NATIONAL DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
Happy 2005 to all our Friends!
We ended last year being involved with the meeting of the CMA with the Honorable Lisa Frulla, Minister of Canadian Heritage, concerning reviewing the finding for museums and heritage sites in the 2005 federal budget, pressing for a long overdue increase. We were also involved with the preparation of the paper “Guidelines: Roles and Responsibilities of Museum Boards of Trustees” approved by the CMA and the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization. You can find a copy of this very interesting and helpful document at www.museums.ca.
We are very happy to include in this issue of au courant an article about the new realities of volunteering researched and written for us by Julian Armstrong, well-known Food Editor of “The Gazette” in Montreal, who is a good friend of museums.
It is with regret that we announce that our very dependable Office Assistant, Peggy Eades, has decided really to retire. We wish her well, and thank her for all her dedicated work for CFFM over the past seven years. Have fun “smelling the roses”, Peggy!
If any friends would like a copy of the schedule for the World Federation of Friends of Museums’ triennial conference, to be held in Seville, Spain, february 18-22 this year, entitled “Museums and Friends Facing New Realities”, please contact the CFFM office or go to WFFM’s website www.museumsfriends.org.
In conjunction with that Conference, WFFM offers Luigi Bossi Scholarships to assist with the cost of attending for qualified individuals who might otherwise be unable to attend. If this applies to anyone in your Friends group, please contact us at the CFFM office and we will forward details.
Finally, this mailing includes the brochure for the CMA Annual Conference, to be held in Saskatoon, June 8-11. The annual Carol Sprachmen Memorial Lecture, sponsored by CFFM, will be given this year by Clarence Louie, Chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band. The title of Chief Louis’s talk is “The Land, the Legends, the People” and will take place on June 8 from 1:15 – 2:15 pm. CFFM’s AGM will be held 5-6 pm on Thursday, June 9. Do consider attending and join us in celebrating Saskatchewan’s 100 years in Confederation.
Jo Breyfogle
National Director
NEWS FROM OUR FRIENDS
A very spritely newsletter, The Grapevine, from the Volunteer Committee of the Art Gallery of Windsor, tells of the committee’s most successful fundraiser. Now in its 15th year, the Kitchen and Garden Tour has raised almost $400,000 which is earmarked for acquisitions and children’s art programs. Congratulations to all those involved over the years!
The Young Associates of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria are holding their Soirée Parisienne – Acte Deux, a café-style fundraising event, as we go to press. French entertainment, cuisine and drinks, tours of the current exhibition The French Masters, guests in 19th century costumes, will all serve to transport those present to another time and place.
Lucky members of the Art Appreciation Group of the Mendel Gallery Group in Saskatoon! They spent a day with Saskatchewan sculptor Joe Fafard. During the morning in his studio, they watched as Mr. Fafard worked on a figure of a young horse, sculpted in warm brown clay. After lunch, the group went to his foundry and had a demonstration of the extremely complicated lost wax process, the transition from a clay figure into the mould for the metal casting.
What a great time those volunteers have at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin In the current issue of The Rambler, we read of the history of one of the many exhibits worked on by the volunteers. Remember the Cf-104, the Starfighter? This one, 763, is the last Starfighter flown by the Canadian forces in Canada. It was built in 1962 and spent its operational life at CFB Cold Lake. The museum received custody of the aircraft in December ’90. The volunteers prepared it for static display and it was proudly presented wearing the paintwork it wore on its final flight, the fly-by on July 1, 1983 when Squadron 417 was disbanded. Per Ardua Ad Astra!
Congratulations to all the volunteers, mentioned in the many newsletter we receive, who have been recognized by all levels of government in many ways. Way to go and keep up the good work!
ATTRACTING NEW VOLUNTEERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
by Julian Armstrong
Attracting volunteers to work in museums used to be easy. But the tradition that once produced a faithful corps of workers has weakened and that body of free labour, still active in some museums and galleries across Canada, is ageing and not replacing itself.
It’s time, volunteer directors are learning, to redesign the jobs that can be done by amateur workers, and to develop new systems of recruitment. “The face of volunteering has changed tremendously,” says Janet Brooke, director of the Agnes Etherington Gallery in Kingston, Ontario. Fewer people are volunteering, she finds. Even more of a challenge for her institution, their expectations have risen. “New volunteers expect to have a sense of results. They are only willing to work on a project with a beginning, a middle and an end.” Catering to that change, the Kingston gallery has designed some short-term jobs, such as running a fund-raising dinner, and has turned from standing to ad hoc committees.
Long-term commitment to volunteer service is still valued but increasingly family and work commitments mean that volunteers prefer to work on projects they can fit into busy schedules, says Lila Goodspeed, president of the Volunteer Committee of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. A prospective worker will tell her, “I can do this, for this amount of time, on this day.” To attract that individual, she recommends museums look at their needs and be ready with a series of suggestions. “We must have some job opportunities ready to discuss, and very clear job descriptions. We could ask, ‘Do you like shopping? You could work in our gift shop.’ Or ‘Do you like being surrounded with art and giving advice?’ You could join us in our art rentals and sales.’ Or ‘Do you like teaching and learning about art? Be a tour guide.’”
To attract volunteers today, ” We need clarity,” Mrs. Goodspeed said. Museum officials need to realize that volunteers’ motivation is different, she went on. “There is self interest, curiosity, a need to be in a well-organized group, to have some fun, and a desire to acquire further learning and to make a difference.”
When a young Halifax career woman offered her Saturday mornings to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, she was immediately enlisted to help with a program at that time for mothers and pre-school children. “It was a perfect fit for her,” said Sandra MacLennan, a longtime volunteer who currently directs the gallery’s arts study groups. “These young people need a specific job at a specific time.” she said. “It’s not a world of stay-at-home mothers any more. To attract these people with limited time, we need to look at very specific needs in the gallery.” Her gallery recently launched a small newsletter that’s distributed in the gallery and includes volunteer opportunities, such as relieving staff at the information desk. “We now have two retired men doing it,” Mrs.MacLennan said.
Volunteers like personal contact, said Mrs. Goodspeed of the Winnipeg gallery. She recommends a personal invitation to people to volunteer and to act as an ambassador and recruiter for the museum. And a one-on-one interview is an essential star, she believes Volunteers are more motivated if they work with others, she finds. “Everyone wants to be part of something.”
At the Kingston gallery, one of the most successful volunteer projects is a group of five who meet every Wednesday morning to run the library. “It’s a continuing success,” said Miss Brooke.
At the Halifax gallery, volunteers were sought to turn a collection of art books into a library. “We have a group working for three hours every Friday for the next six months,” said Mrs. MacLennan. Her gallery’s art study groups have been a source for a number of new volunteers, she said.
Thought should be given to inventing ways to attract the baby boomers, suggested Mrs. Goodspeed. These men and women will shortly be retiring, and might be persuaded to give time to their museums. “They have tremendous skills to offer, but how do we capture them?” she asked. These individuals, now aged from 39 to 57, are either retiring now or will be, during the next two decades. “Their sheer numbers could result in a volunteer renaissance,” she said.
Another possibility, cited by Mrs. MacLennan, is to recruit executives and white collar workers through their companies. Rather than companies merely donating money to a gallery, she envisions them donating regular volunteer service.
“Volunteering”, said Mrs. Goodspeed, “seems to be an older culture but youth is engaged through more and more programs. They are everybody’s target group. We need to ask, ‘ Where does youth fit into an organization like this?’ and to say to young people ‘We welcome you to come and tell us and we’ll find a fit.’”
TRAVEL WITH FRIENDS
Travel with Friends is not only to tempt you to travel but to give you and your Friends’ group the idea of forming your own Travel Committee and taking your Friends off to see the world. If you need help getting started, contact one of the groups listed below:
Art Gallery of Windsor – Volunteer Committee
Central and Eastern Europe, including Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw. Departing April 14, 2005. Contact:1-800-209-7114, booking #714749
National Gallery of Canada – Volunteers’ Circle
The Arts in Bloom in Boston, April 30 – May 4, 2005 “Art in Bloom” at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and much, much more.
Christo in New York and Making of a Renaissance Master, February 17 – 20, 2005.
Saints and Sinners, the Stratford Festival, June 7 – 10, 2005
Affordable Paris, february 14 – 23, 2005. For these four trips, please contact 1-800-236-5555. Email: jsheikh@executive-trvl.com.
Canadian Friends of the Hermitage, Ottawa.
Festive Arts of Moscow and St. Petersburg, May 28 – June 11, 2005.
For information about this trip; 1-800-236-5555 or email jsheikh@executive-trvl.com.
Department of Museum Volunteers, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Wonders of the Adriatic, Trieste to Dubrovnik, September 13 – 28, 2005.
Galapagos, A Family Adventure, March 12 – 22. 2005.
Budapest, Vienna and Prague, May 7 – 20, 2005
Churchill, Manitoba, february 28 – November 1, 2005.
Egypt, a Voyage Along the Nile, November 16 – 29, 2005.
For further information about these five trips, contact ROM Travel: 1-416-586-8034
World Federation of Friends of Museums, XIIth Congress. Seville, Spain, february 18 – 22. 2005.
Contact: CFFM office (see below)
How to reach CFFM:
By Mail: CFFM, c/o Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street West,
Toronto ON M5T 1G4
By telephone: 416-979-6650
By E-mail: cffm_fcam@ago.net
And be sure to check our web site: www.cffm-fcam.ca
