5,000, local residents contributed the final $2,500 needed to complete the project. The windmill was installed in February on the museum lawn.

Improvements:

• set up DVD player in gallery for visitors to watch accompanying documentaries

• made plans to contact the Amarillo Area Foundation for board training

• created planned giving brochure

• held opening reception with guest speaker Bob Izzard, a local WWII pilot

• applied for and received a $5,000 grant

• restored and installed an historic windmill

Goals for Year 4: Apron Strings: Ties to the Past
To finish out the Texas HELP program, the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum will focus on volunteerism as its last area of training. They’ve determined that this year they will conduct a museum-wide inventory of their volunteer needs. This will result in naming and assigning volunteer job titles, writing at least two volunteer job descriptions, initiating volunteer record keeping, and the institution of a volunteer recognition program. Plans have been made to begin restoration of a 50-foot mural that was recently donated to the museum.

Goals:

In year four of Texas HELP, the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum moved on to their final area of training, volunteerism. They set to work with consultant Norma Seals and created a list of measurable goals that would help them improve their volunteer program. Their number one goal was to conduct an inventory of the museum’s needs, then to identify job titles and job description based on those needs. They made plans to initiate an organized record keeping system and a museum policy for volunteer management. Lastly, they made a goal of hosting a volunteer recognition event during National Volunteer Week in April.

Accomplishments:

The Wolf Creek museum met, and in several cases, exceeded each of their goals. By the time they had their first meeting with Norma, they had already identified 11 areas where they needed volunteers. From that list of needs, they created 9 volunteer job descriptions and began recruiting people to fill them.

They dispersed recruitment brochures and flyers and even added a line to their society membership cards where members could indicate interest in volunteering at the museum. They initiated a record keeping system for volunteers and assigned someone to be responsible for each aspect.

Perhaps their greatest success was the dinner they held in honor of their many volunteers. They purchased thank you gifts for each of them, and entertainment was provided by local musicians. Fifty people attended the dinner, which has been described as "the social event of the season." For their final exhibition, the museum hosted Apron Strings: Ties to the Past, which they enhanced with items from their collection. They also created a supplemental exhibition of antique sewing machines borrowed from a local collector to add a local component to their HELP exhibition.

Improvements:

• Began planning for a regular newsletter

• Created volunteer recruitment brochures and posters

• Inventoried the museum’s volunteer needs

• Wrote volunteer job descriptions

• Instituted a volunteer recognition program

• Held first ever membership drive and raised over $10,000