Ignite the Dream: LMFA Future Home

LMFA FUTURE HOME

BUILDING PROJECT and MUSEUM OPERATIONAL UPDATE

GREAT THINGS THAT ARE WORTHWHILE - whether they are goals for life or for business - TAKE TIME.

With that in mind, your LMFA Board of Directors and staff are taking the time to plan and ensure the Museum’s future home is GREAT and serve our region’s needs both today and over the long term.

As anyone involved with a building project over the past several years knows, construction costs across the board have skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic. This has required LMFA’s leadership to rethink our original timeline in the context of current circumstances and to consider different approaches to accomplish our goals while staying within a budget appropriate for a project of our scope and ambition. We are confident this will result in the most successful outcome for our project in the end.

SUCCESSES

We continue to make great progress toward our dream. Through a recent grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, renovations have begun that will help make the first floor of our new building accessible and available for community and museum events soon.

We are also celebrating other successes resulting from our hard work over the past two years. LMFA is debt free and we have raised $3.5 million toward our construction project goal. We’ve completed 90% of the abatement and the structural investigation work in the Fredonia Building and are close to completing a revised building design better aligned with our current circumstances.

We’ve also been awarded the nomination for our building to hold National Historic Register status and secured the eligibility to receive $2.8 million in state tax credits upon completion of our project.

OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS AND STAFFING

As the scope of our work has broadened, we’ve also continued to improve the day-to-day operations in our current home on Tyler Street. With director Tiffany Jehorek’s leadership role expanding to increase her focus on the strategic and fundraising work to make our Fredonia Street project possible, we’ve recently restructured and expanded the LMFA staff team.

Our administrative staff will include office manager Sharon Boles, bookkeeper Leslie Novy, and Flecia Droege, our executive assistant. In her new role as community engagement manager, Barbara Scott focuses on the museum’s membership and volunteer programs, as well as the rental of our buildings to companies and groups in the community. Tricia Summers serves as the facilities manager for our new Fredonia Building, and Stacy Odom and Derek Frazier are taking on additional responsibilities for exhibition design and installation.

The museum has also implemented a new database system and the infrastructure to support digital membership cards to strengthen and better manage our growing membership and fundraising programs.

These are just a few of the steps LMFA is taking to be ready to meet the challenges of a larger facility with an expanded audience and more public engagement.

BY-LAWS REVISION

Earlier this year, the LMFA board of directors revised the museum’s by-laws to change the frequency of its meeting schedule from quarterly to monthly to allow for active committee work during the time between full board meetings. This has already engaged and energized the board, bringing new ideas and momentum to our growing organization.