No matter how much someone thinks they know, they can always benefit from learning a little something more. Spending more than a year in American Association of Museum's government sponsored museum assessment program has taught Thom Trahan, executive director of Brimstone Museum/Henning Cultural Center, and his staff quite a bit more about the museum business.
"They help the museum plan for the future basically," said Trahan at Wednesday's meeting of the Sulphur Kiwanis Club.
The program has trained Trahan and his staff on museum standards as the Brimstone Historical Society strive to continue with their plans to fabricate a permanent historical exhibit on the history of Sulphur and Southwest Louisiana and to expand on the Brimstone Museum depot to accommodate the static display and for storage purposes.
"We are serious about protecting our collections and establishing the permanent display of the town's history," Trahan emphasized.
It is with that thought in mind that the museum took on and completed the program. The program has helped the museum staff and board members understand better how the static display will function once they have the design in place and fabricated. Trahan realized there were additional benefits as well.
"A lot of grant programs look for the museum assessment program to show that you're serious about running your museum."
And a part of running the museum is knowing the relevancy of the artifacts contained within and what to do with those not relevant.
"We have lots of artifacts that do not support our current board's mission," said Trahan. "The mission is to preserve the history of Southwest Louisiana."
"This program is designed to help museums like ours that are in small towns to better know what to do with those [artifacts]."
And that includes knowing that every artifact does not need to be held onto and stored but can be sold if not needed or relevant. However, Trahan and the museum have no current plans for selling artifacts, but they have learned to be more aware of what types of donations to accept in the future.
"The program is also designed to help the director understand how to plan for space in the exhibit and in the expansion itself," he continued.
Planning for space will be very important as two exhibits soon make their debuts at Brimstone Museum and at Henning Cultural Center.
On July 9th, 'Canvassing the Neighborhood' will open at Henning. It will feature the works of five artists who are all from one local Sulphur neighborhood. The exhibit will then run until the end of July.
Brimstone Museum will host a massive Native American artifact display beginning on July 16. Featured with the display will be a series of lectures on prehistoric and historic archaeology specific to the Southwest Louisiana area. The lectures will be conducted on Thursdays until the end of August. Exact times are still to be announced.
For more information about Brimstone Museum or Henning Cultural Center, call 527-0357, or visit their website at www.brimstonemuseum.org.
Lake Charles, La. —
