With students heading back to the classrooms, many will also be trotting through the Delaware Agricultural Museum to learn about the state’s farm life and culture.
This year could see a reduction in those tours, though, due to recent layoffs.
Board of Trustees President W. Edwin “Ed” Kee Jr. said the museum will still be open Tuesday through Saturday, and that it will be trying to operate tours and programs as normal, but that these might need to be reduced, at least in the short term.
“The long-term hope is to rebuild the resources, get the place on a sound financial footing and at some point, two or three years down the road or sooner, offer more than we’ve ever offered,” he said.
Earlier this summer, the museum let go four employees, citing budgetary reasons. Kee said the museum had been operating at a deficit, using reserve funds to cover the shortfall, and a decision was made to cut the budget as a way to save the remaining reserves.
Now the museum employs two full-time and three part-time workers and the trustees are working on a capital fundraising campaign to try to build an endowment.
The fundraising kicked off a few years ago. According to the museum’s former Executive Director Linda Chatfield, that campaign never got off the ground. That and poor investment and operation choices in the past by the trustees have led to the museum to where it is now.
“There are a number of people on the board who are very good and very conscientious people,” she said. But they haven’t taken on leadership roles, she added.
As for the employees who were let go earlier in the summer Chatfield said they did all they could for the museum.
“They are absolutely sterling as far as their qualification and their work ethic, and they did everything they could,” she said. “They all just worked themselves to a nub trying very hard without any leadership to keep the place afloat.”
Although it is down employees, the museum still has a team of volunteers it relies upon.
“This has been a hard thing to deal with,” Kee said. “But if there’s any good out of it we do see a renewed interest and maybe even an enhanced interest to really help us get the museum back on solid footing.”
One of this fall’s projects between trustees and volunteers is a look at the museum’s purpose and programs, and consideration of which ones are outdated and which ones are relevant. They also may bring in outside expertise from other museums.
There has been an increase in communication between some of the trustees and the volunteers, according to Kee, since the shake-up earlier this summer.
In the future, the museum also will rely on interns, as it has in the past. Kee said there will be a concerted effort to have more interns when they can handle it because of the tight finances.
“It’s all about getting the resources to do those things,” he said.
Chatfield said that with the new trustees appointed this summer maybe the museum will get some much-needed financial help. Or maybe the state could take over the museum, she wondered.
Either way, Chatfield hopes the museum does not sink.
“It absolutely breaks my heart to think of them closing their doors,” she said.
Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs Director Timothy Slavin could not be reached for comment.
Email Sarika Jagtiani at sarika.jagtiani@doverpost.com.
