I’ve been turning over the idea of a propaganda museum. That is, a museum that displays a variety of propaganda posters, films, recordings, and leaflets from different eras and countries. There could even be a tour of the grounds with some minor brainwashing snuck in that begins with an impassioned speech about the importance of Project Propaganda. People should know how they’re being controlled.
But I know nothing about what it takes to kick off a museum. I’ve done some google and amazon searches, but it was all to no avail.
Does anyone know where I can scrounge up some information on how one goes about obtaining the proper funding, support, and materials neccesary to upstart a museum? What is the usual procedure? Are there any books or online articles out there that could walk me through it all.
I don’t see myself pulling this off anytime soon, but I figure the sooner I know what it takes the sooner I know whether it’s a viable plan to strive for.
Starting a museum would be an extremely expensive and complicated undertaking, I’d think. You’ll have to find a location, get zoning approval, build or rehab the facility, get individual, foundation, government or corporate contributions/sponsorships, and hire a staff. You’d need to provide for conservation of your exhibit materials, and public education. You could maybe get some kind of affiliate status with the Smithsonian or with your own state’s historical society, but I doubt much money would come with that. Propaganda is in the eye of the beholder, so it might be a controversial-enough concept that some donors would be scared off. There are several associations of museum management, IIRC - don’t know their names, but publicity materials from well-established museums could probably give you some leads.
Some musems, like the Spy Museum in Washington, are for-profit business ventures. Maybe that would be the direction to go in?
“Starting up,” I think is the word you were looking for. Upstarting a museum sounds fun, nonetheless, if you are into that sort of thing. Hooray for organized anarchy and all.
I would say start it up like any other business. Do your homework.
Someone I know re-started a museum. It had gone into storage. A local history museum. There was plenty of local support in the first place, and the guy was a long-time resident who knew people, or who knew people who knew people. By such links he was able to arrange funding, and a home for the museum (which still hasn;t opened). It helps to have a lot of local people pulling for you.
But your museum sounds like it’s your pet project, and I’m not sure if you can count on anyone’s support for getting funding, housing, or word-of-mouth advertising.
I’m actually involved in starting a new Museum of Biodiversity in Panama. But this is a major project with large-scale national funding support.
Your first step needs to be to sell your idea to your local government, or perhaps to a local funder or group of funders. You would have to convince them that the project has some commercial potential as a tourist draw; or perhaps some advocacy group with an interest in the topic would take it on.
It would be extremely tough to start a museum without an existing collection or some solid previous experience in the field. If you did get some backing, there are various references that give you the basics of organizing and running a museum, but you really would need to find some support first.
It depends on what level of museum you’re looking for. Some people just have a collection on interesting items, put them on display in a building, and start charging people to see them - it’s a low-key way to run a museum. If you’re looking for a more professional approach, you’re probably going to want to set up a foundation - in which case, you’ll be visiting a lawyer.
Part of this would involve surrounding yourself with folks who are really into propaganda. I’m sure the best stuff out there is firmly in the sweaty perverted hands of those whom one really wouldn’t want to hang out with.
So, make sure you’re up for dealing with that, along with the money thing.
Read up on writing grant proposals, because as already said several times here it’s going to be very expensive. With the war and Katrina and other Bush era disasters the government has cut back a lot on the grants it offers, so you’re more likely to get help from the private sector (Ford Foundation is one of the richest, though Gates and other Sillionaires are also giving tons to philanthropy) though your best bet for what you’re talking about would probably be a research university.
I’d start by asking advice from the administrators of [EMAIL=http://www.publichistory.org/]public history programs.
Sadly, words like that are considered valid in any corporate environment in any English-speaking country. Not that these words don’t offpiss me ongoingly.
I’d advise the OP to do what I’ll probably be doing within the next year or so – ask operators of other museums of a similar size what all the whys, wherefores and pitfalls are to do with creating, operating and maintaining a museum are. The idea of a local museum in an already-existing building has been laid onto my plate in recent days – it is a grand undertaking that I won’t be taking lightly and I’ll be asking a lot of questions of other local museum owners/operators along the way.
Check out what local historical societies close by do, then take the best of the examples and adapt for your own set-up.
