At the January 24 meeting of the Greenbelt City Council, Recreation Director Greg Varda and Museum Director Megan Searing Young briefed council on their proposal to “merge” the Greenbelt Museum with the Recreation Department. In addition, council received an update on the Greenbelt Road Corridor Project, currently in progress.
Museum
In the memorandum advancing their proposal, Varda and Young described an increasing set of interactions between the Recreation Department and the Museum, both administrative and programmatic. The two
organizations already collaborate on programs such as Black History Month, the Creative Kids Camp, Greenbelt Day, Juneteenth and the Fall Festival.
The memorandum noted the low staffing of the Museum, with just one full-time employee (Young) and a 15-hour-per-week education and volunteer coordinator, partly funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The memorandum cites many possible benefits of bringing the Museum into the Recreation Department, including increasing the amount of outreach the combined entity could do, bringing Museum programs into the Recreation Department’s RecTrac database and increased visibility for the Recreation Department through the Museum’s blog, walking tours and the future Visitor and Education Center. In addition, the pandemic has “revealed the limitations of relying too heavily on volunteer help.” Varda plans on cross-training some of the part-time non-classified Recreation staff to help with Museum events and programs.
Once the Visitor and Education Center is completed, the building “will need to be incorporated as a fully functioning city facility.” The Recreation staff already manages several buildings so they have the skills to incorporate the Museum units “more fully into city protocols,” in consultation with the Museum director regarding best practices for such spaces.
Merging the two entities would also, the memo states, provide a base of institutional knowledge about the city’s history.
Referenced but not discussed was the likely need for more part-time recreation staff or part-time hours for working on Museum events.
Councilmembers expressed openness to the proposal but wanted more information. Council referred the proposal to the Park and Recreation Advisory Board, the Friends of the Greenbelt Museum, legal counsel and, possibly, to the Arts Advisory Board.
The Friends group would continue to remain a separate entity involved with fundraising, long-term strategic planning and providing advice. Wendy Hurlock Baker, board president of Friends of the Greenbelt Museum, said that the board is open to the idea but has a lot of questions as to how the merger would work that it will need to discuss with Varda and Young.
Greenbelt Road
Community Planner Molly Porter did a presentation updating council on the work with a consulting firm on the Greenbelt Road Corridor Plan, which focuses on the segment of MD 193 between Route 1 and Kenilworth Avenue. The plan would build upon the earlier work by the Urban Land Institute for that section of Greenbelt Road and is being funded with a grant from the Metropolitan Council of Government’s Transportation Land-Use Connections program. The cities of College Park and Berwyn Heights are also participating.
A public visioning session is scheduled for Thursday, February 10, with a final report due June 30 identifying short- and long-term recommendations for the corridor, next steps and potential funding sources. A Virtual Comment Map will open online on February 10 for seven weeks. There will be a public meeting in March to refine the recommendations.