Federal Cuts to Arts and Heritage Programs in Obama budget

This message about the cuts to funding in the Federal arts and heritage programs is the most comprehensive I have seen come via email in the last two days.  This information comes from the American Association of Museums, and includes information about the elimination of grant programs Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America that many historic sites across the county have used. 

More information from the National Trust for Historic Preservation is below and details the budget reduction of 50% for the National Heritage Areas program.

 Please take a few minutes to review this with your board. There will be more specific information coming about how you can help.

Thank you

 From the American Association of Museums

President Obama Releases FY11 Budget with Focus on Deficit Reduction
February 2, 2010 – Yesterday morning President Obama released the spending details of his $3.83 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2011 (FY11). The proposal calls for nearly $23 billion in cuts and terminations of or reductions to 126 programs.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) Office of Museum Services (OMS) – which supports our nation’s 17,500+ museums through a variety of competitive grant programs – is level funded at $35 million. Unfortunately not all programs that support museums were spared from funding cuts or termination in this year where the president’s focus was to achieve a freeze on non-security related discretionary spending. The president’s budget proposal is the opening move in the annual appropriations process. It remains to be seen how Congress will react to the proposed cuts and changes and what funding will ultimately comprise the final FY11 federal spending bills.

“While we are relieved that IMLS funding remained level given the current economic climate, we continue to be disappointed that museums are not more valued in the federal budget,” said AAM President Ford W. Bell. “Museums are essential elements in our educational infrastructure, and in recent months museums all across the country have stepped up to provide social and public services that local governments are no longer able to provide. The impetus is now on us as a field to better communicate the value we bring to communities everywhere to federal lawmakers. AAM is providing the key opportunity to do just that with Museums Advocacy Day 2010. I hope to see a representative of every museum in Washington, DC in March.”

Learn more and register for Museums Advocacy Day 2010!

Budget Highlights:

IMLS’ Office of Museum Services: $35 million (level funding to FY10 and FY09 enacted funding for national programs).

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): $161,315,000 (a decrease of $6,185,000 from FY10 enacted funding).

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): $161,315,000 (a decrease of $6,185,000 from FY10 enacted funding).

Arts in Education Programs at the Department of Education: An exact amount for Arts in Education grant funds is unclear at this time as the FY11 budget request consolidates 38 K-12 programs, including Arts in Education and Teaching American History grant programs, into several new programs under the category of “Effective Teaching and Learning for Well-Rounded Education,” with proposed funding of $265 million for programs in that category overall. As proposed by the president, new programs also include a $500 million Investing in Innovation Fund that can provide grants to partnerships between schools and nonprofit organizations for improving educational outcomes for students. Arts in Education Grants were funded at $40 million in FY10.

National Science Foundation educational programs: $892,000,000 (an increase of $19 million over FY10 enacted funding). The proposed budget also includes funding for the Informal Science Education Program of $64.4 million ($1.6 million less than FY10). These funds support formal and informal learning experiences designed to increase interest and engagement in the understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund: $54.5 million (a $25 million decrease from FY10 funding), including zero funding for Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America grant programs, a combined $30 million cut in funding.

National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs and Commission on Fine Arts: $4.5 million (a $5 million cut compared to FY10 enacted funding) and $5 million (also a $5 million cut compared to FY10 enacted funding).

Indian Arts and Craft Board at the Department of the Interior: $1 million (no change from FY10 enacted funding).

Learn more about AAM’s advocacy for museums at www.speakupformuseums.org. 

From the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Forum  Listserve                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Important Message from Emily Wadhams, Vice President for Public Policy

February 1, 2010

PRESIDENT’S BUDGET REQUEST WOULD ELIMINATE OR REDUCE FUNDING FOR IMPORTANT HISTORIC PRESERVATION PROGRAMS In a shock to the historic preservation community, President Obama’s 2011 Budget Request – released this morning – slashed funding for several key components of the national preservation program.  It proposes to completely eliminate funding for Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America grant programs.  Perhaps what is most alarming is a White House blog that singles out these two programs as examples of programs that “weren’t working well”[1].  Proposed funding for National Heritage Areas is reduced as well.  We need your help to reinstate these cuts and make the case for the importance of these programs.

Details of program cuts in the proposed budget include:

•     Zeroed-out funding of Save America’s Treasures (SAT) program within the Historic Preservation Fund. 

•     Reduced the National Recreation and Preservation account by $17 million which includes the elimination of the Preserve America grants and a proposed a 50% cut to National Heritage Areas.

We are especially concerned about reductions to Save America’s Treasures.   It has enjoyed broad, bi-partisan Congressional support, and has played a vital role in successfully saving over 700 of America’s most significant places in all 50 states, from Ellis Island to Mesa Verde National Park to Valley Forge to Thomas Edison’s Invention Factory. In a statement early today, Richard Moe responded to the proposed cuts, “Over the last decade the Save America’s Treasures program has helped preserve some of our most significant historic places through modest grants that leverage private dollars, create jobs and strengthen communities.  What’s not to like about this program? It’s incredibly short-sighted that the administration proposes eliminating it at a time when it’s needed more than ever.” 

 The National Trust for Historic Preservation is very concerned these important programs, that preservationists have fought hard to create and fund, have taken such a big hit.  We will be calling on all of you over the next few weeks to send the message to Congress that these programs are both effective and essential to federal preservation efforts.  Please stay tuned to see how you can help in these efforts.  

We will be providing more information about additional historic preservation elements of the President’s Budget shortly.

 Please begin to call your Congresspersons about this matter. As I hear more I will post.

Thanks

16 reuse options for Historic Sites presentation is Posted

If you are interested in reading the presentation I made at the recent African-American Historic Sites Sustainability Worship organized by the National Trust Northeast Regional office,  please find it here. The workshop was held in Providence on January 26, 2010.

Donna Ann Harris Afro-American presentation

This presentation is organzied differently than any I have done before. I divided the case studies into two categories–non house museum uses and house museum uses. There are 8 of each. I use some cases from my book, but the greatest are ones I have learned about in the intervening three years since the publication of New Solutions for House Museums.  The information here adds to the conversation about other options for historic sites. 

If you think any of these ideas are interesting, or might apply to your situation, please contact me to talk more about them. Thanks.

Another item:  if you are planning to attend the Museum Association of New York conference called Museums in Conversation, do not miss the following session, with two old friends Anne Ackerson and Kenneth Shefsiek, who will be talking about benefits and pitfalls of accessioning the historic building as part of a museum collection. See below for more information from the www.MANYonline.org web site.
Have you ever asked yourself “I know accession numbers aren’t considered historic surface treatments, but is it OK to paint one on a museum building?“  Then join Kenneth Shefsiek, Geneva Historical Society, Anne Ackerson, Museum Association of New York, David Palmquist, NYS Charting Program, and Peter Arnold, Genesee Country Village for a lively discussion in which we will ask the question whether, when and how a structure can or should be considered a collections item. The resulting potential impact of accessioning of structures on the stewardship of our cultural patrimony will also be explored.  Don’t miss your chance to talk about why objects inspire you at the 2010 Museums in Conversation Conference in April 11-13, 2010 in Albany!

Interns to help expand business opportunities at National Trust sites

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is advertizing for three summer interns to do some groundbreaking research.

Two MBA students will work with the Trust’s collection of historic sites to expand earned income opportunities. The other will work with the Trust’s for profit travel subsidiary. 

These internships, especially the two to work with the historic sites, are a smart and somewhat daring move. The Trust is to be congratulated for being aggressive in trying to make their historic sites financially sustainable, even if it means looking at different earned income models.

Those of you that read this blog on a regular basis, know that I have advocated for new uses or users for historic sites as a last-ditch effort to keep some of the house museums that are no longer sustainable.  What is most interesting  about these internships is that their work is being undertaken under the umbrella of the Trustees and not the staff.  Hopefully the interjection of business skills, if even from interns, to show and expand earned income options at Trust owned sites, may shake up the house museum community nationwide.  The National Trust must lead the way to reinvent some of its historic sites because no one else can convince the rank and file historic sites across the nation, of the urgent need to consider other options.  Even incremental change would be useful.  I hope these studies are published as soon as possible.

The two internships are found on the NTHP web site www.preservationnation.org.

The first internship I find most interesting. It seeks an MBA student interested in social entrepreneurship to help expand hospitality,  museum shop and e-commerce opportunities for the 29 historic sites the NTHP owns nationwide. The link is here. http://www.preservationnation.org/resources/career-opportunities/internship-information/internships/mba-summer-internship-businesso-opportunities.html

The second internship is for a business student interested in expanding the hospitality business  at one site. This intern will work with the Trustee Task Force at Woodlawn Plantation in suburban Washington DC which is being reviewed for possible conversion into an upscale meeting and conference facility. See this internship here.  http://www.preservationnation.org/resources/career-opportunities/internship-information/internships/mba-summer-internship-hospitality-entrepreneurship.html

Richard Moe already noted the initiative of the Trustee Task Force in his  October 2009   letter in Preservation Magazine which I blogged about on October 29, 2009 about New Tactics for Historic Sites. Scroll down to see it.

Finally there is a third MBA student needed to work with the for profit subsidiary of the Trust to create a business model from recent tourism studies, for Heritage Travel Inc. to create premium level memberships for the web site.

Finding New Life for Old Sites

In the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Sites blog today, Max van Balgooy, director of interpretation and education at the Trust mentioned that the Trust staff continues to get questions from stewards of historic houses about how to transition or expand uses of historic house museums.

Max discusses three resources that might be useful to those seeking advice, and I am grateful that he mentions New Solutions for House Museums as being valuable to the discussion. Check out what he has to say here http://historicsites.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/finding-new-life-for-old-sites/ 

This week, for another National Trust office (the Northeast Regional office), I am speaking at their African-American Historic Sites Sustainability workshop in Providence RI.  My talk centers around the notion that a historic house museum use may not always be the best use for some historic sites. 

Brent Leggs, a field representative in the Northeast office, suggested that I reframe my research and case studies to discuss the many options available to protect interpret and commemorate historic sites.  Many of the people championing African-American historic sites who will be attending this workshop, may not have reached a conclusion yet about the final ownership, management or use of the historic property they wish to preserve.  And that is good. What I hope to do is give folks more options, than the seeming “default” house museum option, to seriously consider.

Since my book was published in 2007, more sites have closed or come under threat, especially state-owned historic sites (see my recent blog post Game Changer below.)  If we can give these new historic site stewards a different path, with more choices, and more partnerships, then perhaps these new sites might have a viable future.

Event Life Cycles: The Power of Analysis presentation

In May, I will be presenting a session at the National Trust Main Street Center’s annual conference in Oklahoma City called Event Life Cycles: The Power of Analysis. 

Special events and fundraising events support revitalization organizations and give reasons for people to visit the downtown. The genesis of the workshop comes from working with local downtown organizations that spend years developing fundraising and special events without understanding that these events have predictable life cycles. We will discuss how events change over time, as the organization learns to organize them to maximize revenue. As organizations become increasingly dependent on these events for income, we need to predict (to the extent we are able) their income potential through simple analysis. We will explore how to analyse  events to help you judge whether to invest in an event or start a new one  instead.

This session will teach you about traditional product life cycles and the Boston Consulting Group’s Matrix and how to use it to understand Main Street events. Attendees will get handouts containing charts and assessment tools that they can use tomorrow to assess how their events are doing and actions to take if the event is starting to slip in its revenue projections. We will do two short exercises during the session that you can complete when you get home.

Contact us if you would like to know more about this workshop.

More bad news for the Nonprofit Sector

I read an insightful blog post last week by Laura Otten, the Executive Director of the La Salle Non Profit Center called “What’s a Nonprofit to do?” see it here at http://www.nonprofituniversityblog.org. 

The La Salle NonProfit Center surveyed nonprofits in the Philadelphia area about how they are coping with the recession. Most have already taken some steps to staunch the flow of money out of their organizations by layoffs or cutting non-essential programs/services. But it is expected to get worse, before it gets better. 

Bill Fontana, who runs the Pennsylvania Downtown Center (of which I am a professional member), notes in his quarterly newsletter (Centerpiece Nov/Dec 2009) that I got last week, that  at “ A meeting of statewide foundations earlier this year predicted that as many as 30% to 40% of nonprofits in Pennsylvania may fail before the funding crisis.” Yikes! 

I have worried about historic house museums, and their fundamental survival for about three years now, and wrote a book about it (New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long Term Preservation of America’s Historic Houses, AltaMira Press 2007). 

In the intervening time, I have seen few historic sites that are ready to discuss what might be viewed as unpleasant choices–closure, mergers, partnerships, co-stewardship arrangements, or sale to a private owner with easements (all detailed in my book with case studies of historic sites that have made successful transitions). 

Advisors, by that I mean consultants and nonprofit service providers, should be able to give sensible alternatives for the scores of nonprofits (house museums or others) that are now or will be, hanging on by their fingertips this year. 

But these organizations need help to have very difficult conversations with Board members before they are so financially strapped that their alternatives vanish in front of them. That probably means right now. 

I liken it to helping deal with the death of a friend, which for some volunteers and board members, it is.  Many are so emotionally invested in their organizations that any change may be viewed this way. Bad news about the financial prognosis of nonprofits might be easy to parse from financial statements. The harder conversation is dealing with the emotional reaction to change, especially when any change is viewed as a failure when the organization must go out of business. 

Giving people alternatives is critical. But giving them hope that the organization’s mission can survive, even in a new organization or place, is a far better result. 

Please share your thoughts about helping nonprofits deal with change.

New workshop:Powerful Public Partnerships: Connecting Main Street to Elected Officials

 

Stephanie Redman, of ReSurge Inc., and I will be presenting a new workshop at the upcoming National Trust Main Street Center conference in Oklahoma City in May, 2010. This workshop is part of our joint effort Advanced Organization Academy (see more at www.advancedorganizationacademy.blogspot.com).

Powerful Public Partnerships:  Connecting Main Street to Elected Officials

Even as most state government budgets are hurting and federal coffers offer little programmatic support for downtown revitalization, we must continue to cultivate and advocate to our elected officials at the state, county and federal levels.  If you are new to advocacy or an old hand, we will share some success stories illustrating how and why long-term relationships with elected officials are necessary, beneficial and potentially lucrative for support of Main Street projects, state legislation and state program budgets.

We will be sharing our experiences working with both local, county and state governments begin and enhance these critical relationships over time.  A local Main Street manager (yet to be named) will be joining us on the panel. 

Both of us have had our own experiences with statewide officials. Mine were chronicled in two  Main Street News articles in January 2004 “A Valiant Effort” and “Lessons Learned from Illinois Main Street.”  Stephanie Redman, then of the National Trust Main Street Center, was in the trenches with us for that fight, and for that I am ever grateful. If you would like a copy of these articles please contact me directly.  Better yet, come see us in Oklahoma City at the National Trust Main Street Center Conference in May, 2010.

To learn more about Advanced Organization Academy, contact me directly or visit our blog noted above.

 

The Business of Preservation African American Historic Site Sustainability Workshop

The Northeast Regional office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation is hosting an invitation-only two day workshop on January 21-23, 2010 at the John Nicholas Brown Center at Brown University in Providence RI for African-American Historic Sites in the region, and I have been invited to  present a two hour workshop about Long Term Sustainability Models: Alternatives to Historic House Museums.

I will be using my book (New Solutions for House Museums) as a jumping off point to discuss how the eight solutions I identified can be used proactively as options for historic sites at the front end of their preservation journey.  It will be an exciting opportunity to discuss options beyond traditional house museums with many new organizations who are just beginning to think about how to save and maintain their important sites throughout New England the Mid Atlantic States.  Brent Leggs, who works at the Northeast Regional Office at the National Trust is organizing this conference.  To learn more contact brent_leggs@nthp.org.

More commentary about closing of state owned historic sites in Pennsylvania

Here is some interesting commentary from Kevin Wright about the controversial move by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to close all of its historic sites for the winter and the lay off of 85 staff members. I have already blogged about this matter in another post “Game Changer.”  But Kevin’s analysis about why historic site closings are penny wise and pound foolish is very trenchant.

See the posting below from History L New Jersey.

> From: Kevin Wright <wright@cybernex.net>

> Date: December 11, 2009 12:35:30 PM EST

> To: Howard Green <hlgreen@optonline.net>

> Subject: Re: Your H-NJ Post

> 

> A friend informs me the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has decided “to

> get out of the ‘history’ business.” As of November 20, 2009,

> eighty-five workers, representing one-third of the Pennsylvania

> Historical and Museum Commission’s staff, were laid off and numerous

> Historic Sites across Pennsylvania, including Washington Crossing

> Historic Park in Bucks County, were shut down. According to the report

> of Charles Thompson and Jan Murphy in The Patriot- News, “Some

> historical sites will close for the winter or have responsibility for

> their operations shifted to outside groups.”

> (http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/11/

> cuts_at_pennsylvania_historica.html) Governor Ed Rendell suggests,

> “volunteers and local groups should be prepared to absorb the

> responsibility of running the sites for several years, given the

> economy’s slow growth rate.”

> 

> Why are Historic Sites so often the first publicly owned resources to

> be threatened with abandonment? One reason is that they touch a deep

> chord and rouse public support, protecting the parent agency from

> cuts. Otherwise, they are an easy category of expenditure to eliminate

> on specious grounds: The attendance at long neglected Historic Sites,

> often lacking such basic amenities as adequate parking, restrooms,

> marketing and staff, are compared with popular beaches and large venue

> parks and found wanting, supposedly justifying their removal from the

> public inventory. What will the result be? A generation of school

> children and new Americans denied the educational opportunity to

> discover their history and to connect with core American values.

> 

> Reportedly, the December 25th program at Washington Crossing Historic

> Park will still take place (as well as the rehearsal crossing), not

> only to keep the event going, but also to allegedly keep the public

> from protesting before widespread media coverage.

> The New Jersey Friends of Washington Crossing Park are planning to

> protest on the New Jersey side during both the rehearsal crossing on

> Sunday, December 13th from 12 noon to 2 PM and on Christmas Day,

> Friday, December 25th, from 12 noon to 2 PM. They need people to show

> up during the actual reenactment of the famous crossing at 1 PM, so

> please support their efforts.  While some protest signs will be

> available, you are encouraged to bring your own.

> 

> We understand severe budget cuts must be made to restore health to our

> public finances, but what little is spent on state owned and operated

> Historic Sites can hardly be categorized with the wasteful spending

> that brings us to this great crisis. The lessons of History, made

> meaningful through the experience of storied places and objects,

> should be considered fundamental to a thorough and efficient education

> for every American.

> 

Best regards,

Kevin Wright

What is your take on all of this? Are the moves being made by PHMC in your view penny wise and pound foolish?

Shop Main Street video on YouTube

Our friends from Michigan Main Street have done a fabulous job in creating a 2.5 minute video about the reasons to shop downtown.  It is inspiring. 

They have also been generous enough to have their creative team do a national version that we all can use in promoting our downtowns and commercial corridors.  Check out the short and long versions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqIn3g88rAU

This is the short 60 second version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HyjLOHh5Qk

Thanks to Joe Borgstom for doing this for the Main Street movement!