KOTO Radio: Straight Talk: The Telluride Museum

Description

A KOTO Radio show, called Straight Talk, in which Terry Tice interviews museum board members: Barbara Loken and Sharon Clark. The date of this recording is March 3, 1988. The museum collection includes mining artifacts, letters, photographs, clothing, medical/dental artifacts and more. The building was built around 1890. It was a hospital until the 1960's. Lots of residents were born in the museum. How does the administration of the museum work? The board meets once a month. There are members that have paid to be members and volunteers to help staff the museum. Current board members include: Pat Schuler, Andy and Rudy Davison, Debbie Thart, and Sallie Stern. It is a non-profit corporation. Arlene Reid ran the museum up until 2 years ago, for free. The board had to pay a curator so that is why the museum became a non-profit organization. The goals of the board are to keep the museum open and to be fiscally responsible to the community/tax payers. The museum is very popular with researchers, writers, and historians that visit Telluride. These researchers are interested in Telluride's history and in genealogy research. The museum acquires their collection through donations. They then catalog these items and find ways to arrange them. Arlene and Homer Reid started the museum with lots of their own personal artifacts. The museum continued to grow from resident donations. Currently, there has been no funding from the county for the past 2 years. So, the museum has raised funds by recruiting paying members to join the San Miguel Historical Society. The building is currently owned by the American Legion and the museum rents the building for $1 a year. While this is very generous of the Legion, renting the building makes it difficult for the museum to get grants (because they cannot prove that the organization is stable). Does the museum have plans to stay open for the winter? Unfortunately, no. While a grant was obtained to install a new furnace so that the museum could stay open year round, the building is not winterized. So, despite the new furnace, the museum was paying too much in heating bills to afford to stay open this winter. However, another grant was obtained to winterize, so hopefully the museum will be able to stay open next winter. The financial problems of the museum are discussed next. The board decided to do (this?) radio show to reach out to the public for financial assistance. Basic equipment to operate the museum is requested, such as a typewriter. Also, the collections need to be preserved. The fluorescent lights need to be replaced (as they are bad for artifacts). Barbara Cox was the curator/manager, but unfortunately, she left her position. Probably because her pay was little considering she was working two positions. The operating budget for the museum is currently $32, 000. Ideally, Barbara and Sharon would love around $75,000-100,000 a year to be able to operate the museum well. To increase funds, a membership drive is suggested. Also, obtaining a mill levy is mentioned. But, the mill levy is costly to obtain. So, for now, Barbara and Sharon are trying to be more assertive in recruiting members through mailings and in fundraising events. They also would like more county assistance. Finally, Sharon and Barbara offer a plea for volunteers. The museum had about 50,000 visitors last year with only $2 admissions costs per person. Supported in part by an award from the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board, through funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), National Archives Records Administration