Apr 29 2009
Before They Close
With May upon us, the possible/probable closures of several sites operated by the Minnesota Historical Society are coming up quickly.
Our family’s plan is this:
- Contact our legislators about our concerns. Even in difficult financial times, history, culture, libraries, and so on are important. It’s difficult to gauge their impact, but they’re important nonetheless. (Check!)
- Visit as many of these sites as possible while they’re still open. This gives us May and June to act. Although the sites will be maintained even if not open to the public, I want my kids to experience them at least once in case they never reopen.
- Spread the word. Expect to see mentions of Minnesota Historic Sites in the next few weeks, both here and on Twitter.
- Renew our membership to the Minnesota Historical Society. Even though there may not be as many sites open in the future, we’ll continue our support.
What else can we do? If you’re concerned with these closures, are you taking any action?
Our museums here in Michigan are struggling as well. I just got a letter from the Detroit Institute of Arts trying to raise money to match a challenge grant and cover some of the money they’ve lost through decreasing allotments from the state. They’ve laid off staff and canceled at least one big show. I was happy to hear they are working to increase their endowment fund to help ensure the museum’s future. I managed to find a small donation for the drive.
We’ve visited a batch of our locals in recent months, often blogging about them, for similar reasons. Since January, we’ve been to the Motown Museum, the Detroit Historical Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Zoo, the Charles Wright Museum of African American History, the Cranbrook Institute of Science, The Henry Ford and the newly reopened University of Michigan Museum of Art. We’ve got memberships to most of them, too.
Dominique’s last blog post..Indiana in a jar, Sechler’s Pickles factory store
[...] light of possible closures of several Minnesota Historical Society locations, we’re on a mission to visit as many as we can in May and [...]
[...] light of possible closures of several Minnesota Historical Society locations, we’re on a mission to visit as many as we can in May and June. Although Historic Fort Snelling would remain open under the MNHS plan, it would [...]