At a May 20 worksession with the Greenbelt City Council, the Friends of the Greenbelt Museum (FOGM) shared the details of their upcoming budget, proposed operation changes and renovation plans for a new visitor/education center at 10-A Crescent Road. Even though the pandemic response is the overriding concern at the moment, all involved see the importance of making sure the Museum moves ahead into the future with more efficiency and enhanced infrastructure.
As usual at recent council meetings, discussion of the COVID-19 situation commenced the meeting. City Manager Nicole Ard and staff are still at work on the city’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act spending proposal. Mayor Pro Tem Emmett Jordan shared an assessment from County Chief Health Officer Dr. Ernest Carter that the hospital and fatality cases are “the tip of the iceberg,” with the advent of new testing at the Waldorf and Hyattsville sites “giving a better handle of who has it.” He said, “We are better prepared than before,” with “some success at flattening the curve.”
FOGM was represented by Museum Executive Director Megan Searing Young (a full-time city staff person), President Jennifer Ruffner and Vice President Sabrina Baron.
Young started by outlining a proposal by FOGM to create a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between it and the city. The existing MOU was written in 1987 when the Museum opened and, said Young, “The Greenbelt Museum has evolved a lot over that time.” Young commented that the Museum has always been in a partnership with the city since its inception in 1985, and is “not meant to be self-sustaining.”
Due to “significantly blurred lines of responsibilities,” according to the FOGM report to the city manager’s office, the forthcoming MOU proposal would more clearly delineate city operations from those of FOGM.
The education/volunteer coordinator would become a part-time city position in this new arrangement, paid for with a restricted National Endowment for the Humanities grant of $100,000 and matched by FOGM, the amount of which would be transferred to the city. This, in addition to future proceeds from admissions and the gift shop, would render the change virtually budget neutral.
This change would consolidate daily operations to the city allowing FOGM to focus primarily on fundraising, an arrangement that jibes with common museum practices. FOGM would still employ a part-time office manager/bookkeeper to handle the nonprofit needs. The city would incorporate the museum into their regular cleaning schedule.
Though council has agreed to this new arrangement, it will still require a final vote on June 8 with the rest of the Fiscal Year 2021 budget.
The renovation plans for the 10-A Visitor Center are still in the architectural planning phase. The finished product would include exhibit space, a hands-on learning lab, an archive reading room, office space, a gift shop and a first-floor restroom and entrance. As well, FOGM, in consultation with city staff and Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) technical services staff, has presented the idea of an addition on the gardenside of 10-A. Once completed, all museum records and functions would then be consolidated at 10-A and 10-B. So far, FOGM has raised $200,000 as part of their quiet phase of a capital campaign, to be followed by a more public fundraising program. Baron was confident that the architect being used (currently from Old Line Architects) was “sensitive and creative” in his efforts to retain the historic character of the building which would be central to its purpose. Jordan was keen to make sure the renovations still maintain access to mobility-challenged visitors. These plans, when completed, would be brought to council for approval, as well as to GHI and the public.
Young said that social distancing protocol within the museum when it reopens is still being worked out, but that outdoor walking tours will certainly be continued, using online, advance admission. Yet generally, said Young, “all these changes are on the back end; the average museum visitor will likely not notice anything different once we reopen.”