Every year millions of visitors flock to the more than 8,000 museums across the United States. From house museums and storefront galleries to the venerable Smithsonian Institution, these varied treasuries affirm and transmit our nation's complex history and cultural values.

But among museum professionals who operate these institutions -the directors, curators, development directors, public relations specialists, and others - less than one percent are estimated to be minorities.

Several years ago, Dr. Rick Beard, executive director of the Atlanta History Center, began wrestling with how to address the paucity of minorities in his profession.

"I was interested," Beard said, "because my experience had been that if you wanted to recruit minorities in the museum profession, it could be really hard work. And even when you were successful, it might be a short stay for the professionals you hired. It wasn't long before I waved good-bye to them."

The Atlanta History Center joined forces in 1994 with the Coca-Cola Foundation to launch the Atlanta History Center/Coca-Cola Museum Fellows Program. The goal: to expose minority undergraduate students to the influential world of collecting, preserving, documenting, and interpreting material culture.

Rinaldo Murray, a Clark Atlanta University senior majoring in history, is a fellow in this, the third year of the program. He was introduced to the Museum Fellows Program by his friend and school mate Brett Crenshaw, a member of the first class. Murray says Crenshaw was very blunt about what he should expect.

"Brett told me I should definitely consider the program," Murray recalls. "He told me that the things I would learn and be exposed to would help me out a lot. But he also made it clear that this would not be a walk in the park.

"He was right. It's definitely been rigorous, and I have definitely learned a lot."

An Enthusiastic Director

Dr. Billie Davis Gaines gave up being a trustee of the Atlanta Historical Society, which operates the Atlanta History Center, to serve as director of the fellowship program. Keenly aware of the need for minority representation in the board room, the decision to change hats was not easy, she says.

Gaines was a member of the National Council on the Humanities from 1990-96. She has more than thirty years experience as a teacher, writer and lecturer, including creating Georgia's first four-year secondary Russian language program, at Atlanta's Booker T. Washington High School.

No stranger to initiatives that purport to help minorities, Gaines says the Museum Fellows Program offered its participants three essential benefits that let her know this was something she could sink her teeth into: in-depth training, a meaningful work experience the students could put on their resumes, and the opportunity to network with the nation's top museum professionals.

"I have run many programs nationally, regionally and locally," says Gaines. "But I have never felt this good about a program. As a program designed to attract and prepare minorities, it is everything you would want."

Beard says he hit upon the idea of the fellowship program while at the Museum of the City of New York, where he served as associate director for programs, collections and publications from 1986 until 1992, when he arrived in Atlanta.

Atlanta was fertile ground for Beard's idea. The Atlanta Historical Society, founded in 1926, was reviewing its mission and committing to broadening its outreach and becoming more inclusive. The metropolitan area offered two other essentials: a sizable population of minority college students and museums of many sizes and stripes.

In The Coca-Cola Foundation, Beard found an ideological partner - and a $300,000 grant. The Coca-Cola Foundation is the philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company and has made support of minority higher education one of its priorities.

"I think the partnership is what makes this program unique," says Michael Bivens, education director for The Coca-Cola Foundation. "A history center, institutions of higher education, and a corporate foundation have worked together and developed a creative and innovative program. That's something The Coca-Cola Foundation is very proud of.

"But most important, this partnership is providing access and opportunity for students of color, in a career area where they. have not been well represented."

"A Serious Opportunity"

Believed to be the first program in this country to introduce minority undergraduates to careers in the museum profession, the Atlanta History Center/The Coca-Cola Foundation Museum Fellows program offers students an intense year of up-close learning about museum issues and core functions including exhibition, collection, research, marketing, fund raising, and public relations. Fellows receive a $6,000 grant from the program and academic credit from their schools.

"It's a serious opportunity," Crenshaw says, "as opposed to the kind of fellowship where you aren't given a hands-on experience and where the expectations aren't as high."

Fellowship candidates are nominated through their college or university's academic deans. They are encouraged to recommend students who are interested in museums, who can benefit from the fellowship program, and who can meet its challenges. Most fellows have been history or art history majors.

Besides submitting their transcript and a 1,000-word essay, each prospect is interviewed by a panel of six museum professionals.

"I was impressed with the quality of the young people," says Hope Alswang, the executive director of the New Jersey Historical Society who served on the panel that selected the 1995-96 Museum Fellows. "Obviously they are smart and they are really quite confident." Alswang also has been one of many guest lecturers during the program.

The program begins each fall and runs one full year. During the school year, the students meet for weekly three-hour seminars at the Atlanta History Center, where they work closely with curators and staff to learn about different aspects of the profession. The students also take on research projects as well as heavy doses of required outside reading.

During the fall, students get a dose of real-life museum practices and challenges. Sessions might include anything from reports by students on site visits, to exploring topics like managing a museum collection, or evaluating sources of historical information. During the spring semester, the program covers the business aspects of operating a museum.

Besides visiting Atlanta area museums, the museum fellows have been received by professionals at nationally prominent places like the Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, Holocaust Museum, and Anacostia Neighborhood Museum in Washington, D.C. During the final phase of the program, the students are employed full-time as hands-on apprentices at the Atlanta History Center.

"They are not interns doing make-work," Gaines insists. "They are full-time, salaried museum staff members who have real work to do in areas of interest they have selected."

"A Real Sense of Accomplishment"

"It was a life-changing experience for me," says Tina Gurley, an Agnes Scott College graduate who was contemplating her future when she was selected as a 1995-96 museum fellow. "I had not had a whole lot of exposure to museums and this really exposed me.

"It opened my eyes to a lot of things I had never even thought about. I have a much greater appreciation for the value of public history as opposed to the isolation of the academy."

During her apprenticeship, Gurley was a lead organizer of a pictorial exhibit. of Georgia slave cabins at the Tulley Smith Farm, an antebellum farm on the Atlanta History Center grounds.

Echoing the sentiments of other fellows, Gurley says the fellowship program not only offered her invaluable insights into how museums work, it gave her the confidence to be assertive when she had a strong opinion.

"My suggestions were taken seriously and I got a real sense of accomplishment from being involved in the exhibit," she says.

For Rinaldo Murray and Brett Crenshaw, a shared interest in historical research brought them together on an extracurricular project - researching the history of a century-old, two-room house that had piqued their curiosity.

Interestingly, their research turned up information that was at odds with the homeowner's family history a development which brought home the "myth and memory" discussions from the museum fellows program.

Crenshaw's participation in the Museum Fellows Program also earned him an invitation to work at the Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery as it prepared to showcase its well-known collection of African American art during the 1996 Olympic Games, He helped with collections management, established office policies, started a film series of African American artists, and did public relations work.

"I was given a lot of leeway to do things autonomously," Crenshaw says. "It has been prophesied that some day I will return to the Clark Atlanta Art Gallery as a professional. That may or may not happen, but there is definitely a part of me in that gallery."

An Asset to Any Career

That is the story, as well, at the Du Sable Museum in Chicago, where Germaine Williams, a Chicagoan who was the 1994-95 fellow, has worked as an intern.

"We probably learned more from him than he did from us," says the Du Sable's chief curator Ramon Price. "Whatever assignments we gave him. he always went far beyond that. My hope is that he would want to consider some day becoming the curator here at the museum. He would be my candidate for possibly taking over."

Beard and Gaines say they are not disappointed if students in the program decide to pursue other careers.

"Even if they don't choose the museum profession, they will be good consumers, good advocates, and strong supporters of museums," Beard says.

Beard expects the fellows who become teachers to influence their students to visit and support museums. Their involvement in the program also will make the fellows excellent choices to serve as museum board members and fund raisers. In fact. Beard says one of the pleasant surprises has been student interest in the business end of things.

Gaines adds, "There is no way that their views and their contributions in what ever field they choose will not be greatly expanded because of this experience."

"I definitely look at [museum exhibits] with a more critical eye," says Murray. And, while he still is most interested in doing historical research and teaching history at the high school and college levels. Murray says, "I'm definitely open to the possibility of being involved with museums. It was something I had not envisioned initially. But now it's an option."

Museum professionals agree that in order to compete successfully with other career fields, the museum community must do a better job of attracting students before they lock into a career choice.

Among African American students, "the level of consciousness is not very high in terms of people knowing this is a viable profession," says John Fleming, treasurer and past president of the African American Museums Association. "I don't think the word is out there in high schools and colleges. And that's really where we need to begin to prepare students."

Including the present class, sixteen students have participated in the program, which was piloted at the historically Black colleges and universities of the Atlanta University Center and expanded the following year to reach minority undergraduates at other Atlanta area institutions.

Impediments to Overcome

According to Beard, lack of exposure is not the only impediment to minority participation in the museum profession. Often minority communities have understandably reacted with indifference to many mainstream museums that were "set up by Whites and run as private clubs."

"Often, the history the institutions have told has been pretty narrow in its perspective," says Beard.

Moreover, entry level salaries in the profession lack allure. According to the American Association of Museums, recent surveys revealed that the average salary for an educational assistant is $17,000; for a curatorial assistant, $22,000. For museum directors, the average salary in the northeast is $55,000, and in California it's $66,000.

"Salaries continue to be a major drawback," says the African American Museums Association's John Fleming, who adds that minorities in the profession often face isolation and lack of support for ideas and projects they feel are important.

Despite the hurdles and disincentives, however, the number of minorities who are drawn to the museum profession is growing, as is their visibility and influence.

"We are now beginning to have African Americans in primary policy-making positions in the mainstream museums," says Beard.

The Museum Fellows Program will, according to Beard, make the museum world less provincial by attracting African Americans to the profession "who can serve as role models and mentors, and who will be in the position to open doors for other African Americans."

RELATED ARTICLE: Despite Interest Boom, Funding Remains a Bust for Black Museums

Of the estimated 8,200 museums in the United States, nearly 3,300 were established after 1970, feeding a ravenous public appetite for exploring the country's complex history and culture outside of the academic setting.

There are more than 150 African American museums, a diverse lot that includes the Black Fashion Museum in Washington, D.C.; the African American Museum of Fine Art in San Diego; the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis; and the Children's Museum of African American Culture in Chicago, The state-of-the-art, glass-domed Museum of African American History in Detroit - with 120,000 feet of galleries, classrooms, research space and other facilities - is the world's largest Black historical and cultural museum.

There are many reasons for the museum boom: increased interest in the study of social history; the desires of various groups to preserve and define their own unique cultures; and a growing interest in exploring the private lives of people great and small.

The nation's Bicentennial Celebration, in 1976 also fueled the flames, according to Dr. Fath Ruffins, head of the Collection of Advertising History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

"There's been a tremendous surge of interest in history," Ruffins says. "A lot of people are energized now by trying to understand the past."

Many are trying to understand the world around them, as well. Among the strongest trends of late are children's museums, aquariums, and science and technology museums.

"It used to be that only major cities had museums of science," says Ellen Griffee of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, an umbrella group with 310 members. "Now you're seeing mid-size cities and small cities with science museums. it's very much community driven."

There is, it seems, a museum for every interest. Among those to open their doors in the past five years are: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland; the Berman Museum of art and global military artifacts in Anniston, Alabama; the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles; the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City; and the Sci-Port DiscoVery Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. Even a group of Mustang auto enthusiasts is looking to build a national museum, the Mustang Experience, in the near future.

The role of museums as centers of public education has increased visibility and opportunities for public historians. Their job, explains Ruffins, involves "appealing to a wider public than do historians in the academic world, whose audiences tend to be their colleagues, their students, and highly specialized audiences.

"The research process may be the same, but the outcomes are rather different. Doing an exhibition is completely different than writing a book. Museums visitors have to see something. So there is the requirement for public historians to understand more about design and spatial relationships - there are more disciplines involved," she adds.

With museums broadening their constituency, the number of museum visits jumped from 389 million in 1979 to nearly 600 million in 1989. Still, museums face formidable challenges of keeping the masses coming and doing an effective job of educating those who visit. The public is, after all, swamped with entertainment options. Moreover, museums are still regarded by many as staid, sleepy little enclaves for the college-educated.

Their efforts to rise to the challenges have changed how museums look, feel, and relate to the public.

"For years, museums concentrated on building their collections," says Ed Able Jr., president of the American Association of Museums. "Now they are concentrating on how to use those exhibits in more effective ways to educate people."

Museums are presenting an increasing variety of programs and serving as venues for community meetings and forums. The museum world also is more marketing savvy. The American Museum of Natural History in New York, for example, used the release of Steven Spielberg's dinosaur movie, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," as a hook for its dinosaur paleontology exhibition, "The Lost World: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs." The show features skeleton casts from real fossils alongside models of the film's dinosaurs.

And the Smithsonian's popular National Air and Space Museum is sparking interest in the great beyond by marking the twentieth anniversary of "Star Wars," this fall. It will showcase more than 200 original movie props and costumes.

Science museums have led the way in converting museums into places where, says Griffee, visitors can "explore, experiment, and enjoy. The idea now is to take things from behind the glass and put them in your hands - to have people, in effect, messing around with things. We know that when visitors have that kind of experience, they feel like they own that knowledge."

The museum explosion is not without its perils. A primary one, according to Able, is the possible construction of "more museums than we can support. Museums are in competition not only with other museums but with a plethora of charitable organizations."

Indeed, one thing all museums seem to have in common is the ongoing challenge of getting the funding they need.

"We opened on a hope and prayer," says Don Motley executive director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

According to Motley, the rich history of the Negro Leagues, which produced some 2,600 Blacks who were banned from the Major Leagues yet played some of America's most exciting baseball, may be "the great untold American history." But without solid funding - to purchase more artifacts, maintain the facility, and to attract and keep quality professionals - it will be difficult for the museum to carry on.

Thus, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Motley says, is organizing a national membership campaign, and raising $5 million - $3 million of which will establish an endowment for the museum.

"We are limited on funds," echoes the Rev. Fred Perriman, president of the board of directors for the fledgling Morgan County African American Museum in small-town Madison, Georgia.

With an annual budget of about $60,000, the museum - a five-room house that, among other things, depicts local African American life at the turn of the century - is searching for a full-time director, preferably one with fund-raising and grant-writing experience.

Insufficient funding also hampers the museum world's effectiveness at spreading the word about its career opportunities. And the lack of funding contributes to the industry's deflated salaries.

That, says Able, puts museums in the tough competitive position of telling prospective museum professionals, "On the one hand, we'd love to have you and, by the way, we would like for you to have a master's or a Ph.D. On the other hand, we're going to pay you $12,000 a year."

As with schools, their sister institutions of learning, the well-being of museums is an important though often neglected community issue. Perhaps the museum world's second greatest challenge is strengthening relations with the community.

Says Able: "We need to be clear about the fact that we are a part of the community, and that we care about the community and its issues."