Wichitans offer ideas for a more fun, interactive Old Cowtown in survey

Wichitans want to keep Old Cowtown Museum, but they want it to be more fun and exciting.

Board members at Old Cowtown learned Monday night the preliminary results from a survey taken a month ago by Bothner and Bradley, a Wichita communication and consulting firm.

More than 1,800 people participated in the survey. That number included people on social media sites such as Facebook; people who frequently visit area museums and attractions; focus groups; current and past City Council members; and donors.

The idea behind the survey is to help create a strategic plan for Cowtown over the next five to 10 years, said John D’Angelo, director of Wichita’s Arts and Culture Department. The plan is required for the museum’s accreditation.

The museum’s board and staff are to meet within the next two weeks to decide what direction they want Cowtown to take.

The current mission of Cowtown: “To immerse visitors in experiences that represent life in Wichita from 1865 to 1880 in order to preserve and promote our community’s history.”

“The consistency in which we drew people was to talk about Cowtown as vibrant, interactive, active, fun, functional, engaging, valued by the community and a cultural asset,” said Tami Bradley, managing partner with Bothner and Bradley.

“People love Cowtown. Having a vision statement we suggest (might be) ‘a lively gathering place to experience Wichita’s historic place.’ ”

The survey results suggest Cowtown should be more interactive in telling Wichita’s history, Bradley said. Some suggested Cowtown should be an educational place that could host events that would be historic while providing information such as how to make a quilt or how to can, or that it should host antique shows.

And people who were surveyed suggested having paid staff members who would present living history programs rather than relying so heavily on volunteers.

“It would bring what was valued in that time period to an experience,” Bradley said.

Other survey participants suggested Cowtown needs to be more diverse and tell not only the stories of white Euro-American settlers and cowboys but African Americans and Latinos, for example.

Cowtown, 1865 Museum Blvd., was started in 1950 when the first church built in Wichita, the First Presbyterian Church, was threatened with demolition. Cowtown is considered the oldest living-history museum in the Midwest and is listed as an accredited museum by the American Alliance of Museums; only 4 percent of the nation’s estimated 17,500 museums are accredited.

The museum, which is owned and operated by the city, has struggled with attendance and finances over the last several years.

“It gives us some very good ideas,” longtime board member Bob Garrett said the survey. “I am pleased to hear there is excitement out in Wichita about the museum.

“We’ve been here a long time and had some rough roads to drive through, but I think we might maybe past that.”

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Wichitans offer ideas for a more fun, interactive Old Cowtown in survey."