Author Archives: Max van Balgooy

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About Max van Balgooy

President of Engaging Places LLC, a design and strategy firm that connects people to historic places.

Mothballing a Site Can Be Worse than Staying Open

The California State Parks system has been teetering on the edge of closure for the past few years due to the economic paralysis that has gripped the state’s government.  The situation is so bad that the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the entire system–nearly 300 sites–to their 11 Most Endangered List in 2008.  The downward spiral continues and the state has now begun mothballing sites with disastrous results.  The recent victim is Mitchell Caverns, which was recently vandalized when the site was closed and abandoned.  According to the Los Angeles Times:

Intruders cut fences, kicked doors off of hinges and shattered windows and display cases. They stole metal signs and survival gear, including hand-held radios, flashlights and binoculars. They also stole diesel-powered generators and ripped out thousands of feet of electrical wire used to illuminate the only natural limestone caverns in the state park system, San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators said.

This may not bode well for the state’s plan to shut 70 more sites in July–that’s 25 percent of the parks.  Perhaps it would be better to lease or sell these sites with easements rather than see them vandalized and destroyed.  For the more on this story, see “Shuttered California State Parks may be Vulnerable to Vandalism” by Louis Sahagun in the Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2012.

Attending WebWise in Baltimore?

Max van Balgooy

I’ll be attending WebWise in Baltimore next week and posting a series of blogs about the presentations in the weeks to follow.  These sessions are typically packed with ideas and projects, offering cutting-edge approaches and solutions for the work at historic sites and history organizations (and other museums).  If you’re attending, I’d love to meet you and hear about what you’re doing.  Living part of my life in the blogosphere, I have unusual relationships:  people will know me through my blog but I often have no idea who they are, so please introduce yourself and let’s talk during a break (IMLS always keeps the troops at WebWise well stocked with coffee, tea, and snacks!).  In case you don’t know what I look like, I’ve included my picture for identification and I usually sit off to the side so I can get up to take photos of the sessions without disturbing others.

College History Degree is Getting A Tune Up; Historic Sites Get a Flat Tire IMHO

The American Historical Association recently announced that it is initiating a nationwide, faculty-led project to articulate the disciplinary core of historical study and to define what a student should know and be able to do at the completion of a history degree program. Professors Anne Hyde (Colorado College) and Patricia Limerick (University of Colorado Boulder) will lead faculty from more than sixty colleges and universities across the country to frame common goals and reference points for post-secondary history education. According to the AHA, “these faculty participants will work together to develop common language that communicates to a broad audience the significance and value of a history degree.”

Hmm, just the degree?  What about the significance and value of history?  My sense is that this project is being prompted by the funder, Continue reading →

Webinar on Strategies for Financially Sustaining Historic Buildings

The California Preservation Foundation, a statewide historic preservation organization, has been offering a series of lunchtime webinars (well, lunchtime on the West Coast) on a variety of topics that would interest staff and volunteers who work with historic sites, including window restoration, fundraising, architectural styles, historic landscapes, and tax credits.

On Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 12 noon Pacific time, I’ll be sharing a webinar with Jim Newland of California State Parks on building a stable financial foundation for historic sites by rethinking Continue reading →

Changes Rumored for IMLS Grants

I recently heard a rumor that the Institute of Museum and Library Services made significant changes to their grant programs for museums on February 13, 2012 including:

  • All grant programs will have the same deadline:  January 15.  This will require organizations to have sufficient capacity to prepare several applications at one time during the busy holiday and year end season.
  • Conservation grants are now part of the broader Museums for America (MFA) grant program.  Organizations can no longer apply for separate conservation and MFA grants–they have to choose one.
  • 21st Century Museum Professionals and National Leadership Grants have been combined.  Applicants (particularly museum associations) will now have to choose one and can’t do both.

It seems the public and museum field had no opportunity to comment on these changes, however, some of the additional issues that have been raised are:

  • With this consolidation, it reduces the number of grants available to the museum field.  It is particularly vexing when Continue reading →

Why We Have Curators and Collections Managers

Times are tough and many museums and historic sites wonder about the value of keeping curators and collections managers on the payroll.  What do they do besides sit in their offices all day?  Well, boardmembers and CEOs, they keep an eye on your most valuable assets.  The University of California Berkeley, that fine institution of learning, provides a useful lesson on what happens when you don’t have curators or collections managers involved in managing your artifacts.  According to the New York Times:

Everybody misplaces something sometime. But it is not easy for the University of California, Berkeley, to explain how it lost a 22-foot-long carved panel by a celebrated African-American sculptor, or how, three years ago, it mistakenly sold this work, valued at more than a million dollars, for $150 plus tax. The university’s embarrassing loss eventually enabled the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, a large museum and research center in San Marino, Calif., to acquire its first major work by an African-American artist.

Fortunately, there’s a happy ending to this tale for the object, the artist, and the museum–but the university has egg on its face. First, for not recognizing and properly caring for a significant work of art and secondly for disposing of it for so little money. I’m not surprised. Most colleges and universities are notorious for treating their historic sites and museum collections poorly (have we forgotten about the University of Southern California’s long mistreatment of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Freeman House or Cal Poly Pomona’s neglect of Richard Neutra’s VDL House?).

For the complete story, see “Berkeley’s Artwork Loss Is a Museum’s Gain” by Carol Pogash in the New York Times (February 20, 2012) and Huntington Library Acquires Sargent Johnson Monumental Depression-Era Sculpture in Black Artist News (June 22, 2011).

Embezzlement: Is it Our Dirty Little Secret?

In the last few years, I’ve encountered a surprising number of cases of embezzlement–the internal theft of assets–at many of the non-profit organizations where I’ve worked or been on the board.  The experience not only undermines the trust among colleagues and friends, but also threatens the survival of the organization, many of whom are often skirting the edge of bankruptcy and now have a smaller bank account and a diminished reputation.  Given how frequently I’ve encountered it, I did a quick search about embezzlement at museums and historic sites in the last five years and discovered nearly a dozen heart-wrenching stories:

There are probably many more, but I suspect they’ve kept their stories secret out of embarrassment (but search for “embezzlement” at the Chronicle of Philanthropy to see how widespread it is in the non-profit world). Despite this small sample, there seem to be some common patterns:

  1. It often involves a senior staff member, frequently the Continue reading →

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Police at Lyndhurst following the discovery of a body on shore. Credit: Daily White Plains.

Adding to the ever-growing category of “you can’t make this stuff up” of unexpected things that happen at historic sites (and for which we’ve never been trained to handle in graduate school) is the discovery of a body that washed up at Lyndhurst, a National Trust Historic Site in Tarrytown, New York, last week.  According to the Daily White Plains:

The body was discovered Wednesday afternoon washed up on the rocks on the Hudson River shore of Lyndhurst, the National Trust Historic Site in Tarrytown, Scott Brown chief of the Tarrytown Police said.

Brown referred further questions to the New York State Police, saying that department would have jurisdiction over the body. A spokesman for the state police said that his department would normally take jurisdiction if the body recovered was thought to be someone who had jumped off the Tappan Zee Bridge.

It’s days like these that we begin wistfully thinking about a different career.

For Lovers of New England: A Week on the Road in June

Discover the rich history of the region with Historic New England’s Program in New England Studies, an intensive week-long exploration of New England from Monday, June 18 to Saturday, June 23, 2012.  The Program in New England Studies includes lectures by noted curators and architectural historians, hands-on workshops, behind-the-scenes tours, and special access to historic house museums and museum collections. The program examines New England history and material culture from the seventeenth century through the Colonial Revival. Curators lecture on furniture, textiles, ceramics, art, and wallpaper and cover their history, craftsmanship, and changing methods of production. Architectural historians explore a timeline of regional architecture starting with the Massachusetts Bay styles of the seventeenth century through the Federal and Georgian eras, to Gothic Revival and the Colonial Revival. Participants visit historic sites and museums with curators and enjoy special receptions.

Expert lecturers include:

  • Richard Candee, professor emeritus, Boston University
  • Cary Carson, retired vice president of the research division at Colonial Williamsburg
  • Abbott Lowell Cummings, former director, Historic New England Continue reading →

Mike Quinn named CEO of American Revolution Center in Philadelphia

Michael Quinn

H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest, chairman of the American Revolution Center today announced that Michael C. Quinn will join the organization as president and CEO effective April 1, 2012. Quinn will oversee all aspects of the development of The Museum of the American Revolution, to be built in the historic area of Philadelphia.

Since 1999, Quinn has served as president and CEO of The Montpelier Foundation, the private non-profit organization that operates James Madison’s Montpelier, a National Trust Historic Site in Virginia. Under his leadership, the home of James Madison and its surrounding environment were transformed from a 1900s mansion into a vibrant interpretive and educational center focusing on James Madison and the U.S. Constitution. He oversaw the $25 million restoration of James Madison’s home, and the planning and construction of a 15,000 square foot visitor center. He conceived and oversaw the establishment of the Center for the Constitution, which annually provides advanced intellectual seminars on constitutional theory for more than 700 teachers, police officers, and legislators.

Previously, Quinn served as Continue reading →