Kansas museums look for ways to bring in visitors

As the Kansas Aviation Museum prepares to find its third director in less than a year, much of what the museum’s board of directors will be looking for is that person’s ability to raise money.

“We have not yet outlined what we are looking for, but a big part of that is fundraising for the museum,” said Richard Moore, president of the museum’s board of directors and its interim director. “The board of directors is also a major component, and KAM is going to be concentrating on finding professional grant writers. We haven’t been really aggressive searching for grant as we should be.”

Funding for museums from local, state and federal sources continues to shrink while the competition for those dwindling funds continues to grow. As a result, the more than 300 museums in Kansas are looking for more creative ways to help fund their budgets.

“The top two issues are lack of a steady and adequate budget, and the aging of the volunteers,” Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, said in an e-mail to The Eagle when asked about the biggest challenges museums face.

Without enough volunteers, many museums in small towns are open only by appointment. And that means they become less of a tourism destination and revenue source.

Part of the problem in finding reliable funding is that local donors – those with the deep pockets – have disappeared through the decades.

“The challenge that every arts organization is faced with is looking at their audience and mission and making sure that they try to change their model to be more relevant with the current market today,” said John D’Angelo, director of Wichita’s Arts and Culture Department.

Financial skills

Bob Workman, director of the Wichita State University Ulrich Museum of Art, said it is up to museum directors to have a broad base of skills. Whereas in the past they were often historians, they now must also possess leadership, business and financial skills.

Ideally, a substantial portion of a museum’s funding comes from a predictable endowment, Workman said, and at least 50 percent in earned income through fundraisers, admission fees and sales.

“Each museum is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all within the industry,” said Workman, who served as founding director of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., and the Flint Hills Discovery Center. “We are so fortunate that so many institutions do receive some level of municipal support.”

“There has been a paradigm shift in that when a lot of museums were founded, their job was to preserve and collect objects and tell the story of their community,” said Lisa Dodson, executive director of the Kansas Museums Association. “As funding has declined from all government levels, the directors or management has had to be more creative in more earned revenue streams – such as creating a museum store, rental space and activities that grow donors.”

Museums are no longer a guaranteed experience for each generation.

“I grew up as a baby boomer where we all went to museums when we were schoolchildren and developed an affinity for history, art or culture that we carried with us,” Dodson said. “We supported museums because we thought that was the right thing to do.

“Younger generations want to know what your impact is, what kind of public service do we provide. Museums can no longer just be places to go look at artifacts but be able to have educational programs and meet special needs.

“The museums are working closely with schools that no longer have travel budgets and taking programming to the schools. Museums have to be proactive now.”

Aviation museum

The Kansas Aviation Museum is housed in the former terminal for Wichita Municipal Airport, constructed during the 1930s and 1940s. The building, at 3350 George Washington Blvd., is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the past decade, there have been a number of changes, including restoring the building’s exterior, acquiring land from Spirit AeroSystems, relocating the museum’s restoration shop, retiring a $250,000 debt and growing the museum’s staff from 1.5 positions to 10. In addition, the museum now has a special archives center and education activity center.

Recently, the museum completed a $1.3 million renovation project that created handicapped-compliant restrooms, added heating and air conditioning throughout the building and installed an elevator to make all parts of the museum accessible.

It has become a go-to place for Wichitans to have weddings, meetings and special events, Moore said.

But it has been a huge effort to bring the 70,000 square feet of museum space and 30 acres up to this point. Taking it into the future is the challenge for the next director. Funding will be key.

“This is a challenge that is not unique to Kansas,” D’Angelo said. “Funding will always be a challenge – that and making sure the product is changing and presented in new and innovative ways.

“In relationship to the Kansas Aviation Museum, I think they are going through that transition. An aviation museum in Wichita seems like a natural fit. There is the thinking that aviation companies will pay for that. And aviation companies say in turn they are not in the museum business, and they are absolutely right.

“Really, this is about community and protecting our heritage and the things that are important. Aviation is one of those and it is up to the community to rise to the challenge.”

Combining resources

As funding shrinks, some museums are consolidating resources and collections.

Struggles for freedom – by American Indians, black Americans and women – have dominated Kansas history. Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area encompasses nearly 30 counties in eastern Kansas and a dozen more in Missouri. The region has joined forces to market and promote the museums.

Rather than constructing a building, organizers have increased signs at historic sites featured in the area. Visitors can learn about James Lane, a Kansas senator who helped set up the Underground Railroad leading slaves to freedom. And about the 1856 Battle of Black Jack, near Lawrence, which many historians believe was the first battle of the Civil War.

Beyond Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War, the heritage area can also tell stories of the Mexican War and the Mormon War – and even Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case that helped end segregation in schools.

The area highlights the wagon wheel ruts from the Santa Fe and Oregon trails; the story of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, the first group of black soldiers to go into the U.S. Army and the first to fight; and the story of Clarina Nichols, one of the nation’s first suffragettes.

Staying relevant

Funding also helps museums stay relevant by allowing them to improve their technology and hold events to attract new audiences.

Museum technology used to mean having recordings for rent that visitors could carry with them as they explored exhibits. That went out with shoulder pads and poofy hair.

“People want their messages delivered on smartphones and so it is important to keep up with the technology,” said Dodson, the state museum official. “They are no longer interested in just looking at collections.

“There has to be a story that has personal meaning for the visitors. And smaller museums that are volunteer-run or don’t have access to those kind of resources are finding it harder to attract audiences.”

Traditionally run museums, such as Old Cowtown Museum, are appealing to younger generations by hosting events such as Steampunk Day, where visitors dress one part Western and three parts science fiction. Steampunk is a growing movement that combines science fiction and romantic literature with classic costumes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“Some museums won’t continue to exist in the same form; we’ll see consolidations and museums re-inventing themselves,” Dodson said. “Some small history museums will be kept alive by their genealogy programs. They hold all the records, and they are a current trend.”

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 9:22 PM with the headline "Kansas museums look for ways to bring in visitors."