Museum featured on new website showcasing cultural heritage survival stories

The North Berrien Historical Museum is featured in a new online resource intended to help communities across the nation promote their unique historic and cultural attractions. Produced by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the online toolkit includes profiles of more than 80 communities achieving success despite the challenges posed by today’s economy.

“We’ve found that real-life stories like North Berrien Historical Museum are meaningful role models” says Amy Webb, director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Heritage Tourism Program. “Cultural heritage tourism attractions want to hear from others in the trenches, facing similar challenges. These survival stories showcase how many communities are succeeding in the face of an economic downturn.”

This user-friendly web site allows visitors to search for stories by region of the country, type of attraction or organization, and/or the survival strategy or strategies that the story illustrates. The toolkit www.preservationnation.org/survival-toolkit was developed after hundreds of hours of outreach to national and state leaders in cultural and heritage tourism over the past year.

The North Berrien Historical was selected as a case study because of their successful local millage campaign in 2006 and subsequent renewal in 2010. “The National Trust for Historic Preservation has done a great job with their toolkit and we are glad to share our success story nationally,” say North Berrien Historical Museum Director Alexander Gates. “Local support is vital to cultural attractions and I hope others can learn from our example.”