Kansas City, Mo. - "HELP is on the way!" announced ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America Arts Alliance's national museum service division. The Historic Upshur Museum of Gilmer will participate in a multi-year statewide program in Texas to assist small and midsized museums. Working with ExhibitsUSA and the Texas Association of Museums a new program will bring consultants and traveling exhibits to the museum. 

With funding from the Houston Endowment, Inc., The Meadows Fondation, the Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts, ExhibitsUSA's Hands-on Experiental Learning Project (HELP) will provide on-site assistance for museums in three different regions in Texas over four years. 

"We're pleased to be chosen for this project. We're proud of the good work we do each day, but, of course, we're striving to improve ourselves and our services," commented James Daniels, president of Historic Upshur Museum. 

Daniels and Mary Kirby, curator of the museum, attended two days of workshops in Tyler, June 10-11, with other representatives of the East Texas museums participating in Texas HELP. 

Meeting with them were Edana Elder McSweeney, co-director of HELP and acting director of ExhibitsUSA from Kansas City, Mo., Brian Crockett of Salt Lake City, Utah, co-director of Texas HELP, and Jack Nokes, executive director of the Texas Association of Museums. 

The Texas HELP project will stretch over a 3-year period, with consultant visits and different programmatic emphases each year. HELP will also provide traveling exhibitions in conjunction with staff training opportunities. The Historic Upshur Museum will begin its participation by presenting Rodeo: 1900-1930 to the public in March, 2003. More details about the opening will be available in February, 2003. 

"We hope that people who have rodeo experience, especially as professionals, will contact the Historic Upshur Museum at 903-843-5483 so that part of the display will connect the historic rodeo experience in Montana with that had by Upshur County residents," added Curator Mary Kirby. "When we open the exhibit in March, 2003, we want to expand upon what ExhibitsUSA is sending with a local component. We will highlight the rodeo skills especially of the older mnembers of the Upshur County area who themselves worked the professional rodeo circuit." 

Among the types of artifacts the museum might display could be posters, saddles, bridles, chaps, trophies, or buckles, photographs, and other tangible items which reflect on the owner's personal participation in rodeos. 

"One of the reasons why we ventured to participate in this program," added President Daniels, "is the support we have to finance traveling exhibits through the Richard S. Potter Memorial Endowment Fund for Traveling Exhibits. Because of the generous gifts given since 1998 in honor of Richard Potter, we have in reserve the funds which will be necessary to pay our share of the costs of the exhibits and then shipping them to the next location." 

Working in partnership with the Texas Association of Museums, ExhibitsUSA will implement the multi-year program to improve professional practices and advance the institution capacity of 18 museums in the Panhandle Plains, East Texas and the Gulf Coast regions of Texas. Beginning with the age old premise that one learns best by doing, HELP will: 
  Provide practical, "on-the-job" experiental training to selected museums in specific areas of acute 
  need; provide 18 participant museums affordable temporary exhibitions that feature strong arts and 
  humanities content, universal appeal, and local interest; utilize affordable and professional museum 
  training resources that reinforce "best practices" in museumship; Establish formal and informal 
  museum networks among participating museum so as to facilitate routine resource sharing; 
  Result in 72 special exhibitions experiences for museum visitors in Texas communities. 

After request for proposals to participate in HELP were sent to over 200 museums throughout Texas, the following other museums were selected: Shelby County Museum (Center); Sanders Corps of Cadets Center (College Station); Depot Museum (Henderson); Armstrong County Museum (Claude); Deaf Smith County Museum (Hereford); XIT Museum (Dalhart); Collingsworth County Museum (Wellington); Hutchingson County Museum (Borger); Wolf Creek Heritage Museum (Libscomb); Childress County Heritage Museum (Childress); Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum (Cureo); Moody Mansion Museum (Galveston); Wharton County Historical Museum (Wharton); John E. Conner Museum (Kingsville); West Bay Common School Museum (League City); and Matagorda County Museum (Bay City). 

ExhibitsUSA was founded in 1988 to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage expanding cultural life in communities. 

Mid-America Arts Alliance is a nonprofit regional arts organization based in Kansas City. Major support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, participating state arts agencies, and leading foundations and corporations. 

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