Mid-America Arts Alliance Awarded $100,000 from Missouri Arts Council

Mid-America Arts Alliance has been awarded $100,000 from the Missouri Arts Council to help provide governance training for the staff and trustees of 20 small, rural Missouri museums through the Hands-On Experiential Learning Project (HELP).

MAC support will be matched with $100,000 received earlier this year from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  

“Small, rural museums constitute three-in-five of all Missouri museums, yet they typically have the poorest access to professional resources and training opportunities,” says Mary Kennedy McCabe, executive director of Mid-America Arts Alliance. “They know that serving their community in the best way possible means developing their leadership skills and organizational capacity.”

Mid-America’s HELP program is designed to offer training that will be implemented through cooperative workshops, on-site assistance from field experts, goal-setting and peer review, attendance at museum conferences, and online tutorials during a 12-month period. The Missouri Arts Council will work with HELP project staff in determining the 20 rural Missouri communities selected to participate in HELP.

“Mid-America’s record for return on program investment is excellent and the HELP program itself is solid,” says Michael T. Vangel, Missouri Arts Council board chair. “This is a great way for organizations to know their standing in regard to the museum field’s ‘best governance’ practices.”

 “Mid-America’s HELP training invests in the long-term sustainability of Missouri museums,” says Joan Israelite, president of the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City and a MAC board member. “We believe this program assists MAC in reaching our goal of increasing the usage of MAC programs in rural communities.”

To be eligible for the project that will begin in July 2008, interested Missouri museums will complete an application process. HELP will track institutional change and improvements, with the results distributed nationally through publications and conference presentations.

Mid-America Arts Alliance, the nation’s oldest regional arts organization, was founded in 1972 to encourage access to cultural opportunities in midwestern communities. Today Mid-America primarily serves communities throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Mid-America also serves audiences nationally through its visual arts and humanities programs, and touring exhibitions. Mid-America programs attract more than one million people annually in more than 300 communities.

Missouri Arts Council is a state agency that provides grants to nonprofit organizations to encourage and stimulate the growth, development, and appreciation of the arts in Missouri.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 15,000 museums.

For more information, please contact Michael L. Johnson at (816) 421-1388, ext. 229.