On behalf of Museums Alaska, the statewide association of museum professionals, I strongly urge reconsideration of the proposed closure of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. Shuttering the Juneau-Douglas City Museum may appear on paper to be a sound cost cutting measure but numbers alone fail to capture the true value of this institution.
It is a basic tenet that museums are stewards of collections as a public trust. This means that collections must be protected and maintained for use and enjoyment of the public in perpetuity. The Juneau-Douglas City Museum is the repository for a collection of over 85,000 irreplaceable objects from the community’s past. These collections belong to the people of Juneau and Douglas.
Dissolving the collections at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum would require a great deal of time, money, legal assistance, and possibly even court proceedings. Because these collections are held as a public trust, redistribution of the collections would require keeping them in the public trust at another museum or non-profit. These collections would not fit into the missions of (and therefore would not be accepted by) other museums in the state, which collect based on geographic region or specific topic area. These realities would make dissolving the collections much more difficult than decision makers likely anticipate.
The Juneau-Douglas City Museum serves a vital role in the community. It provides public programming including lectures and poetry readings, the Walks with History walking tour, and Coffee and Collections. It is an important stop for researchers looking for primary source materials related to the history of the area. The museum provides learning opportunities to 1,500 school children every year, a college internship program, and work training programs such as Job-X, the Tlingit and Haida YES program, and the MAAST seniors back to work program. The Juneau-Douglas City Museum has won two national merit awards and two statewide awards for its exhibits and programs.
When times are tight, museums are needed more than ever. They provide free and low-cost programs to members of the public of all ages. They provide a place to take in culture and beauty. They are places to learn, explore and grow. The value of these services to the public cannot be measured in dollars, but rather in the value they add to the lives of their visitors.
Molly Conley,
President
Museums Alaska