PROBLEM 2: A TOO SMALL COLLECTION

The Black World History Museum was organized as a Missouri nonprofit organization in 1992 with a mission to "collect, document, preserve, sudy, and interpret the stories of how Black people with a Missouri connection and events have influenced the development of the United States and to share this information with the public in ways that educate, inspire, and entertain." In getting started, the museum bought a building and property on Saint Louis Avenue in North Saint Louis. As the old Sacred Heart School building constructed in 1916, the structure offered several important advantages to the new institution. First and most importantly, the building was structurally sound and needed few major renovations. Secondly, the floor plan of the building would translate easily into the museum structure, as several "galleries" were already situated off a broad central hallway. Third, the location of the building was advantageous for an institution which wanted to be easily accessible to the public; the school faced a main street which was served, at the time, by three different bus lines. And, as the sellers of this property were undergoing bankrupcy proceedings, the Black World History Museum had leverage in negotiating a fair but realistic price for its future home.

Once the Museum had possession of its building, it set about completing needed repairs to the structure and establishing itself as a committed member of the community. By making its presence in the community known, the museum was able to recruit neighborhood volunteers who aided in cleaning out the structure and making it ready for collections. The museum joined the block unit and involved many neighbors, paid and unpaid, for their help and support.

When the Black World History Museum first opened in February 1997, its emphasis revolved mostly around the stories which were relevant to the African-American cultural experience. Its collection was, initially, relatively small. Founder and Executive Director Lois Conley created and sculpted the six main figures with which the museum started: James Milton Turner, John Berry Meacham, Dred Scott, Clara Brown, George Washington Carver, and Elizabeth Keckley. In addition, with the help of Jesse Frances, a local preservationist, and students from the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS), the museum acquired an authentic slave cabin. Along with an exhibit on the Middle Passage, this rebuilt cabin became one of the centerpieces of the new museum.

At the end of its first year, as it continues to do at the end of every year, the museum closed to "revamp" its collections and do necessary repair work to its exhibits. In addition, the museum used this time to expand its exhibits. As the museum staff worked on more expansions, they became more and more formal in their presentation and in their plans for future collections. Once Executive Director Conley was at the museum full-time, she explored more avenues for helping the museum's collections and exhibitions grow.

As the museum evaluated itself, it found that it needed to enlarge its collection of items as they were connected with the interpretive programs the museum was already sponsoring. The museum, although it had come a long way since its opening, was encountering many difficulties as it attempted to expand this small collection. As Executive Director Conley stated in her original grant proposal, the museum needed to surmount the difficulties of working with limited "availability of items to collect" and creating community "understanding of the importance of these items in connecting to events and people in history." In this way, the museum could "fill important gaps" in its interpretative programs and communicate many of the community's stories, large and small.