3 minute read
NEW MEXICO HISTORY MUSEUM
Fiscal Year Feats
$30,000
raised for exhibitions
$23,000
raised for education
$45,000
received in grants
$122,000
in endowment payouts
51,000
followers on museum Facebook page
125,000
views of single post on Photo Archives Facebook page
New Mexico History Museum
History is our best teacher A Year of Change
Fiscal year 2020 (July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020) ushered in a season of renewal at the New Mexico History Museum. Soon after the permanent appointment of Billy Garrett as the museum’s executive director was announced in March, the COVID-19 pandemic closed the museum for the final four months of the fiscal year. Renovations in progress at the Palace of the Governors were slowed. Plaza visitors were struck by the sight of a vacant portal on Palace Avenue, empty of Native artist vendors. But behind the scenes, plenty of work was underway. “The months that we have been closed has given the museum the chance to take a hard look at our plans for the future,” Garrett says. “This is a time of change for the New Mexico History Museum.” Despite the challenges, private giving for the museum still topped out at $226,000 in FY2020. And though the pandemic temporarily postponed the launch of the Campaign for New Mexico History, which will benefit both the History Museum and New Mexico Historic Sites, campaign planners kept busy during the shutdown. “We developed our plans and crafted the language we need to convey the importance of revitalizing and renewing New Mexico history,” says Dennis O’Toole, Museum of New Mexico Foundation trustee and campaign cabinet member. “The History Museum has a robust list of needs for its buildings, historic preservation work and the renewal of the Palace of the Governors.”
Keeping People Connected
The museum, with private funding support from the Foundation, innovated during the shutdown. Forced to stay at home, museum staff turned to virtual exhibitions, a new emphasis on social media engagement and other creative ideas to keep people connected during the closure.
The Stage Which Daily Brings Mail, Freight, Express and Passengers, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940, one of many historic photographs shared by New Mexico History Museum curators via Facebook. Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. Courtesy Palace of the Governor’s Photo Archives, Neg. No. 058383.
Highlights of those initiatives include: • The debut of a new website—nmhistorymuseum.org —where visitors engage in the museum’s diverse collections, programs and exhibitions, including virtual tours of past and current installations. • The reinvigoration of the popular 2017-18 exhibition
Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest, with a 3-D virtual tour and new curator interviews. These online bonuses significantly expand the reach of the original show. A recording with guest curator Jack Loeffler is at museumfoundation.org/online-event-recordings. • Daily Facebook postings of fascinating historic photographs from the Palace of the Governors collection, with insights and information from curators, increase engagement with history lovers in New Mexico and beyond.
• The Quarantine Diaries Collection, spearheaded by the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, gather the accounts of New Mexicans in quarantine all over the state. Poems, pictures and diary entries about pandemic life provide a valuable historical record.
Gaining Steam
As the page turned to the new fiscal year, the $10 million Campaign for New Mexico History gained steam. The outlook is promising, to date generating $3 million in contributions, including $600,000 in private giving and $2.3 million in public funds.
“We’ve got a ways to go, but this campaign is on track to bring much needed funding for exhibitions and educational programs at the New Mexico History Museum, including the Palace of the Governors,” says Museum of New Mexico Foundation President/CEO Jamie Clements.
Looking to the future, Garrett says it’s important to look back at the pandemic as offering new reasons why history matters more than ever.
“We can use history to better understand how we got to current situations, to look for ideas and inspiration about moving forward, and to help put today’s situation in perspective,” he says.
