By Debby Woodin
Globe Staff Writer
JOPLIN, Mo. —
Collections of the Joplin Museum Complex need to be accessible to the public, and they could support a local research center as well as museum exhibits, a museum expert told museum and city representatives at a meeting Wednesday.
“You are going to be sought out once the collections are known, and you need to be prepared for that” in planning for a new site to house the museum, said Mary Frances Turner, CEO and president of Synergy Design Group, Tallahassee, Fla.
Those collections include mineral specimens and mining machinery, extensive photographs of daily life in Joplin since 1900, presidential memorabilia, antique dolls, and a cookie cutter collection.
Museum Director Brad Belk and Allen Shirley, president of Friends of the Museum, led Turner, architect Chad Greer and a contingent of city administrators Wednesday on a tour of the existing museum complex at Schifferdecker Park. Greer has been hired by City Manager Mark Rohr to compile a cost estimate for renovating the Union Deport building as a new site for the museum.
As part of that work, Greer brought Turner into the project to get her opinion on what type of museum is preferred and whether the depot could accommodate that plan.
Report
Turner led an “envisioning session” Wednesday in which museum representatives detailed their wishes for a future museum building and the services they could foresee offering there. After hearing them and visiting the depot, she said it will take about four to six weeks for her to write her report and opinion on the proposal.
Greer had said earlier that he sought out Turner because of her reputation in museum design, and because she would give an unfiltered opinion. Among the projects Synergy has designed are the National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame in Bowling Green, Ky.; the Everglades Nature Center in Alligator Alley, Fla.; and the Hamlet Depot Museum in Hamlet, N.C.
The Joplin museum has what Belk said is a world-class collection of mineral specimens suitable not only for education and entertainment but also for research. In addition to those shown in the museum’s mineral wing, the museum owns a warehouse full of specimens that have not been shown publicly.
In addition to the minerals, Belk showed the group a room filled with local historical documents, including decades worth of bound editions of local newspapers and numerous files of three local photography collections documenting Joplin life since 1900.
“This is it,” Turner said of the photographs and other historical documents, some of them portraying life in the lead and zinc mines that underpin the founding of Joplin and much of the region. “This is a gold mine” for research, she said.
The photo collections, which include work by Murwin Mosler and Jim Mueller, could support a local research center, Turner said, particularly if digitized images are duplicated from the photos to make them accessible to the public. She said she could see the need for an archive room in which to store the documents, and an archivist to maintain the collection and assist researchers.
Belk has used the materials in some local history books he has written, but the public is largely unaware of the photographs because there is no space in the current setup for them to be accessed or viewed by visitors.
Belk and Shirley listed the mineral collection and mining machines, the local history exhibits and archives, an 8,000-item presidential collection, a collection of World War II-era uniforms, fashions and textiles, Civil War items, and dolls as among the collections that need display space. Some have never been viewed by the public.
“There are so many different aspects of this museum,” Belk told Turner, “so a new place that fits our needs is absolutely critical.”
Pros and cons
The group listed goals and needs of the museum, and the advantages and drawbacks of the Union Depot.
The historical nature, famous architect and construction technique of the depot are favorable to it being used as a museum, they said. Yet to be determined is the cause of standing water in the building’s basement, which could pose a threat to the climate control needed for a museum, and whether there is adequate space and parking for a museum of the magnitude envisioned.
Greer said he believes the water issue may be the result of standing rainwater that enters through holes in the roof, but that he has experts looking at that issue before he delivers a final opinion.
Downtown plan
City Manager Mark Rohr has proposed converting the Union Depot as part of a three-part downtown project that also would involve building a town green urban park for gatherings and concerts, and a cultural arts center.
He is researching funding options for construction of the projects, he told Mary Frances Turner of Synergy Design Group.
