Brown Foundation Grants $100,000 to Aid Small Texas Museums

The Brown Foundation has announced a $100,000 grant in support of the “Hands-on Experiential Learning Project” (HELP). HELP is a four-year, $1.4 million statewide initiative to improve professional practices and advance institutional capacity at small Texas museums. The project is administered by Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Texas Association of Museums. The Brown Foundation formerly granted $50,000 in support of the project.

HELP provides on-site customized training, peer networking, cooperative learning through the Internet, and regional workshops for 18 museums clustered in East Texas, the Gulf Coast, and the Panhandle Plains. With a goal of alleviating the root causes of small museum stagnation and decline, HELP is working to strengthen Texas institutions and improve the skills of museum staff.

“Part of HELP’s success hinges on building on the resources that are already available in the state,” explains Brian Crockett, Co-Director of HELP. “The project establishes networks so that museums share resources and build relationships with state service organizations. In reaching out and making these connections, the museums are also creating a more visible profile for themselves.”

Over the course of four years, HELP will have generated seven traveling exhibitions (with accompanying educational, registrarial, and press materials), 72 exhibition installations at 18 museums, 12 orientation/evaluation meetings, and 12 booster-training meetings. In addition, HELP consultants and staff will have conducted 144 on-site consultations focusing on a variety of fields, including exhibition design, marketing, and fundraising. The project is currently entering its third year.

“The Brown Foundation’s generous gift ensures that we will be able to optimally conduct the project as it was originally designed,” said Edana Elder McSweeney, Co-Director of HELP. “It will also enable us to communicate the project’s results throughout Texas and to further develop the program for use as a national training model.”

The Brown Foundation, in Houston, Texas, was established in 1951 by Margarett and Herman Brown and Alice and George R. Brown as a nonprofit charitable foundation. All funds donated to the foundation and income generated from these funds is used for public charitable purposes, principally for support, encouragement, and assistance to the arts and education. From 1951 to 1985, the Brown Foundation awarded grants in excess of $185 million to artistic, educational, medical, and other charitable organizations.

HELP receives additional support from The Meadows Foundation, Houston Endowment, Inc., The Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Mid-America Arts Alliance is a nonprofit organization that supports and stimulates cultural activity primarily in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. M-AAA originates and manages regional, multiregional, national, and international arts and humanities programs. Major support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, participant 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 Sarah McGreer at sarah@maaa.org.

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