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August 7, 2011
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS Georgia and I left early Wednesday morning and traveled to Irving, TX in between Dallas and Fort Worth. The trip down was rather sad, the entire state is in need of rain, the dry land crops were writhing in the hot sun. Half way home, we encountered a little rain and were encouraged that rain still existed. We arrived home mid-morning on Sunday and shortly it started to rain here and we have had several wonderful showers including Monday morning. Maybe this awful heat and dry spell is near an end. Our meeting was the annual Texas Association of Museums meeting when museums from all around the state meet to listen to what is new for museums, learn new techniques in creating exhibits and programs, and to network with each other. This years group was smaller probably due to our change in meeting times, we usually meet in March but there was also an opinion that the economy was hurting a lot of our museums with reduced budgets, staffing,etc. That is a plus on our area, most of our museums are run by volunteers and you the visitors are our source of revenue for exhibits, programs, etc. We use our funds for our buildings, permanent exhibits, and for planning for the future. An example of what museums in large cities do that will probably be reduced with today's economy was the exhibit attended as an evening event at our conference. The exhibit was "Genghis Khan: The Exhibition, at the Irving Art Center. The exhibit was a traveling exhibit and cost the museum over $1 million dollars to bring to Irving. There was a lot of discussion in various sessions about how the museum could have used that money differently. Times are a changing. The second night we visited the museum dedicated to the Boy Scouts of America. This museum is wonderful, a beautiful exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings about Scouts, the founding of Scouts, and the values of scouting and their various clubs, camps, and activities. It was an educational and entertaining evening. If you are in the area, it is a good family place. From my desk and the other work surfaces in the museum, it looks like it was business as usual, however, our guest book reveals a wonderful number of visitors including a group of 4-Hers on a photography mission. Hope they had fun and got some great photos. HISTORICAL MUSINGS One of my sessions was led by Edward T. Linenthal who has authored "Sacred Ground: Americans and their Battlefields", "Preserving Memory: the Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum" and "The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American History" . He presented an interesting conversation on how we tell, document, and study our history. He believes that revisiting our history is an indispensable and inevitable component of historical work and that revisionism is an essential component of that revisiting. Learning more of the truth of what actually took place in those historical moments. Following his luncheon presentation, he lead a discussion about "Revisionism" and how it impacts our work in museums. There was a lively discussion on "Telling the whole truth" of historical events within our communities especially in areas of racism, political events, religious beliefs, etc. How to present these events truthfully without offense? History versus Heritage also was discussed. A lot of food for thought and I would ask you on your next visit, are there stories in Lipscomb County history that we have not told that we should have. We want to develop an on the decades of county history, what stories should we tell at each decade- Let us know what you want to hear. How can we tell your story better? I learned a lot this year and I hope I will be able to use it. I end this week with this thought used at the conference by one of the speakers Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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