Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center are joining forces

[PenPusher]

Now the Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center are joining forces to build a $30 million museum in Richmond with the goal of creating the top Civil War museum in the nation 150 years after the deadliest conflict fought on U.S. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...enter-20914802

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center are joining forces

Details Emerge About New Museum
Formed By Richmond Merger
By Scott C. Boyd
(January 2014 Civil War News)
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RICHMOND, Va. – New details are emerging about the nature and implications of the new Civil War museum in Richmond announced jointly on Nov. 17 by the Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) and the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar (ACWC) (see December CWN).

The museum was officially created on Oct. 15, according to its articles of incorporation filed with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) and obtained by Civil War News. Its name, Civil War Holdings (CWH), is a placeholder which will be changed after the museum’s name is finalized in January.

While not actually using the word “merger” in the Nov. 17 announcement, the CWH board now has complete control of all business affairs of the MOC and ACWC, and their boards have been dissolved, according to their recently amended articles of incorporation.

It should be noted that the MOC’s legal name is the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, the name referred to in the documents. The MOC is legally considered what is called a “fictitious name” for the CMLS, but it is the name the museum uses publicly for itself and that is most familiar to people.

Both the Confederate Memorial Literary Society and American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar continue to exist as separate non-profit corporate entities; however, their formerly independent boards were both “eliminated,” according to amendments to their respective articles of incorporation, approved by those boards on Nov. 21, filed with the SCC, and effective on Nov. 27.

MOC President and CEO Waite Rawls and ACWC President Christy Coleman, who are now co-CEOs of the new entity, sat down for a Civil War News interview on Dec. 6 at the Tredegar site to explain some of the details and their vision for the new museum.

The big picture is the story of the Civil War, something the MOC has done from the Southern perspective and the ACWC from the Union, Confederate and African-American perspectives.

“The Civil War is our story,” Coleman said. “It’s not just a Confederate story. It’s not just a Union story. It is our collective American experience. That’s what we’re trying to get at here with this project.”

“People continue to ask, ‘Have you merged?’” Rawls said. “We will say, ‘Yes and no.’”
Have they merged corporate entities? “No,” Rawls said. “The CMLS will continue to exist and will continue to own the artifact collection. The ACWC will continue to exist and continue to own its properties.”

He did not mention they no longer have separate, independent boards, but instead are both controlled by the CWH board.

Have they merged operations? “Yes, under the holding company,” Rawls said, referring to Civil War Holdings.

There are now three 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organizations, according to Rawls: CWH, CMLS and ACWC.

”We have two things and we created something else,” Coleman said. “The two things don’t go away.”

They said that what the public seems to not understand about the changes boils down to: Who controls what? Who’s actually doing what?

The co-CEOs said they can both sign checks, that Rawls will oversee the White House and museum in Appomattox, while Coleman will be in charge of overall day-to-day operations.

“The job’s way too big for one person anyway,” according to Rawls.

The merger of operations will streamline the way many standard business activities are conducted by the new combined entity, such as having one bookkeeper and one payroll instead of two.

“We’ll save on things like database management fees, healthcare costs, audit costs and legal fees,” Rawls said.

“This saves us tremendously on both sides,” added Coleman.

“As a result, we’re already telling donors, ‘A greater percentage of your donated dollars will go to preservation and education,’” Rawls said. “They are two words that ring people’s chimes.”

The CEOs said the merger would not lead to layoffs.

“Why would we do that?” Coleman asked. “We still have collections to care for. We still have three sites to operate. We still have finances that have to be dealt with.”

According to Rawls, “Short-term, there will be additional hires, because we’ve got a whole pile of exhibits to plan out.”

The new museum’s interpretation of the Civil War story will not be the work of just one person, but will be decided by an education committee of the CWH board, according to Coleman.

She and Rawls said they have collaborated on a “unifying document” that describes their vision for the new museum. They declined to make it public because it has not been officially approved by the CWH board.

“Instead of running from what we’re afraid of, let’s run towards what we love,” Coleman said. “If we did this, what could we do?”

Rawls stressed the three key strengths “married” by the merger: location, collection and finance.

Unlike the cramped, hard-to-get-to MOC location in downtown Richmond, swallowed up by the huge Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center, the ACWC’s Tredegar site has 8.9 acres, is easy to reach, has plenty of parking and is, in short, “fabulous,” in Rawls’ words.

“We’ve got a great collection, but nowhere to show it,” he said. The MOC has 15,000 items and the ACWC about 3,500.

“We’ve got financial resources none of us had before,” said Rawls, referring to the $20 million already committed to building the new museum at the Tredegar site.

The new facility will enable them to put in place “the best museum practice, which we don’t have today.”

Rawls noted that when the MOC museum was built downtown in the 1970s, it had the best artifact conservation technology available then. Things have changed in 40 years and the MOC has not been able to keep up with those changes, he said – until now, with the opportunity presented by the new museum.

The MOC’s collection of 240 Confederate uniforms is an example. Rawls said the uniforms are stored on flat metal trays in the vault. To examine one, its tray is rolled out. All the vibration involved with pulling and pushing the tray adversely affects 150-year-old uniforms over time.

As for reaction to the joint operation, “We expected a louder negative reaction than we’ve heard from some quarters,” Rawls said.

Coleman added, “The vast majority of our constituencies say it makes sense.”

Asked what the fallback plan is in case the new museum fails, Rawls said it wouldn’t fail. People should have worried in the past when he repeatedly told MOC members that the museum was having financial difficulties and needed to change.

http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/2014/jan/merger-011403.htm

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center are joining forces

BY KATHERINE CALOS Richmond Times-Dispatch

The American Civil War Museum has been chosen as the name for the newly combined Museum of the Confederacy and American Civil War Center.
The simple name rose to the top in testing of both traditional and nontraditional names for the new entity, said Christy Coleman and Waite Rawls, co-CEOs of the new museum.

“The very strong consensus from all over, from heritage groups who knew us really well to people who barely ever heard of us, was, ‘Don’t mess around. Tell us what it is,’” said Rawls, who was head of the Museum of the Confederacy.

“If it’s a museum, tell us it’s a museum. Don’t use a word that might make people stop and think, or a word that might be out of vogue 10 years from now.”
Along with the new name, the new institution will use a tagline: “Confederacy, Union, Freedom.”
“I think the tagline is important,” said Coleman, who was head of the American Civil War Center.

Focus groups were saying “loud and clear that we want to make sure what you’re talking about is a more comprehensive thing. We don’t want the Confederacy watered down. We don’t want the Confederacy given extra weight. Keep the politics out of it and tell us what happened, and we will come away from it with our own understanding,” Coleman recalled. “That has been our goal from the beginning. We wanted to make sure that was clear out the gate.”
From Rawls’ perspective, “the word Confederacy gives a nod to the traditions and legacy of The Museum of the Confederacy.”
In combination with the words Union and Freedom, the tagline encompasses “the issues contested and resolved in the Civil War,” he added. “Were we going to have an independent nation or a united nation, and were we going to have freedom or not?”

The title was presented to the museum’s executive committee on Dec. 19 and was adopted by the full board Jan. 3.
Edward L. Ayers, the University of Richmond president who is chairman of the new board, noted that the new name with tagline “highlights the comprehensive nature of the story and recognizes the traditions and legacy of both institutions.”

“The Museum of the Confederacy has an international reputation for its unparalleled collection of Civil War artifacts. The American Civil War Center has established itself as a leader in telling the Civil War story in all its breadth and scope.”

The American Civil War Museum will be headquartered on the historic site of the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, where its leaders plan to construct a new museum building to combine the best aspects of The Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center.
The building concept may be ready for release next month, with a goal of beginning construction in late summer, Coleman said. The project is expected to take up to two years to complete. The cost is estimated at $30 million, of which $20 million has already been committed.

The goal of The American Civil War Museum is to help a diverse national and international audience learn American Civil War history in all its breadth and scope, according to the museum’s announcement.

Using dynamic and interactive exhibits, engaging educational programs and historical research, the museum will tell a multitude of military, political and civilian stories of the people of the time. It will also ensure and strengthen the preservation of an unparalleled collection of Civil War artifacts.
Edelman Berland consulting firm in Washington conducted market research to gather public input on the new institution and its name. The firm is also working on a logo and initial branding for the new institution.

Research from late October through December included telephone and focus group interviews, and email surveys. Participants in the market study ranged from people representing heritage groups and Civil War roundtables to museum supporters and members of the general public.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/latest-news/name-chosen-for-newly-combined-civil-war-museum/article_5fead48f-03d7-5948-afc3-8c8dc28315ae.html