The Bead Museum in Glendale AZ needs our help

[Russ Nobbs]

A period without an acting director left the Bead Museum without grant writing and fund raising for the current year. The economy has taken its toll. Jamey Allen, Alice Sherer and others are working to raise funds and ask for our help. Rings & Things, and other bead sellers are contributing. Here are excerpts from letters and posts about the fund raising campaign.

The Bead Museum of Arizona is the original bead museum begun by Gabrielle and Ted Liese in the mid-1980s. With the closing of the smaller Bead Museum in DC and the much earlier closing of the Museum of  Native American Cultures in Spokane, The Bead Museum of Arizona is the primary bead centered museum in North America. (The Picard Trade Bead Museum and African Art Gallery in Carmel, CA is the only other.)

If there are angels who could pledge large sums toward the effort to preserve the Museum and its collections intact, please contact Alice Scherer at alice  @ europa.com or call her at 503-655-3078 (Oregon). Or if you are more comfortable, by all means contact the acting Director of the Bead Museum, Kelly Norton, at director @ beadmuseumaz.org Or, simply go to http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/ , find the Donate button on the left, click on it and follow the PayPal prompts from there. 1800 individuals with $100 donations and 20 who can give $1000 may be more realistic but we'll be glad to accept all donations!
In the meantime, if you are not currently a member of the Bead Museum, please join. The cost for an individual member is $40 and here is the web address: http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/membership.htm

The Bead Museum of Arizona museum is the repository for :
** the collections of Peter Francis Jr. (The Center for Bead Research), including a many hundreds of bead sample cards collection;
** the vast majority of the artifacts collection of the Center for the Study of Beadwork, including what may well be the largest collection of bead looms in the world, as well as nearly 100 bead sample cards, and a slide bank of thousands of slides of the work of contemporary beadworkers from the United States, Europe and Asia in the period around the late 1980s and ‘90s (pre-The New Beadwork);
** an extensive collection of beads, necklaces and relevant artifacts from Asian, African , Latin American and European sites donated by the Lieses, Lois Dubin and other long-time collectors;
** a collection of the work of contemporary glass bead makers starting with those of the early period in the 1980's and '90's who exhibited in the ground-breaking 1993 exhibit at the Bead Museum, and, by no means the least;
** the Library: several thousand books and periodicals originally started as a private Art Library and grown to a valuable Research Library about the history of personal adornment, which includes important information on the history of glass.

Also included in the collections are archived letters and papers of
* Elizabeth Harris
* Peter Francis, Jr.
* Lady Gloria Dale
* Albert Summerfield, and
* Michael Heide, among many others.

Please make a donation using the link above or mail it directly to
The Bead Museum
5754 West Glenn Drive
Glendale, Arizona 85301

Read more at Beadcollector.net

[Russ Nobbs]

We do need to keep this national treasure alive and active.

Here is a recent letter from the Director of the Bead Museum in Glendale AZ

March 30, 2009

Dear Members and Friends

We are sending you this letter because you are a valued member or friends of our museum and we are in need of the support which our membership and closest friends can give during these tough economic times. As many of you have been hearing, the current economic downturn has dramatically impacted many of the arts organizations in Arizona and around the country. Unfortunately, The Bead Museum has not been spared.

The Board of Directors has taken numerous steps to balance the budget: eliminating staff, closing two days a week and cutting operating expenses by 37%. The Bead Museum store has been doing exceptionally well which is in thanks to many of you who regularly shop with us. Unfortunately, the Museum cannot be sustained long-term on museum visitors, memberships and programs alone. We are in the process of a $200,000 sustainability campaign but need to raise $100,000 of that goal by April 30th. This funding is needed to allow us time so that we can continue our fund development plan to insure the long term financial health of the Museum.

Beads and beaded artifacts are a universal part of the human experience since the beginning of civilization. They are found in every culture and in every country across the globe. The Bead Museum has provided true community service through its many school programs, monthly lectures, guided tours, beading classes and world-renowned research library. Its exciting exhibitions and educational research have attracted visitors from all over the world. In 2008, through all of our programming over 60,000 visitors came in contact with the Museum. We are now the only museum in the world housing this type of collection since the recent closing of a similar museum in Washington, D.C.

Without immediate financial support from the community and members like you, The Bead Museum is in jeopardy of closing its doors at the end of May. Please don’t let this treasure be lost. Your donation, of any amount, will give the Museum time to establish long term partnerships and pursue additional grants. Thank you in advance for preserving one of Arizona’s arts and cultural treasures.

To make an online donation, please visit www.beadmuseumaz.org.

Sincerely,

Susan Flint Kelly Norton
Chairman Executive Director
The Bead Museum Board of Directors 

[Russ Nobbs]

Here's a new story about the AZ Bead Museum's plight and the amount of money they have raised.
A regional Phoenix  Arizona Newspaper featured an article on The Bead Museum's plight and the fund raising results to date. See Arizona Bead Museum or http://snipurl.com/fzw94 

[Russ Nobbs]

Good News!

Yesterday I talked with Executive Director Kelly Norton at the Bead Museum in Glendale AZ. Thanks to many of you they are on the way to meet the June goals of 100,000 and 200,000 for the next 18 months. They've raised about 70,000. There is support from all over the world in the form of new memberships and contributions of all sizes.  Kelly said the board met last week and agreed to keep the doors open and continue the fund raising. They are very grateful for the outpouring of support.

The Bead Museum in Glendale AZ is a valuable resource for all of us and deserves all of our support. I know many forum members here are working to promote this. I noticed today that David's http://www.africantradebeads.com has a plea on their main product page. Beading Daily and many other sites have included information about the museum's fund raising and urgent plight. We've posted it several places at Rings & Things and included the campaign in our May newsletter. If you have a website it would be good to add the Museum's link and a note about the sustainability campaign.

On Thursday, May 28 the museum will hold a "no frills cocktail party" at the museum in Arizona to raise additional funds for the sustainability campaign.

Rings & Things will do our best to encourage Phoenix beaders to attend the party and join the museum. At the May 19th Rings & Things trunk sale in Phoenix we'll distribute literature for the museum and cocktail party.

For the rest of you, in other parts of the world, if you haven't already contributed, now is the time. I encourage you to join the museum or send a contribution direct through the museum's web site or with a check by mail.

http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/