Texas Foundations Support Mid-America Arts Alliance in Assisting Small Museums

Texas Foundations Support Mid-America Arts Alliance in Assisting Small Museums

Kansas City, MO --- ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America Arts Alliance’s national museum service division, is launching a multi-year statewide program in Texas to assist small and midsize museums. With funding from the Houston Endowment, Inc., The Meadows Foundation, The Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts, ExhibitsUSA’s Hands-on Experiential Learning Project (HELP) will provide on-site training and assistance for museums in three different regions in Texas over a four-year period.

Mid-America Arts Alliance Executive Director Mary Kennedy McCabe states, “Small and midsize museums in Texas comprise 79% of all museums in the state. Through the combined leadership and generosity of our foundation partners and the Texas Commission on the Arts, the ExhibitsUSA program will be able to recognize the value of this large constituency of Texas museums by providing much-needed professional training so that they can more richly serve their communities and raise their profile throughout the state.”

Working in partnership with the Texas Association of Museums, ExhibitsUSA will implement the multi-year program to improve professional practices and advance the institutional capacity of 18-24 museums in the Panhandle Plains, East Texas, and the Gulf Coast regions of Texas. Beginning with the age-old premise that one learns best by doing, HELP will:

Provide practical, “on-the-job” experiential training to selected museums in specific areas of acute need;

Provide 18-24 participant museums affordable temporary exhibitions that feature strong arts and humanities content, universal appeal, andlocal interest;

Utilize affordable and professional museum training resources that reinforce “best practices” in museumship;

Establish formal and informal museum networks among participating museums so as to facilitate routine resource sharing;

Result in 72-96 special exhibition experiences for museum visitors in Texas communities.

After requests for proposals to participate in HELP were sent to over 200 museums throughout Texas, the following museums were selected for participation the first year: Shelby County Museum (Center); Sanders Corps of Cadets Center (College Station); Historic Upshur Museum (Gilmer); Beaumont Heritage Society (Beaumont); Depot Museum (Henderson); Deaf Smith County Museum (Hereford); XIT Museum (Dalhart); Collingsworth County Museum (Wellington); Hutchinson County Museum (Borger); Wolf Creek Heritage Museum (Lipscomb); Childress County Heritage Museum (Childress); Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum (Cuero); Moody Mansion and Museum (Galveston); Wharton County Historical Museum (Wharton); John E. Conner Museum (Kingsville); West Bay Common School Museum (League City); and Matagorda County Museum (Bay City).

The Houston Endowment was created in 1937 by Mr. and Mrs. Jesse H. Jones to improve the quality of life for people of Houston and Texas. Last year, the Houston Endowment donated nearly $70 million to charitable organizations and educational institutions to benefit Texas programs.

The Meadows Foundation is a private philanthropic institution established in 1958 by Algur H. and Virginia Meadows to benefit the people of Texas. The Foundation’s mission is to assist the people and institutions of Texas improve the quality and circumstances of life for themselves and future generations.

The Amarillo Area Foundation/Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation is a full service community foundation, providing an array of philanthropic services that work to improve, protect, and ensure continued charity throughout the Texas Panhandle in perpetuity.

The Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) is the state agency charged with the development of a receptive climate for the arts in Texas. The Texas Commission on the Arts serves constituents in each of the six artistic disciplines (visual arts, theatre, dance, music, media and literature) as well as local arts agencies. For more than 30 years, the Texas Commission on the Arts has accomplished its mission by providing grants, information, and technical assistance to artists, arts organizations, and the general public.

The Texas Association of Museums (TAM) represents over 260 museums and 600 individuals throughout Texas and across the nation. The largest state museum association in the nation, TAM provides a network among museums, improves the level of professionalism within the museum community, increases the use and enjoyment of museums by the public, and serves as an information clearinghouse about museums.

ExhibitsUSA was founded in 1988 to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. Over the past fourteen years, more than 14 million visitors in 800 communities in all 50 state s and abroad have viewed an ExhibitsUSA exhibition.

Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a non-profit regional arts organization based in Kansas City, Missouri. It is governed by a board of directors drawn from its partner states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Major support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, participating state arts agencies, and leading foundations and corporations. For further information, visit the Mid-America Arts Alliance Web site at www.maaa.org or contact Lisa Cordes at (816) 421-1388.