Cultivating a Rosy Future Inside and Out

With broad support from members and friends, we have met and exceeded our Annual Fund goal for the second year in a row. Donations still arrive and to date, we have exceeded our goal of $32,000. A full report will be available after the campaign concludes. With Jodi Lavely's extended absence, we ask for your patience.

Truly, the Granville Historical Society is moving forward with strength and purpose to support our mission and the annual goals set to address specific needs and wishes. We can't do this without you and you have once again risen to the occasion. We are proud of you.

This support is vital to the Mission and the many areas of essential need range from employees, to building maintenance, to everyday expenses and to a myriad of other essential operating costs, some known, some unexpected surprises. Without the Annual Fund, we could not responsibly meet these needs, plain and simple.

That said, with funds raised through this campaign, we will begin to pursue this year's goals to embark on improvements in the functionality of exhibit space outside in the gardens and inside the museum for a Refresh in preparation for the 250th anniversary of our nation on July 4, 2026.

Outside:

To Refresh and Renew the museum gardens through re-design and implementation of landscape plans, long time GHS volunteer and the Garden Manager at the Ohio Governor's Residence Heritage Garden in Columbus, Lynette Overholser, will oversee the effort to refresh our outdoor gardens. She is exploring the possibility of an educational opportunity with local students to redesign and plant the garden with species native to the region. Creating new outdoor exhibit spaces in these areas will also be considered.

Inside:

An overriding goal, long percolating in the thoughts of the Board of Managers, is to re-envision interior space and create more self interpretative exhibits. that will permit extended hours of operation. What is the traffic pattern for visitors who walk through the museum? How do we take advantage of patterns to engage them with our exhibits? How much time can we invite them to stay? In general, how does the physical plant enhance or detract from the history stories we have to tell? These are important questions to explore. The public perception that we are the little museum that is never open must be addressed. This is our intention. This is our goal.

To do that, an Ad Hoc Committee to Refresh is forming now to explore contemporary opportunities to re-envision space and place that will make our well conceived and purposeful exhibits more self interpretative, interesting, and meaningful. We are looking for one or two GHS members or friends who have an interest in this work to join our committee.

Contact me please if you have a few hours a month to join the Inside Refresh Committee.

Evelyn Frolking, Chair, 2023 Annual Fund