U.S. Marshals Museum staff in ‘intense’ fundraising push

U.S. Marshals Museum President and CEO Jim Dunn told museum board members Tuesday (Dec. 9) that the staff is in an “intense period of fundraising” and that eight volunteers also are “deeply involved” in raising money to build the planned $53 million museum in downtown Fort Smith near the Arkansas River.

Dunn said results from the one-on-one fundraising efforts will be known in the “coming weeks and months.”

The planned $53 million museum's construction is a three-phase project, starting first with site work before moving to building construction and finally design and installation of exhibits to be housed at the museum celebrating the United States' oldest law enforcement agency. In January 2007, the U.S. Marshals Service selected Fort Smith as the site for the estimated 20,000-square-foot national museum. The museum is to be built on 15.9 acres along the Arkansas River that is being donated by the Robbie Westphal family.

A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in September, and museum officials hope to have the facility open by late 2017.

The museum board on Tuesday held its final meeting of the year, with other updates including budget numbers, a new marketing budget, easement talks with the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and artifact collections.

Museum books show $19.5 million in cash, pledges and land value. That does not include an estimated $4 million-$5 million from U.S. Marshals Commemorative coin sales that could be provided for exhibit and artifact costs for the museum.

To boost coin sales, the museum board approved a $112,500 budget – up from a previous budget of $35,000 – to support advertising, a coin “rollout event,” design work, printing costs, working with coin vendors, and other marketing-related costs. The coins are expected to available in January for sale to the public.

“We view this as an investment in the bottom line,” Dunn said of the increased budget.

The proposed budget for the rollout event is $10,000. Alice Alt, director of development for the museum, said museum staff and the museum marketing firm “hope to target a celebrity” to help sell the coins.

Revenue from coin sales will also go to the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the National Law Enforcement Museum, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Jessica Hougen, curator for the museum, said more than 75 artifacts for museum display have been collected since active solicitation began in June. One of the artifacts is a KKK robe. Several hundred artifacts that were held by the U.S. Marshals Service when the museum was planned for Laramie, Wyo., are in secure storage in Scott, Ark. Hougen said the U.S. Marshals Service still owns the items, and she is hoping to have them moved to Fort Smith by May. She said not all of the artifacts may be accepted by the museum’s collection committee. Those not accepted into the permanent collection may be displayed in temporary exhibits, Hougen said.

Dunn said a March museum board meeting is planned during which new designs for the museum galleries will be revealed.

During the Tuesday meeting the museum board also welcomed Joe Byrd, a member of the Cherokee National Council, to the board.