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February 2004
Heavy Metal
By Paige Orr
When a traveling art exhibit came to Memphis, museum organizers panicked when they realized a priceless metal piece had broken. After placing a hasty call to the Smithsonian for help, the Memphians learned the best place to find metalworking experts was in their backyard. Right on the Mississippi River, the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis employs two people with master’s degrees in metalworking. The metal artists at the museum have repaired Graceland’s gates and crafted parts for an antique Chinese chest. With a far-reaching reputation, the museum draws about 40,000 visitors annually. This month, the Metal Museum celebrates its 25th year in operation. In the 1970s, local business leaders in ornamental metal manufacturing decided to create a nonprofit organization to preserve and advance the art and craft of metalwork. Since opening in February 1979, grants, fundraisers and contributions from individuals and corporations have helped support the Metal Museum’s $500,000 annual operating budget. Jim Wallace, who has served as director of the Metal Museum since it opened, recently faced a new challenge with the museum’s first-ever capital campaign. Now underway to raise $1.3 million by the end of the year, the campaign is aimed at funding the renovation of an 1880s building that will house the museum’s collection of books, portfolios, slides and archival material. “For 25 years, we’ve been keeping our nose down and going to work, not to cocktail parties,” Wallace says, adding that the staff’s single-minded focus on creating artwork, repairing metal and teaching metalworking classes might have hurt the organization’s ability to raise money for the campaign. The recent economic slowdown also has made fundraising difficult for the Metal Museum, just as it has worked against the fundraising efforts of most nonprofits. Still, Wallace says he’s been working harder than he ever has, and the museum has surpassed the $1.1 million mark. Every year, the Metal Museum generates income through its Repair Days Weekend in October. The event attracts metalworkers from as far as Germany to donate their time to repair objects brought in by the public. Last year, Memphis jeweler Coffee Miklos repaired a five-foot tall copper giraffe statue, according to Linda Raiteri of the Metal Museum. “Religious groups bring in their silver serving plates and dented processional crosses, and gardeners bring in their tools for sharpening,” Raiteri says, adding that metalworkers also repair jewelry, garden furniture, metal rocking horses and candle stands. Revenue from the fundraiser and year-round repair work totaled more than $65,000 in the most recent fiscal year, and the Metal Museum also gets a boost from its metalworking classes, event space rental, museum admissions and the gift shop, which averages annual sales of more than $100,000. “We tend to get our money the old-fashioned way—we work for it,” Wallace says.
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