Beginning next month, the Delta Gateway Museum will have a director, but there is still plenty of work left before the doors open for the first time.
Speaking to the Blytheville Rotary Club Thursday, Museum Commission member Dr. Claudine Payne said the board recently hired a founding director, Leslie Hester, who starts in May.
Hester is in the Heritage Studies PhD program at Arkansas State University and recently finished her master's degree. Hester is one of the curators of a large exhibit currently on display at ASU: "Portals of the Soul."
The position is a two-year appointment with Hester being responsible to establish the museum.
The museum is being housed in the Kress Building, which was built in 1938 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
"I really hope that next year we will be able to say we've got at least a few exhibits in place and are open at least a fifth of the time," Payne said.
She said the Commission has gotten a lot accomplished, but there is still more to do.
It is seeking donations, which are tax deductible, for:
-- Interior painting
-- Office equipment (copier, printer, etc.)
-- A new awning
-- New flooring
-- Replacing the bent glass window.
Payne said the entire $700,000-plus bond money has been used, exclusively on the main floor. Grant money was also used to make upgrades to the outside of the Kress Building.
Eventually, Payne said, commissioners would like to renovate the top floor, which is intended for storage, and the mezzanine.
"We had funding from a bond issue that was passed several years ago," Payne said. "There were some limitations with this funding. It was a good bit of money, but as you know, everything costs an arm and a leg these days. We found that we were not going to be able to do renovations to the entire building. The Kress Building has the main floor, and then it has the top floor, which has the same square footage as the main floor, and also a mezzanine."
The Commission opted to focus the renovations on the main floor.
"We didn't quite have enough funding to complete the renovations on the main floor, but we did have enough to get things moving along," Payne said.
Construction workers cleared the first floor and erected walls. They completed the restrooms and made areas for offices, work rooms and a big classroom. There are also period-era lights up.
"The walls have been mudded, but they haven't been primed or painted," Payne said. "That's where our money ran out."
She said once completed, the museum is intended to preserve history, serve as a place to spend time with friends and family and to draw tourists.
Payne noted museums draw almost 900 million visitors a year; that's three visits per year, per person in the United States.
"Museums are very, very popular," she said. "That's more visits than the number of people that attend sporting events in the United States. A museum in Blytheville would be very good for the community."
She added tourism is the third largest employer in Arkansas.
The Delta Gateway Museum's name was inspired by the concrete arch at the Arkansas-Missouri state line on Highway 61.
"The idea is the museum is the gateway to the Delta," Payne said.
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com