Glen Canyon Conservancy Requests Public Input on the Powell Museum & Archives
Glen Canyon Conservancy, the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that operates the Powell Museum & Archives in Page, AZ, is requesting input from the community on how to plan for Museum operations in the future. Please go here and take the survey. Respond by August 30, 2024, and your name will be put in a drawing for a prize.
Below is some background and timeline on the Powell Museum. GCC welcomes your input, suggestions, interest and donations in providing this resource for the community and visitors to the area.
Background.
The building that the Powell Museum & Archives currently resides in was originally constructed in 1958 as a concrete testing laboratory for Glen Canyon Dam. The laboratory was a wood frame building 39 by 64 feet to provide office space and housed normal field concrete control equipment. The structure had chemical hoods, plaster and lath walls for heat-process areas and a hydraulic press for sampling compression tolerances.
After the lab had fulfilled its usefulness, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation transferred the building to the City of Page. In turn, the City of Page granted the former lab building to a newly formed nonprofit, the John Wesley Powell Museum & Archeological Society (Museum), founded by Stan Jones.
The Museum was founded in 1969 and was run independently by a volunteer board of directors and docents for decades. Over time, the Museum expanded to include not only exhibits about Page history, Glen Canyon Dam and John Wesley Powell, but also operated a gift shop, conducted cultural demonstrations and provided visitor information and booked tours in the area. In 1990, the City of Page deeded the building at 6 N Lake Powell to the Museum board.
Since the Museum was THE visitor information for Page in the 90s and early 2000s, the City of Page began funding a portion of operations on an annual basis for the organization to perform this function. The last agreement of this kind was signed in 2018, in which $220,000 was to be allocated to the Museum over the course of four years.
Around this time, the Museum board of directors approached the Glen Canyon Conservancy board of directors to discuss a possible merger.
In February of 2019, the GCC board and the museum board merged under a single EIN, and the museum board disbanded. However, some of the Museum board members joined GCC’s board as part of the agreement. (None of those board members are on the current GCC board). The merger relieved the City of Page of its financial contributions to the Museum.
The GCC then hired Collections Manager/Archivist Deanna Smith to maintain and digitally archive the Museum collections and serve as curator of the division.
Not soon after, the building flooded with black water from a failed city sewer main on June 11th, 2019. All of the inhouse collections were moved quickly to another building and warehouse facility on Vista Avenue that the GCC began renting for $1100/month for this purpose. Insurance proceeds of approximately $130,000 were received.
Just as the GCC board began looking into options for renovating the Museum, COVID happened and all GCC activities were restricted.
GCC contracted with Lake Powell Construction for renovations for a price of around $900,000, but the owner unfortunately passed away and the company was no longer available to perform the work.
Over the course of two years, the prior GCC administration contracted with Loven Contracting out of Flagstaff, AZ, to provide renovations. In order to fund the project, GCC obtained a Small Business Administration Emergency Injury Disaster Loan to fund the renovations, starting at $150,000. By August, 2022, Loven was finished with the renovations that cost approximately $1.4 million. The final SBA EIDL loan totaled $2 million by this time.
The prior Executive Director left in September, 2022, and GCC hired Debbie Moses in February of 2023 to fill that role. She moved full-time to Page in June, 2023.
By June of 2023, the renovation was all complete, and Moses was tasked with opening the Museum by the end of the summer. Smith began completing all interpretive panels and selecting which items and exhibits would be on display in the Museum. Smith and Moses began a campaign to obtain sponsors.
Within two months, four exhibit sponsors were committed, exhibits installed and a ribbon-cutting was held to introduce the new Museum to the Community.
The John Wesley Powell Museum & Archeological Society was renamed the Powell Museum & Archives through an online vote. It opened to the public on September 1, 2023, seven days a week with three employees. We soon realized we needed to reduce hours down to 6 days a week with 2 employees. It remained open over the winter even though visitation was slow.
Current Operations.
In summer of 2023, GCC began paying the SBA loan back at $8750/month. This was an interest-only payment until December, 2023.
From September 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, more than $23,760 in donations/admissions came in, and 5,300 people visited. Page, Lechee, Greenehaven residents still get in free.
Operational costs per month average approximately $15,000 per month, including wages for a docent to be available 6 days a week, janitorial, internet, security cameras, property insurance, software, archival rental ($1,100) and the loan payment ($8,750). This is approximately $180,000/year.
GCC essentially subsidizes the Museum and is keeping up with the SBA payments to provide this worthwhile educational component for the community and to educate our visitors. However, this is not sustainable.
GCC welcomes input from the community to provide direction to the GCC board of directors on how to plan for Museum operations for the future. Thank you for your feedback!