Author: Melissa Prycer
-
More Answers
You would think after two+ years, the questions would have stopped. “Why are you being so nice to Vogel Alcove?” “Where’s the money in community involvement?” “Why do you go to so many neighborhood meetings?’ There are a lot of very good answers to these questions, some of which I’ve addressed in previous blog posts.…
-
-
Partly Cloudy: Museum Success Stories
The black clouds are all around us, and sometimes it seems that the history museum world is doomed. Historic house museums are dying. Major debt looms. Buildings are crumbling. Audiences are aging. Staff are running away as fast as they can. Government support is yanked. And here I sit, just over 2 years into leading…
-
Thoughts on being a park
When I joined the staff here in 2004, our name was Old City Park. Consequently, I spent a lot of time on the phone explaining to people the following: No, you can’t bring your frisbee. No, we don’t have a swimming pool available for your birthday party. Yes, you do have to pay admission even…
-
Baby Boom: Motherhood and Museums
As a member of the Small Museums Committee for the American Association for State and Local History, I write quarterly blog posts for our blog. One just posted, and it’s already getting some attention. In it, I share some stories of friends and their recent experiences surrounding their maternity leave. It’s some frustrating stuff, and…
-
Inside Out
Often, when a new director begins, change becomes the word of the day. When I assumed the title in March 2014, our external world was changing rapidly. Much of my time and energy was spent in keeping up with real estate transactions and learning how to speak developer. That’s not to say I didn’t know…
-
It was just a simple question. . .
Dallas Heritage Village closes two months–January and August–every year. As much as I love our visitors, it can be really, really nice to be closed. This time gives us time to plan, work on some more involved projects and catch up on a few things–both at work and at home. This January, I was looking…
-
Other duties as assigned
Last week, I had a lengthy interview with a local reporter about the homeless encampment just on the other side of DHV’s fence. Since July 2014, we’ve had a steady stream of individuals that have chosen to live next to the I-30 access road, behind our Farmstead. About halfway through that interview, I said to…
-
Armchair Leadership
For the past year, change has been brewing at Fair Park, located just a few miles from Dallas Heritage Village. This remarkable spot in Dallas is home to the largest collection of Art Deco structures in the nation, the State Fair of Texas, and many museums and cultural organizations. But many people think it’s completely…
-
Mapping the future
Highway design usually isn’t a thing that museum directors have to think about, but when your northern border is an interstate, it comes up. In my very first post here, I talked a bit about my surprising meeting with TXDoT officials as part of the CityMAP project. Since that meeting back in July, there have…
Prycer Consulting 