The Campaign for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

Transcription

1 The Campaign for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Reaching Forward 1

2 4 MOTIVATION 6 CHARTING THE COURSE 8 REACHING FORWARD: COME ABOARD 2 Reaching Forward

3 Motivation The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is the world s leading institution dedicated to exploring the history, environment and people of the Chesapeake Bay through authentic experiences. It s a place where you can truly immerse yourself in the beauty, ecology and culture of this 4,500 square mile body of water. We need your help to extend the Museum s reach and to share our love of the Bay with national and international audiences. We are launching a five-year capital campaign to propel the Museum into the future and meet the demands of our visitors in the 21st century and beyond. Reaching Forward: The Campaign for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum will solve structural challenges such as aging facilities, while creating new opportunities to engage with our community and visitors from around the globe. At this crucial time for the Museum, we find ourselves faced with remarkable opportunities not only to provide a strong foundation for the future, but also to secure our reputation as the world s leader in interpreting the Chesapeake Bay s history, environment and culture. Throughout the Museum s 50-year history, the mission has never wavered: The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is dedicated to preserving and exploring the history, environment and people of the Chesapeake Bay; and the values of relevancy, authenticity, and stewardship guide us in every aspect of our work. This campaign features a reasonable financial goal. To meet specific needs now, and to provide a stable course for the future, we will raise more than $20 million in partnership with those who love the Bay. ó 70,000 annual guests ó 60,000+ objects in our collection ó 5,300 members ó 3,500 students each year ó10,500 learning hours ó 15,500 attendees at seven annual signature festivals and special events ó 18 waterfront acres ó 12 exhibition buildings ó 12 vessels in the world s largest fleet of historic Chesapeake watercraft ó Working Boatyard ó Full time staff of 33 ó And at the heart of it all, more than 200 dedicated volunteers donate nearly 31,000 hours of service every year the equivalent of nearly 4,000 complete workdays. 1962: The idea of forming a museum is originated by a grassroots group of community members and the Talbot County Historical Society. 1965: The Museum opens May 22, 1965 and welcomes 10,000 visitors in its first year. 1966: The 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse is saved from demolition and barged 60 miles north to its new home on Navy Point. 1967: The last sailing log bugeye Edna E. Lockwood joins the collection : The addition of several parcels of land making up Navy Point including: the Coulbourne & Jewett crab picking plant and property; the land and warehouse that once housed the St. Michaels Packing Company, the last remaining industrial structure on Navy Point; and Harrison & Jarboe s packing house. 1970s: The restoration of Edna E. Lockwood. 1974: Addition of the Tolchester Beach Bandstand. 1975: 1955 skipjack Rosie Parks acquired. 1975: Waterfowling exhibition opens. 1978: Fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. 1980: Bay History exhibition opens. 1983: 1934 Hoopers Island Dovetail Martha is acquired. 1984: 1909 crab dredger Old Point is acquired. 1989: 1912 tug Delaware is acquired. 1993: Steamboat Building exhibition opens. 1995: 1926 trunk cabin power cruiser Isabel is acquired. 2001: Oystering on the Chesapeake exhibition opens. 2001: $17 million Capital Campaign rehabs the historic Eagle, Dodson, and Higgins Houses; collection storage expanded; a new parking lot is added and entrance is framed by the Old Knapps Narrows drawbridge. 2003: Hurricane Isabel brings 100-year-flood levels to the region, inundating much of the Museum s low-lying land and flooding multiple buildings and exhibitions as well as the working Boatyard. 2005: At Play on the Bay exhibition opens. 2014: The 1920 buyboat Winnie Estelle is acquired. 2014: The 1932 log canoe Flying Cloud is acquired. 2014: The skipjack Rosie Parks is re-launched after a three-year restoration project in front of a crowd of 4,000 the largest single day crowd in Museum history. 2015: Reaching Forward capital campaign begins.

4 Charting the Course Nearly 70,000 guests, students and members come to the Museum each year to experience tangible connections with the Chesapeake Bay. IN THE BOATYARD As sawdust floats in sunlight filtering through the Boat Shop doors, students watch a shipwright shape a plank of wood that will soon become a traditional Chesapeake Bay sailing vessel. One by one, students handle tools of the trade, feel the grain of the wood and watch wooden boatbuilding before trying it themselves. AT WATERMAN S WHARF Students sort the inhabitants of oyster reefs oysters, barnacles, mud crabs, grass shrimp into different buckets of brackish Bay water. Environmental science is now alive, liberated from textbook pages, wriggling in students hands and pulsing with life. IN OYSTERING ON THE CHESAPEAKE Third graders are crawling through the belly of a skipjack that once plied the waters of the Bay. Following the crab from Bay to table in our Chesapeake s Crab Cakes program, they measure their catch for the day and take it to market. Then they serve it in a restaurant before watching a local crab picker pluck juicy, plump meat from the carapace of a Maryland Blue Crab. Our guests experience the Bay in ways that aren t possible anywhere else. They can get their hands dirty and their feet wet. They re actively learning about the Bay s history, ecology and people and they ll help shape its future. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum plays a uniquely important role in the future of the Chesapeake Bay, the state of Maryland, Talbot County and the town of St. Michaels. At its core, the Museum is an immersive educational institution offering hands-on experiences not available anywhere else. As such, the Museum is essential to our region s schools and community life. We want more people to be directly involved with shaping not only the future of the Chesapeake Bay, but the entire region. The Museum invests nearly 10% of its annual budget in education programs serving Pre-K through all stages of life. Annually, 10,500 hours of educational programming are offered and 3,500 K-12 students visit. By 2020, through our efforts, those numbers will substantially increase. By 2020, the amount of unique programming that s only available here, at this Museum, will substantially increase. By 2020, we envision our parking lots filled to capacity with school buses, every exhibition on campus bursting with guests of all ages shaping wood in the Boatyard, examining the contents of crab pots, exploring the decks of a skipjack or heading out on the Miles River in a historic Chesapeake buyboat. By 2020, we envision guests from all over the East Coast and beyond coming to the Museum for our signature annual festivals that celebrate the Bay way of life from OysterFest and Waterman s Appreciation Day, to the Antique & Classic Boat Festival and the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival. By 2020, we will offer more people from more places true Chesapeake experiences. We ll have upgraded facilities and hands-on programming plus new and changing exhibitions with integrated technology and campus-wide Wi-Fi. 6 Reaching Forward Reaching Forward 7

5 Reaching Forward: 2020 Photo courtesy of Hunter H. Harris, Aloft Aerial Photography A great deal has changed in both the Museum s infrastructure and the expectations of our 21st century guests. Capital improvements are critical for maintenance and the safety of the Museum s buildings, collections, exhibitions, guests, staff and volunteers. ENDOWMENT GOALS Endowment Sought to Sustain Operations $20,750,000 Buildings & Grounds $14,500,000 4% annual draw $50,000 Boatyard & Floating Fleet $2,500,000 Curatorial/Collections $2,500,000 Education/Programming $1,250,000 4% annual draw $100,000 4% annual draw $100,000 4% annual draw $580,000 We are greatly concerned that the invaluable artifacts of the Museum our collections and the historic buildings that house them are at risk. This could be the single most urgent capital need we face. Many of our irreplaceable collections and all our information technology, historic vessels, Boatyard and Small Boat Shed lack adequate protection from theft and fire. The Museum Store floods frequently and the structure itself is beginning to crumble. We also lack the ability to notify guests of an emergency whether it s an approaching storm or a lost child. We can t secure our campus after hours to ensure the safety of our marina guests or prevent unauthorized access. Our course for the future includes increasing our endowment and focusing on top priority capital needs: building and grounds, Boatyard, curatorial, educational facilities; and the construction of a new Guest Welcome Center, Museum Store and Library. DOUBLING OUR ENDOWMENT The Museum s current endowment stands at $10 million, and sustains four areas of operation: Boatyard and Floating Fleet Curatorial/Exhibitions and Collections Education and Related Programming Buildings and Grounds Doubling our endowment to more than $20 million will provide the foundation for the future of the Museum. Financial stability enables our facilities, exhibitions and historic buildings to be brought up-to-date with ongoing maintenance and restoration. Neither children nor adults should miss out on the chance to pretend to be a lighthouse keeper, tong for oysters, row or sail a wooden dinghy, or learn the skill of wooden boatbuilding. 8 Reaching Forward Reaching Forward 9

6 Reaching Forward: 2020 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Installation of campus-wide security, fire protection and mass notification systems. Campus-wide Wi-Fi and fully-integrated technology in exhibitions. Restoration of historic buildings. American with Disabilities Act compliance for walkways and roads. Upgraded HVAC and AV systems. Creation of an outdoor entertainment venue on Navy Point, creating opportunities for performances and facility rentals. Upgrading electricity terminals and water accessibility in our Member s Marina and adding necessary safety equipment. Ongoing maintenance of our Floating Fleet, particularly the restoration of the historic 1889 bugeye Edna E. Lockwood. Boatyard upgrades, including a sawmill, sail loft, foundry and improved storage. New exhibition spaces, re-purposing areas into much-needed education and community classrooms. Expansion of our oral history program, Memory Keepers, to ensure the stories of the Chesapeake are never lost. Creating a mobile version of our website to put the Museum into hands around the world. 10 Reaching Forward Reaching Forward 11

7 Reaching Forward: 2020 NEW GUEST WELCOME CENTER, MUSEUM STORE, AND LIBRARY FOGG S COVE NAVY POINT Attempting to find the entrance to the Museum has long been a challenge to our guests. We don t provide first-time guests with the Wow! experience we want to offer. Situated on the edge of the parking lot at the back of Fogg s Cove, our new Welcome Center, Museum Store and Library will fulfill five distinct purposes: Create a gateway to the Museum and a sense of arrival. A spacious admissions room will immediately place where you are in relation to the Bay with interactive graphics and displays. The Museum s new Store will deliver a positive guest experience with increased capacity and flexibility to allow for creative merchandising and marketing. current welcome center location A new orientation room will offer an immersive experience to provide guests with a foundation for exploring and understanding their Museum experience. parking lot current store location On the top floor we will build a new library to house our 10,800-volume collection of ship plans, manuscripts, books, and sketches, making them fully accessible to scholars, researchers, and the public. Next to the library, a new meeting room will be available for businesses, who can also take advantage of evening cocktails on our buyboat Winnie Estelle. Proposed site of new Welcome Center, Museum Store, and Library. 12 Reaching Forward Reaching Forward 13

8 Come Aboard The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum will achieve the goals of Reaching Forward by building on 50 years of preserving and exploring the environment, history and culture of the Bay. To raise the funds needed to complete this campaign, we will reach out past St. Michaels and Talbot County. We will look for support from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. We will garner support from our nearly 70,000 annual guests and 5,300 members. We will approach our major donors, corporations and foundations. Our proposed goal is to surpass $20 million. We are seeking $10-12 million to double the endowment, $6.5 million for capital improvements, and $4-5 million for the new Guest Welcome Center and Library. We have been planning our big leap forward over the past five years. In late 2014, a feasibility study was undertaken by industry experts Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners, based in Chicago. Forty-six interviews were held, involving 54 individuals, to determine the potential for a campaign. Reaching Forward will run from 2015 to 2020, giving us five years to reach our goals. The reputation of the Museum as a leader is rapidly growing as we build on our legacy of success. This capital campaign will strengthen our future, building on the successes of our past. With community support, we can make great things happen. Come aboard we need you! 14 Reaching Forward Reaching Forward 15

9 Kristen L. Greenaway, President Jen Matthews, Major Gifts Officer Reaching Forward