New strategy worth pursuing

Considering the rocky road that Odessa’s Presidential Museum has traveled in the past couple of years, a plan revealed Thursday to get the operation self-sufficient and under the auspices of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin looks pretty good.

Thanks to the generosity of local businessman and philanthropist John Bushman, a strategy has evolved to get the now-dormant museum free of debt and in a position to create an endowment that would allow it to operate as a part of UTPB, but with private funding.

Of course, raising the kind of money to create what will be known as the Dorothy Croft Endowment Fund won’t be an easy task. Museum board members estimate it will take about $3 million to make the museum self-sustaining.

But having Croft’s name behind the effort can’t hurt. The longtime Odessa patron of the arts died last year at the age of 99, but she was among the founders of the museum and gave a lot of financial and moral support through the years. The endowment is set up at Txbank.

And the possibility of having the museum under UTPB’s umbrella should lend more credibility to the effort.

Not only was Bushman kind enough to give enough money to pay off debts, he also committed to funding to get the museum’s doors back open, perhaps within a month. It stands to reason that an operational museum is more likely to draw contributions than one that is sitting idle.

Interim board president Juan Alcantar said the museum board intends to continue negotiations with UTPB for a complete transfer of operations and ownership to the school.

UTPB President David Watts said he spoke with Alcantar late Thursday afternoon and was impressed with the decision to pursue an endowment outside university negotiations. “It’s very intriguing, proposing an endowment that’s definitely needed,” Watts said. “I can’t use state funds to operate a museum, but I can use non-state funds to do so.”

In the short term, Executive Director Lettie England will be retiring and advisory board member Charles Cotten has agreed to step in as a paid interim director starting in February.

Alcantar said the current board would not remain if UTPB agrees to take over the institution, but an advisory council to help administer operations would be a possibility.

This seems to be a reasonable short-term resolution. If donors could be assured that the museum would be operated by UTPB, which undoubtedly would lead to some staffing and support by students, they might be more inclined to get involved.

And this arrangement would allow the Presidential Museum to be run largely with private funding, which is preferable to being supported by tax dollars.

We wish museum boosters the best of luck with this new approach. With a clear blueprint of what lies ahead for the museum, there is reason for optimism that the plan will work.