February 11. 2024
Though the purchase of the church property has been a trying experience, the real work for creating our museum lies before us. To make this happen we will need your help.
In addition to cash donations, which we will always be seeking, we will be asking for donations of building materials and volunteer labor to help with the buildout. We already have some people on board for this, but more are needed. Cash donations can be made now. At this time checks need to be made out to FAGCA/Museum Fund. Your donations are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows. Please use the DEED OF GIFT FORM on the left sidebar of this page.
In about a year, once the museum is ready to open, we will need volunteers to staff and operate the museum. These volunteers will need to include docents who are trained in the history of the company to guide people who visit us. Ideally, they would be folks who love Fenton and the glass. They do need to be local.
Lastly, we will need glass. As we all know, when the original museum was dissolved, the glass it held was dispersed into the collector wind. The FAGCA has several cabinets of glass including some from Harry Rosenthal's collection that will give us a start. However, that will not be nearly enough. We will be looking for your gifts of museum-quality Fenton glass to share with the world.
As we currently envision it, the museum will be organized from oldest to newest. Therefore we will be looking for glass of every period and type. Please think about what you may be able to provide for the good of Fenton-lovers everywhere.
The Museum Committee thanks you in advance for your thoughtful consideration of what you can do to help us make this the best museum of glass there is.
The Museum of Fenton Art Glass
Update 4
Dave Kingsley
The sellers title deficiency that has required them to go to court to remedy was resolved and the judge that
was overseeing the case has ordered the Riverside Church of Christ property to be sold. This has finally cleared
the path forward for us. As of this writing (3-22-2024) we are waiting for the lawyers to complete the final
work in preparation for closing. Karen Easton. Randy Clark, and CC Hardman met with architect Harley Nolan
on March 21 st . He told us that the walls we want to remove are safe to demo. Once the demo work is done
and the pews are removed, he will revisit the building to see it as a blank slate to better assist us with a layout.
Our most recent Museum Committee meeting was held on March 8th. Everyone was present except Laura
Murphy who was a victim of miscommunication. This meeting started with reviewing our completed budget.
The Fundraising sub-committee (Lorianne Puskarich & Claire Kauffung) presented all their ideas. They settled
on a good array of items that we think will be embraced by collectors. We decided that most of the items are
appropriate for sale through the website when it is ready and at the two conventions. We also decided on the
museum logo which is presented here.
Based on the recommendations of this committee, the FAGCA Board selected TRM of Marietta to build our
website. As soon as we close on the building and the LLC is official, we can have the work started on that.
We discussed having a “Letters from Frank” display area in the museum that will showcase the various letters
that collectors received from him. We will be seeking copies of those from folks so we can rotate the display.
Finally, we discussed & approved the final outline for accepting gifts and loans. It was decided that loans
would be accepted for a minimum period of one museum season tentatively set to run from April 1 st through
October 31 st . Full guidelines will be published soon.
Our next Museum Committee meeting is scheduled for April 5 th , 2024. If you are interested in helping with the
Museum in any capacity, please email fagcainc@cascable.net.
