This was posted on the Bead & Button forum by Russ Nobbs of Rings and Things. I thought it was important to pass along...
The Bead Museum in Glendale AZ needs help.
A period without an acting director left the Bead Museum without grant writing and fund raising for the current year. The economy has taken its toll. Jamey Allen, Alice Sheer and others are working to raise funds and ask for our help. Rings & Things, and other bead sellers are contributing. Here are excerpts from letters and posts about the fund raising campaign.
The Bead Museum of Arizona is the original bead museum begun by Gabrielle and Ted Liese in the mid-1980s. With the closing of the smaller Bead Museum in DC and the much earlier closing of the Museum of Native American Cultures in Spokane, The Bead Museum of Arizona is the primary bead centered museum in North America. (The Picard Trade Bead Museum and African Art Gallery in Carmel, CA is the only other.)
If there are angels who could pledge large sums toward the effort to preserve the Museum and its collections intact, please contact Alice Scherer at alice @ europa.com or call her at 503-655-3078 (Oregon). Or if you are more comfortable, by all means contact the acting Director of the Bead Museum, Kelly Norton, at director @ beadmuseumaz.org Or, simply go to http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/ , find the Donate button on the left, click on it and follow the PayPal prompts from there. 1800 individuals with $100 donations and 20 who can give $1000 may be more realistic but we'll be glad to accept all donations!
In the meantime, if you are not currently a member of the Bead Museum, please join. The cost for an individual member is $40 and here is the web address: http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/membership.htm
The Bead Museum of Arizona museum is the repository for :
** the collections of Peter Francis Jr. (The Center for Bead Research), including a many hundreds of bead sample cards collection;
** the vast majority of the artifacts collection of the Center for the Study of Beadwork, including what may well be the largest collection of bead looms in the world, as well as nearly 100 bead sample cards, and a slide bank of thousands of slides of the work of contemporary beadworkers from the United States, Europe and Asia in the period around the late 1980s and ‘90s (pre-The New Beadwork);
** an extensive collection of beads, necklaces and relevant artifacts from Asian, African , Latin American and European sites donated by the Lieses, Lois Dubin and other long-time collectors;
** a collection of the work of contemporary glass bead makers starting with those of the early period in the 1980's and '90's who exhibited in the ground-breaking 1993 exhibit at the Bead Museum, and, by no means the least;
** the Library: several thousand books and periodicals originally started as a private Art Library and grown to a valuable Research Library about the history of personal adornment, which includes important information on the history of glass.
Also included in the collections are archived letters and papers of
* Elizabeth Harris
* Peter Francis, Jr.
* Lady Gloria Dale
* Albert Summerfield, and
* Michael Heide, among many others.
Please make a donation using this link or mail it directly to
The Bead Museum
5754 West Glenn Drive
Glendale, Arizona 85301
