More than a decade after it temporarily closed to develop a more sustainable operations strategy, the Charlotte Museum of History continues to seek more support from the city to stabilize and expand. The museum did receive a one-time $100,000 allocation in the city’s 2025 annual budget, approved this week. However, the museum had asked for $650,000 to support its operating costs.
Museum officials also want to be placed on the list of about 40 other arts organizations that receive operating support funds annually from the city. Terri White, who was named the museum’s president and CEO in July 2022, tells WFAE's Gwendolyn Glenn that when she came on board, she was shocked to learn that the museum had not received public operational funds from the city in 12 years.
Terri White: That was one of the first things that was brought to my attention on day one when I first started here, and I immediately went to work to try to reverse that. I was meeting with city officials as early as August, and I started in July [2022]. So, I have spent the last two years just talking to people and bringing awareness to the fact that we aren't funded by these municipal funds.
Glenn: What are the reasons they're giving you for the museum not being included in that list of arts organizations that get funding?
White: Well, unfortunately, I will say half of them didn't know we existed. So that is a problem in and of itself. But a lot of what I have heard is 'Oh, but if we add you to the list, we have to add everybody else, or wait until next fiscal year. Just stay tight.'
We are a major museum. And at the moment, we're the only history museum that has a permanent location. Our peers are the Levine, the Mint, the Bechtler, the Gantt.
Glenn: And they all get funding?
White: Absolutely.
Glenn: How are you doing financially, and what does it mean for you not getting that funding?
White: We're actually doing well. Income overall is up 23%. Our contributed income is double. Although we're, you know, trending upwards on making money for ourselves, we have 20 years of backlog, repairs, maintenance and upgrades that we haven't done. So, we've been Band-Aiding, delaying, or just, you know, praying to the universe and God above that nothing major breaks.
Glenn: Have you had to do any cutbacks because you have not been able to get that $650,000 you requested from the city?
White: We have cut a lot of the programming centered around our exhibits. We've had to cut a lot of our children's programming. Our plan was if we did get that $650,000, we were going to offer free admission for the fiscal year so that everyone could come see their history and not have to worry about admission fees.
We've even cut back on a lot of the preservation work and campus maintenance. This building has not been upgraded since 1999. And in addition to just upgrading and maintaining the physical museum space, we now have five historic buildings that we are responsible for, including the oldest home in Mecklenburg County — and the Kitchen Spring House and barn that come with it — and now the Siloam School. So we need to stabilize the property on our eight acres that we already have.
Glenn: Now, in the past, the Arts and Science Council was over the distribution of the funds. Then for three years they've had an advisory committee that will be dissolved on June 30, I'm told by the city. And they have said to me that the list is the same as it was under the Arts and Science Council. But they weren't able to tell me why that list hasn't changed. It's just the same.
White: It is. And at one of the recent City Council meetings, the city manager pointed out that this list has not [been] updated since 2008.
Glenn: And in talking with someone with the advisory board, I was told that the last time you received funding from ASC was in 2012, before the museum temporarily suspended its operations. Do you think that temporary closure has something to do with it?
White: The 2012 closure, I do think that's still floating around in the back of a lot of people's minds. The closure was about restructuring to move away from an unsustainable model. So, it was less than a year that the museum was closed.
Glenn: And they also said that the museum did not apply for operating support from ASC in 2020.
White: I can't speak to 2020, but what I will say is not one person from the city or anyone else has come and said this is the application you need to fill out in order to get funding. I didn't even know there was an application until Rep. Molina brought it up in March. It's not like it was publicly available. It's an invite-only application.
Glenn: And no one on your staff who's been there for a long time knew about this either?
White: No, ma'am. My development director has been here seven years. She didn't know. And my board chair was actually on one of the panels that was helping to create the city's arts plan — and he's a former executive of the symphony. He didn't even know that there was an application process. We have received programmatic grants, but all the programs and exhibits being fully funded are for, not if the roof caves in or if people can't get paid.
Glenn: I was looking at this list that they, the city, sent to me and just a few of the grants that you've received include a Cultural Vision Grant of $6,000 in 2023 and also in 2024, a $20,000 Cultural Vision Grant and a culture block grant program $5,700. But as you say, those are for specific uses but not operational.
White: Absolutely. We're very thankful for those grants, but our operating budget this year — and that's bare bones — was $1.4 million. This is why this operational support is so important. I'm already canceling programs and events for the summer and early fall because there's no one stepping up so we can do them.
