Volunteer Spotlight: Linda Chesnut Receives 2016 Smitty Award

Linda has chaired the museum’s Decorative Arts Advisory Committee (DAAC) since 1999, and she has been a tireless advocate for the power of the decorative arts. Every year, at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, one special person receives the M. Smith Griffith Volunteer of the Year Award (the Smitty, for short). In 2016, the award committee, which is made up of Friends members and Friends board members, was astonished to discover from nominations by staff that Linda Chesnut had never received the award.

Linda Chesnut with Dale Couch, curator of decorative arts

Linda has chaired the museum’s Decorative Arts Advisory Committee (DAAC) since 1999, and she has been a tireless advocate for the power of the decorative arts. Her contributions as its leader have helped the Henry D. Green Center for the Decorative Arts grow into a regional and national voice in the field. Linda is always willing to write a letter, make a phone call, donate a treasured object or talk another collector into doing so. She is both strategic in her aims and unafraid of doing the nitty- gritty grunt work that often needs to take place to ensure lofty goals become reality.

Linda’s leadership is a huge part of the Green Center’s success. In previous years, she received both an award for volunteerism from the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries and the Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities, presented to her by Governor Nathan Deal. She has lent her time and efforts to the DeKalb County Historical Society, the Georgia Archives, the Georgia Trust and alumni groups from regional colleges and universities, as well as to our museum, and they are equally appreciative of her hard work.

Upon hearing that she had won the 2016 Smitty, those DAAC members who were unable to attend the annual meeting chimed in with enthusiastic congratulations via email, repeatedly using the word “gracious” to describe Linda’s manner and leadership style. It is that willingness to yield the spotlight and focus on the mission of the museum rather than on herself that makes Linda Chesnut a most deserving addition to the list of those volunteers who have received the Smitty.

Letter from AAM

We got the following update from American Association of Museums (AAM) president Ford Bell late last week:

United We Serve

AAM is staunchly behind “United We Serve,” the White House initiative to be launched June 22 [future tense reflecting our lateness, not Bell's] and slated to run through September 11th, urging Americans to volunteer their time, energy and ingenuity to solve problems in their communities. Museums of all types and sizes and in every state are urged to upload their volunteer opportunities at www.serve.gov, the Web clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities across the nation.

Museums have long been beacons for Americans’ spirit of generosity and engagement. The latest Museum Financial Information survey (available from the AAM Bookstore in July), revealed the following startling nuggets:
--95% of responding museums said they rely on volunteers;
--The median number of volunteers at each museum is 65, or six for each full-time staffer;
--We estimate that volunteers contribute at least one million hours a week to U.S. museums.
--And we estimate that those one million hours a week are equivalent to $1 billion a year. Let’s marshal this spirit in support of the president’s “United We Serve” initiative.

The Essentials

We encourage your staff to sign up for our latest Webinar series, Museum Essentials, beginning July 1. Covering the basic tenets of museum operations, the series content was inspired by feedback we received from members. These Webinars are a productive staff activity - all for one $25 admission fee. Details are on the AAM site at www.aam-us.org.

Ford W. Bell
President, AAM

We certainly receive amazing amounts of time and input from our volunteers, from library volunteers to interns (both high school and college), docents, Friends and many, many more, and we know what they can do for us. We encourage you, even if you're not in the Athens area or interested in art (although we'd be sad about the latter) to check out www.serve.gov and either volunteer your time or provide an opportunity for someone else to.

The Webinar series from AAM is equally useful, a valuable resource for learning about collections care, making visitor experiences as good as possible, strategic planning and much more. Here's how AAM describes the current series:

Museum Essentials is based on the standards and practices of the Museum Assessment Program (MAP) which is designed to ensure the highest museum performance in governance, administration, responsibility and accountability to both museum collections and museum audiences. Administered by AAM in conjunction with the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), MAP has for 25 years empowered museums to excel in all aspects of operations, collections management, public programs and strategic planning. Participants in the Museum Essentials series will benefit from the experiences of MAP leaders and practitioners.

In Memoriam

We were so sad to learn that one of our most wonderful volunteers, Kate Howell, passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. Kate not only spent countless hours helping in our library, but also helped start the docent program at the Georgia Museum of Art, and we will miss her very much. Her obituary in the Athens Banner-Herald is here, and gives details on services. Thankfully, we have a great volunteer spotlight by which to remember her, written by the current publications department intern, Stephanie Kingsley. The article ran in the Winter 09 issue of the GMOA newsletter and a scan of it appears below (click on it to enlarge), in case you did not receive that issue or no longer have it. Stephanie did an amazing job documenting Kate's incredible life, and while the piece wasn't intended to serve as a memorial, it will let us remember a devoted volunteer and a fascinating woman.