Mission Statement And Goals
The Edgewood Museum brings local history and culture to life for the Edgewood area.

Vision: The impact we strive to have

  • The Edgewood Museum will be a hub of community learning and enjoyment.
  • The Museum endeavors to ignite creativity, inspire critical thinking, and spark conversation.

Action: What we do

  • Deliver learning experiences to the community at large.
  • Present compelling exhibitions and programs that present local culture and history.
  • Generate and share new experiences through exhibitions and web-based media.
  • Collect, preserve, and interpret significant historical artifacts with a focus on local history and culture.
  • Think big, start small, create.

Values: Core beliefs that guide us

  • We believe that the Edgewood community deserves the best; we aim to excel at everything we do.
  • We exemplify Iowa hospitality; we are welcoming and friendly to all. We put people first.
  • Partners are essential; we work to build relationships with businesses, organizations, and individuals.
  • We never stop learning or thinking; we continually push boundaries and explore new territory.
  • The Edgewood Museum will serve in perpetuity. To ensure this, we build and care for our collections, make smart use of our financial resources, and continually invest in our future.
  • We exist to benefit the community; we demonstrate our success by aligning our words and our actions
Goals and Objectives

Goal 1: Develop engagement in the community

  • Develop an audience for the Museum to include Edgewood area residents and visitors.
  • Encourage participation from all community members. Establish partnerships with like-minded organizations.
  • Strengthen relationships with community leaders.
  • Empower the public to feel ownership of the Museum.
  • Engage the community as an accessible and welcoming center of learning.
  • Enhance history appreciation among our patrons.
  • Commit to audience development by knowing our patrons, and by presenting exhibitions and programs that respond to their needs and interests.
  • Provide access to the Museum with convenient opening hours and pricing policies, and developing new ways to speak with new audiences.
  • Work creatively in partnership with other organizations to enhance our work and enable us to extend our reach.
  • Determine how to present, interpret, and share our collections as a means for engaging our audience.

Goal 2: Establish the Museum as a partner in education

  • Develop offerings that promote creativity and build community.
  • Connect with teachers and serve as a partner.
  • Ensure that every school-age child visits the Museum.
  • Develop and promote the collection as a resource for learning.
  • Provide a robust digital learning experience.
  • Grow financial support for education efforts so that they can be provided free of charge or at the lowest cost possible.
  • Develop a docent program to provide a strong volunteer pool to support education initiatives.

Goal 3: Provide a fun and enjoyable Museum experience

  • Adopt a culture of hospitality, and develop a visitor centric ethos.
  • Provide family-friendly visitor amenities to promote comfort and engagement.
  • Develop a changing exhibition program to connect with community interests and motivate attendance.
  • Be a highly visible organization with a lot of “buzz” about town.
  • Build a high quality collection and enhance public access to it.
  • Actively partner with other cultural, educational and social service organizations.
  • Acquire, centralize, and catalogue objects and archives.
  • Digitize and post the collection on-line.
  • Utilize actual and virtual exhibitions and related educational programming.
  • Create personalized experiences for our visitors.
  • Broaden our offerings by forging creative partnerships with other cultural organizations in the region.

Goal 4: Ensure long-term sustainability and grow organizational capacity

  • Develop a volunteer corps to provide support to Museum activities.
  • Focus on long-term strategy, fundraising, and fiduciary responsibilities.
  • Grow and diversify financial resources—operational and endowment.

Goal 5: Develop the Museum’s brand, communications, and marketing

  • Develop and launch a brand for the Museum.
  • Develop public and media relations to reach the entire Edgewood community and the surrounding trade area.
  • Align the Museum’s marketing efforts with its audience development goals.
  • Create a communication strategy for promoting the Museum.
  • Develop a comprehensive digital strategy by focusing on the broader role that technology must play in every aspect of the Museum’s operations, especially in marketing and communications and new interpretive initiatives.