Museum Services

Texas is home to over 1,000 local history museums. Whether housed in a historic structure or a state-of-the-art new building, each one is dedicated to telling the story of a community’s unique history. Collectively, they preserve the real places and the real things that tell the whole story of Texas.

The Museum Services Program enables small history museums to better carry out their missions by helping them to increase their capacity for meeting professional standards. We do this by providing the following services at no cost:

• Training
• Resources
• Consultations
• Communications

To be included in the THC Atlas, a history museum must exhibit and interpret objects and stories in a structure designed for public visitation, on a regular schedule at least 120 days per year.
 

Training

Free Webinar—Just a Millennial Girl Living in a Museum World: Succeeding as a Young Museum Leader
Madeleine Calcote, Executive Director, Museum of North Texas History
Thursday, March 4, 10:00 a.m. CT
Learn more and register now!

Online Workshop Series—Paving the Way for STEM in History Museums
Tuesdays, March 9, March 23, and April 6, 2:00 p.m. CT
Learn more and register now!

Free Webinar—The Inside Scoop on Inventories
Stephanie Allen-Givens, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and Lindsey Richardson, Independent Consultant
Wednesday, March 17, 10:00 a.m. CT
Learn more and register now!

Free Webinar—Children's Museums in a Pandemic: Reflecting on the Past Year
Jennifer Rehkamp, Association of Children's Museums and Andrea Welsch, Children's Museum of Fond du Lac
Tuesday, March 30, 2:00 p.m. CT
Learn more and register now!

Recordings of 60+ past webinars are available free and on-demand on a wide variety of musuem-related topics.

Resources

The Helpful Resources page provides a number of downloadable resource lists, articles, and other useful information for museums. All previous Museum Services Webinars are archived and available to view at any time. The Connect and Learn page provides links to trainings hosted by other organizations and services, as well as listings of museum professional organizations. Grants and Fundraising offers resources for grant-writing, fundraising ideas, and an extensive list of grant opportunities relevant to museums in Texas.

Consultations

Program staff can provide free, individualized assistance and support to museums in any aspect of museum operations, including but not limited to:

• Starting, planning, or reorganizing a museum
• Writing mission statements
• Strategic planning
• Disaster preparedness and recovery
• Educational program development
• Exhibit planning and design
• Interpretation of collections
• Board development and relations
• Volunteer recruitment and training 
• Special events
• Marketing and social media
• Collections care
• Security
• Fundraising
• Professional ethics

Communications

Program staff sends email notices on timely information about current trends, available resources, upcoming grant deadlines, training opportunities, and other types of assistance.