Ways to solve a museum challenge
On April 6, we discovered there is an urgent need for the Lake City Development Co. and the city of Coeur d'Alene to terminate the decades-long lease that the Museum of North Idaho, Inc. has for its storage building on Northwest Boulevard.
According to an article in this newspaper on that date, the Museum of North Idaho, Inc. has less than 50 days to move all the artifacts stored there. These rare items represent a big part of the history of the city of Coeur d'Alene. The cultural importance of preserving the past is not only a moral imperative but a key economic element of a community. The American Alliance of Museums has abundant info supporting this and can be read at http://aam-us.org.
Rather than grouse about this unfortunate situation, here are some suggestions to resolve it:
1. Keep the 8,000-square-foot building where it is but integrate it into the Education Corridor.
Have the NIC architecture/building classes design a beautiful exterior, then have the carpentry/workforce training students build it. Then, work with the college drama, history, graphic arts and art departments to have students and community members participate in museum events. Have media students record and create digital records and documentaries. In short, make the museum a dynamic part of the college and downtown redevelopment.
The BLM itself considers museums a recreational/educational element so why even consider destroying it in the first place? Wouldn't a community-loving activist lawyer find that an easy-to-win lawsuit in the making?
2. Move the museum from its small location at the park to the 8,000-square-foot building on Northwest Boulevard. Have everything at the same location. Turn it into a thriving element of the college and community. The Museum of North Idaho, Inc. has almost $1 million in cash to help implement this move.
3. Develop a Museum Management program at North Idaho College.
The one good thing out of this debacle is the revelation of the sorry state of museum affairs in the county. The "elephant in the tent" in this shocking turn of events is the lack of outrage from the museum community of the county. Why? Is it because there is no real Kootenai County Historical organization? Why are all of the museums of Post Falls, Rathdrum, Spirit Lake and Hayden operating independently as private nonprofit corporations? Wouldn't it be better for the county to have a functioning historical society as most vibrant communities have?
The state of Idaho has the means for individual counties to finance this concept by utilizing ID statute 31-864. Kootenai County does NOT use this inexpensive method. Instead, the county commissioners have in the past used a pittance from the county fair budget to support just one separate nonprofit ... the Museum of North Idaho.
Perhaps it is now time for us to step back and review the entire quagmire all of the Kootenai County museums are in and have elected officials and community leaders work together so our collective past isn't wiped clean by a wrecking ball.
Richard LeFrancis is director of the Pappy Boyington Field Museum, Inc. Go to: www.themuseums.us