The Railroad Station Historical Society list tipped me off to the following story in the Cincinnati Business Courier. Since it's a convoluted process (including registration) to access the story, I'm taking the liberty of posting it here. Note the debate over "fringe museums" late in the article:

>From the Cincinnati Business Courier

Museum Center says it can no longer afford to go it alone

Dan Monk Courier Senior Staff Reporter

With 13 years of operating history under its belt, the Cincinnati Museum Center has come to this conclusion: It can't exist without public subsidy.

"If somebody has another model that works, I'm all for it," said Douglass McDonald, CEO of the center, created in 1989 to manage the museum complex at Cincinnati's Union Terminal.

A historic train station in Cincinnati's West End, the terminal has been home since 1990 to Cincinnati's Natural History Museum, the Cincinnati Historical Society and the Robert D. Lindner Omnimax Theater. The Cincinnati Children's Museum joined the mix in 1998, a year before McDonald was recruited as the center's chief executive.

McDonald is a former Quaker pastor, who had 16 years of museum experience before coming to Cincinnati. He's known for taking innovative and
entrepreneurial approaches to boosting revenue, according to Edward Able, president and CEO of the American Association of Museums in Washington,
D.C.

That approach seemed to fit right in at Museum Center, which has maintained a goal of financial self-sufficiency since its inception. That's why the museums added attendance drivers, like the Omnimax and Children's Museum.

It's why the museums at Union Terminal merged in 1995, hoping to drive operating costs out of the budget.

But McDonald is now convinced that self-sufficiency is an "unrealistic expectation" for Museum Center.

The center has posted losses in every year of its existence, except for fiscal 2001, when it recorded a surplus of $23,000. Since his April 1999 arrival, McDonald has endured three rounds of budget cuts. Because of the April 2001 riots and the opening of a new Imax theater in Newport, he has seen Omnimax revenue plummet from an average of $2 million a year to $1.3
million in the fiscal year ended June 30.

Stock market woes and operating deficits of $3.8 million over four years have reduced the building's endowment by more than 35 percent, from more than $14 million to roughly $9 million now.

As a result, McDonald is asking local elected and civic leaders to establish an annual subsidy of up to $4 million for Museum Center. He
suggested the money could come from a tax levy or an annual stipend from state or local governments.

He said it could also come from increased corporate donations or by growing the center's endowment. Whatever the source, the subsidy would be used to supplement the Museum Center's $13.5 million operating budget and fund $2 million a year in long-needed building repairs.

"It would assure the long-term survival of the Museum Center," said McDonald, who has compiled a mountain of data in support of his request,
including:

An economic impact study, prepared by the University of Cincinnati's Center for Economic Education, estimated the center contributes $76 million a year to the local economy.

It's Ohio's highest-drawing museum, with nearly a third of its 1.5 million visitors coming from out of town=2E Museum Center draws about twice as many
visitors as Columbus' COSI and five times more than the Cincinnati Art Museum, according to figures compiled by McDonald.

It spends less per visitor than any museum in Ohio and receives far less subsidy than other institutions. The Cincinnati Zoo, for example, receives $6.3 million, about a third of its budget, from a Hamilton County tax levy.
The Museum Center, by contrast, received about $134,000 from state, local and federal sources in 2001. That figure does not include the county levy
that collects about $3 million to pay off bonds for Union Terminal's 1980s renovation.

It generates 70 percent of its revenue from "earned income," which includes
admissions, corporate sponsorship, building rental and gift shop income. That's more than twice the industry average, Able said.

McDonald also commissioned a building audit in which the Glaserworks architectural firm recommended $18 million in building repairs, including $2.5 million to repair chronic leaking from the fountains in front of the building and $3.3 million for repairs to the building's roofs, windows, doors and masonry.

McDonald has been sharing his data with local elected and civic leaders. He's yet to make a formal request, but he's finding broad support.

Even anti-tax crusader Tom Brinkman, a Republican state representative from Anderson Township, said the center makes "a good case." Brinkman, who has
opposed tax levies for the Cincinnati Zoo and a proposal for state subsidies to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center museum on
Cincinnati's riverfront, said he has empathy for McDonald's request.

"We overextend ourselves by funding what I would call 'fringe museums,'while the ones that are proving by their attendance that they are the
workhorses don't get the support they deserve," he said.

Past leaders of the Museum Center are on board as well.

"At the current rate, it may not exist in five or six years," said Devere Burt, former director of the Natural History Museum who now serves as a
trustee emeritus. "The community's going to have to step up."

Former Museum Center President Richard Glover agreed. "I don't understand why all these other institutions, they get (public funding) and the Museum Center doesn't."

2002 American City Business Journals Inc.


lner4472@bcpl.net

If a museum of the old school of exhibits works and can be sucessful, so much the better. Likewise if a modern hi-tech museum works so much the better. However, not evey museum will be sucessful. The real issue, as always, is money and how to get it. A community on the local or state level should decide how much of a taxpayor subsidy museums receive, hopefully railroad museums will be included. However, the competition for public funds is always intense.
Tom Cox

tcox@parknet.pmh.org

Seeing conversation like this on RYPN makes me feel like all the hard work putting on the ARM Convention was worth it. Whether you are "old-school" or "new museum", it is refreshing to see the discussion.

It's funny how Erik picked up on the original theme, "Working Outside the Yard Limits" - which was changed to "Riding into the Future" to suit the marketing. The idea was to encourage involvement with the museum community in your region and to pay attention to your roll in the big picture.

It is also very helpful to see these opinions on museum models just as we (North Texas Historic Transportation, Inc.) try to figure out what to do with our collection of Fort Worth streetcars.

One of our organization's members suggested that to open a museum was the worst thing we could do, since it would just be a money pit. What else would we do with this equipment if not set something up where it could be displayed and enjoyed?

Andy Nold
Dallas 2002 ARM Convention (Retired)

> One of our organization's members suggested
> that to open a museum was the worst thing we
> could do, since it would just be a money
> pit. What else would we do with this
> equipment if not set something up where it
> could be displayed and enjoyed?

I'm just brainstorming out loud here, but why not run a kind of "virtual museum," in which the core collections remain in non-public storage, but you aggressively seek out opportunities to use your artifiacts to integrate the transit story into the exhibits of other museums and institutions?

You have a great start on this kind of idea with the TE parlor car display at the new Intermodal Transportation Center. What if you offered the other cars or smaller artifacts to local and regional history museums like Plano, or science Museums, or transit nodes, or what have you as they overhaul their exhibits during the next decade or so?

Eventually the collection might become part of several different display sites, each chosen bacuse the site or institution can tell a part of the transit story with help from your collection.

As for operation--well, I am a big booster of the Como-Harriet line and Ft. Collins model of streetcar operation. I understand there are several parks in the metro area which include displays of relocated historic buildings; perhaps one of them might be interested in a demonstration streetcar line as part of the attraction? Then you have the benefits of operating, but can do it with only 1 or 2 cars, no unsightly deadline of restoration projects, weekends only operation to keep the staffing needs moderate, and do it tucked safely under the marketing winds of a larger heritage attraction...

Then again, still thinking out loud, there is a precedent for a non-operating museum of urban transit--look at the London Transport museum in Covent Garden in London. A streetcar and bus and public transit museum in downtown Ft. Worth might help anchor and tie together the intermodal transportation center, the T&P depot, the adaptive reuse of the Santa Fe depot, etc....

This would be a much bigger project and is the opposite philosophy from the incrementalism in my other notions, but it has the positive value of letting the Ft. Worth collection concentrate on preservation and interpretation through display, while McKinney supplies the operating experience.

There Andy, serves you right for asking aloud for ideas. We got lots of ideas here! Thanks again to Andy and the Landrums and everyone involved in planning and executing ARM 2002.


eledbetter@rypn.org

Erik: those are some great ideas for just about anywhere!
Andy: your member is probably right .. if you don't demonstrate you will never blow a fuse or a lightbulb, you will never wear out a wheel, have a short circuit, burn up a motor, have to train people and worry about accidents etc. You will also never experience the coming to life of a car by putting up the pole. You will also never convince visitors that these rather large bookends ever went anywhere, did anything or provided a service. IMHO a large and meaningful static collection is only brought to life by a real demonstration. Again the difference between a Mausoleum and a Museum.

lamontdc@adelphia.net

I would approach the Ft Worth Transit Authority and try to work out some kind of a deal where your group supplies rotating exhibits and they provide the space. Also, under Texas law transit authorities are elgible to apply for TEA-21 money and one of the purposes can be a transit museum, please note I said transit and not railroad museum. Texas limits probably more than other states what TEA-21 money can be spent for.
Tom Cox

tcox@parknet.pmh.org

I don't think I would be busting my hump this hard if the equipment was not going to be operable.

We have had contact with the City and the former head of the transportation authority has agreed to join our board of directors, so I feel like we are making the right connections. Fort Worth is in the planning/engineering stages for a light rail/streetcar system similar to the Portland model. There is the opportunity to offer some of the cars for use on this system, but we still need a place to do the restoration work and that line is years (2006? 2008?) from opening.

Unfortunately, the Tandy Subway cars are for platform use and would not be suited to a street railway system.

I am mentally filing all this information about museums, newseums and mausoleums for when we do get into designing workshop/museum facility.

Andy Nold
North Texas Historic Transportation, Inc.
tnold@ars*engrs.com
(anti-spam: remove asterisk for proper email address)

> Erik: those are some great ideas for just
> about anywhere!
> Andy: your member is probably right .. if
> you don't demonstrate you will never blow a
> fuse or a lightbulb, you will never wear out
> a wheel, have a short circuit, burn up a
> motor, have to train people and worry about
> accidents etc. You will also never
> experience the coming to life of a car by
> putting up the pole. You will also never
> convince visitors that these rather large
> bookends ever went anywhere, did anything or
> provided a service. IMHO a large and
> meaningful static collection is only brought
> to life by a real demonstration. Again the
> difference between a Mausoleum and a Museum.