Latest News & Updates

QUILTS SOUGHT FOR MAPLE LEAF FESTIVAL -- QUILT SHOW RETURNING TO POWERS MUSEUM

Postcards are going out this week to past quilt displayers to announce the return of the MLF Quilt Show to the Powers Museum.  This year the focus will be on old quilts (pre-1950) made in the local area or Ozarks and space is limited for between two to three dozen quilts depending on their size. (All sizes qualify - doll, baby/crib, bed.) Due to this fact, submission to the show will be juried by a committee who will select the final entries. 

Programming associated with the quilt show will be varied and presented throughout October.  We are delighted to have Lori East, AQS appraiser, assisting the museum with the show and programming events.  

HVAC PROJECT HAS STARTED

Units are in process of being delivered into the building and installation will begin next week.  In the meantime, museum staff, board members and volunteers are performing many long-overdue projects such as purging old operational records and formalizing institutional archives, organizing storage areas (both collection and general storage areas), catching up with cataloging of library and archival materials, reviewing vertical file collections, and doing annual cleaning projects -- not to mention planning this year's exhibits and programming and starting on next year's, too. 

After the HVAC installation of three new systems, staff will need time to return artifacts to storage that have been moved out to make space for construction crews before starting installation of 2012 exhibits in the main gallery. 

We hope to make the transition to public opening as quick as possible while insuring the safety of the artifacts and quality of the exhibits.  We appreciate your understanding in this matter.  As of 5-10-2012, it is anticipated a mid to late June opening will be our target. The museum is as anxious as you are to be back to our normal operating mode.  We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

5-10-2012

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UPDATE on fund-raising for HVAC replacement project

As of late January, we have received notice of a $50,000 grant from the Kent Steadley & Mary Steadley Memorial Trust for this project for which we are extremely grateful.  We need to raise the balance of the project, so your help is still needed.  Contact museum for further information.  

1/18/2012

New HVAC Systen Needed for Collections Storage

Help out with our Friends Form

After 24 years of service, the equipment maintaining the proper museum storage environment for storage, the archives and some other behind-the- scenes support areas, has stopped functioning and replacement parts are no longer available which means the museum is facing a total replacement.  While the museum board had been aware of the three aging HVAC systems used in the museum building and had started to plan for their replacement, we were not aware that Airedale North America had been bought out and its successor was not stocking parts any longer.  Nor did the board expect to face this problem during the hottest summer experienced in recent history.  The rebuilding situation in Joplin is impacting the ability to replace the system quickly, so we have taken some short-term steps to safeguard more sensitive portions of the collection like artwork and have moved those collections to controlled environments.  

The Powers Museum Board is now facing the task of raising $ 65,000 to $ 70,000 necessary to get the system installed and do some other slight modifications of the storage system that will be necessary.  In over two decades of operation, the museum has "made its own way" supplemented with occasional fund-raising projects (1995 Jasper County Courthouse Quilt, 2001 Arcadia Images of America picture book, etc.), revenue from our small gift shop,  admission box donations, small grants from local foundations and gifts from the board and former board members.  We have never solicited the community for operational or maintenance support before.  But now we need your help to make this repair possible.

If you would like to assist with our HVAC project, please send your donation check to the Powers Museum, PO Box 593, Carthage MO 64836 (please mark check HVAC project).  Once museum board selects a bid (which they are currently reviewing bids now), we will post projected cost here.  In the meantime, any gift, no matter what size, will be used for this purpose and will be appreciated greatly and publicly acknowledged (unless donor or donors state otherwise).

If you have any questions about this project or would like further details, please call 417-237-0456 during regular business hours or email powersmuseum@att.net.

In addition to donations, you may want to consider a purchase from the Museum's Gift Shop (on-site) or via mail order, as proceeds from these purchases also go to assist the museum's operations.

Michele Hansford, Director