The Kosciusko-Attala Community Foundation (KACF) has hired the Jackson-based firm Arthur Alley to complete a feasibility study for the proposed American Indian Museum of Mississippi, to be located on the site of the former Leonard’s department store on the south side of courthouse square.
“We’re at a point in time where the committee thought it would be a good idea to get an overall idea from the public, positive and negative, about building the museum,” said KACF President Hollis Cheek. “It is going to require a commitment from the local community to get it done.”
The state legislature previously awarded the city about $1 million in funding for the project, which is now expected to cost a total of about $4-$5 million if all the current hopes for the site are realized, Cheek said.
“Building a building is one thing, but you’ve got to put in fixtures and all the displays into the interior,” he said.
Cheek said the intent is for the museum to tap into tourism traffic as a driver for local economic development.
The study, he said has three goals: to assess community interest, to provide additional information to the city in their decision-making process and to explore opportunties for the additional funding that will be necessary to complete and sustain the museum.
Arthur Alley principal Derek Alley and senior consultant Ann Shackelford have been collecting input from businesses, organizations and individuals in preparation of their report, due to the KACF in March.
Shackelford joined Authur Alley after spending four years working at promotions for the B.B. King Museum in Indianola after working on that museum’s startup efforts.
“Having gone through that process, it is not just fundraising, but concept development, “ she said. “To get it built is really just the first piece. I think the key is to have the local support.”
Shackelford said museums seem to be the thing in Mississippi right now, with something akin to a museum trail developing — the B.B. King Museum, the Grammy Museum, the Two Museums in Jackson, and now, perhaps a museum focusing on the Native American peoples of Mississippi in Kosciusko.
“Museums are really having a moment in Mississippi. Museums have become a real component of economic development in Mississippi,” she said. “This is a serious project. There are folks who are invested in it both emotionally and financially.”
Shackelford said that she truly believes this type of project can have a significant positive impact on a community.
“It certainly has the potential to become an economic development driver. I’ve seen projects like this bring communities together to celebrate their shared cultural heritage, and to bring more people in to share in that cultural history and bring money into a town,” she said.
If the community is on-board, she said, the remaining challenge is one of funding.
“We try to get the best information for people to act on and make sure they know what they’re getting into and there is a sustainability component to that,” she said. “It is just about impossible to run a museum on (monies from) the gate. There have to be other sources of income.”
Those could take the form of a tourism tax, city or county investments, membership fees or other revenue streams.
For the timeline for this project, see: https://www.starherald.net/news-kosciusko-attala-county/timeline-propose...
