Dear friends,
It is an honor to be tapped as the new president of SCHC. When staff member Anne Clothier called me two years ago to report the possibility that Brookside Museum would close, I felt an obligation to pitch in, but I had no idea where it would lead.
Since then, under Jere Blackwelder’s enthusiastic leadership, we have enjoyed success after success. Our finances have improved dramatically, and, with four exhibits opening last summer, we have presented a fresh look to the visiting public. But it’s our outreach, through ambitious on-line programming and supporting publicity, that has reinvigorated the institution.
The coming year will be, if possible, even more exciting. With the proceeds of our Preserve the Porch annual appeal, we will be able to reconstruct the porch and replace half of the seventy-year-old storm windows. Three new exhibits will debut in late summer. Behind the scenes, a growing corps of volunteers are wrangling the many collections that have proliferated for nearly fifty years, becoming unmanageable and largely unsearchable as they did so. The Roundtable, more publications, an ambitious schedule of public programs, and several new (and fun!) fundraisers will keep us hopping.
Our best strategy for long-term viability is membership support. If you are not already a member, please join us at whatever dollar level is comfortable for you. If you are a member, perhaps you can invite a friend with an interest in history to join us too. Our membership has more than doubled in the past year and must double again to take us to a fully-viable level.
Why does it matter? Our county-wide collections—objects, of course, but more extensively manuscripts, photographs, and reference books—are an irreplaceable resource for all Saratogians, now and in the future. If you have an interest in helping to put them in order, please contact me at field.horne@gmail.com.
I look forward, with your help, to building up this important institution.
FIELD HORNE
