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86 East Main Street, Franklin NC, 28734 | (828)524-7472 | tartans@scottishtartans.org Main | Museum | Gift Shop | About Us | Contact Us | Support the Museum |
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Museum Renovation Project
The Scottish Tartans Museum is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to promoting and preserving Scotland's unique Highland Dress heritage. Our museum focuses primarily on tartan and the kilt, but also features exhibits dealing with Scottish history and the Scottish migration to North Carolina.
The museum was first established in the town of Highlands, NC, in 1988. When the museum relocated to Franklin, NC, in 1994, brand new displays were designed and constructed for the new gallery area in the W. C. Burrell building located in the heart of downtown. In 1999, the museum moved to its current location, an historic building located at 86 East Main Street. Funds were not available at the time to create new exhibits, so the original displays were adapted and refitted to the new space. Today, the museum gallery features most of those same exhibits, now some sixteen years old. The time has come for a major facelift.
Plans are in place to completely redesign and upgrade the gallery. These plans include all new display panels; several new custom built display cases, which will be able to house many more examples of historic and contemporary Highland Dress regalia; new artwork; state-of-the-art lighting for all displays; and more!
We have the plans. What we lack
are the funds. By and large, our gift shop generates the
funds needed to pay our employees, pay our rent, power bill, insurance -- in
other words, the basic costs of doing business. And we won't lie to you;
with the state of the economy over the past 18 months, it hasn't been easy.
Any major expense outside of our normal operating budget must be met by some other means. This is why we are making an appeal to you for support of the Scottish Tartans Museum. We recently renovated a single display case in our gallery, housing the unique and historic Muirhead kilt exhibit. This outfit belonged to William Muirhead, who brought it with him when he left Scotland for the United States in the 1840s. The previously unknown tartan in this kilt has been revived and is currently used by the clan today.
Renovation on the display case housing this important collection of artifacts cost nearly $3000, the bulk of that cost involving the installation of a UV-free, long life LED lighting system (a lighting system we hope to have installed throughout the museum gallery). In order to completely upgrade and renovate our entire museum gallery, the total cost is expected to approach $100,000. We are confidant that we can reach this goal, but we know we will need help. We hope to have our museum gallery underwritten by businesses, clan societies, and interested individuals -- such as yourself!
HOW YOU CAN HELP We will gratefully accept a monetary donation of any amount you feel you can give. If you wish to donate all or part of the cost of a display panel or case, you or your business/organization will be credited as a sponsor with a plaque on that display. Requested donation amounts to sponsor displays, both in part and in full, are shown below. No donation is too small (or too large!), so thank you in advance for your support of our educational efforts.
Sponsorship Rates
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All material on this site ©1994-2010 Scottish Tartans Museum, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. |
