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Case Studies

Strategic Planning Case Study - The Mosaic Templars Experience

In 2002, the Department of Arkansas Heritage contracted with Ken Hubbell and Associates (KHA) to develop a master plan for the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. The Cultural Center would be the first museum within the Department dedicated to documenting and celebrating African-American heritage in the state of Arkansas.

The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center was born from a community-led effort to save the historic Mosaic Templars of America Headquarters Building at the corner of Ninth Street and Broadway. The original Mosaic Templars organization was an African-American fraternal organization that played a pivotal role in early civil rights struggles, politics, and social programs. Though the organization folded during the Great Depression, the building anchored Little Rock's African-American business district along Ninth Street.

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center - Funded by the Department of Arkansas Heritage

Objectives

Our firm's objectives were to

  • Design a highly collaborative process to engage community members and key stakeholders in a conversation about how this new Cultural Center will serve the community and the state;
  • Craft a strategy for the Cultural Center's staff to develop collaborative relationships with other museums, funders, and heritage tourism sites;
  • Articulate the importance of the original Mosaic Templars of America organization to the state of Arkansas;
  • Develop a clear vision, mission, and concept for the Cultural Center;
  • Outline program activities for the Center;
  • Build a timetable for each of the Center's programs to come online as the building is being redeveloped;
  • Determine staffing and operations needs for the Center as each program comes online;
  • Conduct a market analysis; and
  • Budget for construction issues.

Planning Strategy

KHA did extensive research including

  • Uncovering historic documents about Arkansas's African-American heritage at state and university archives, museums, and libraries to develop a clear picture of the original organization and the atmosphere in which it existed.
  • Conducted market research including exploring other museums and African American history tours. Through this research, KHA developed a plan to cross market the Center through a regional heritage-tourism network that would include local sites - Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, Central High Museum, Old State House, Historic Arkansas Museum, Clinton Presidential Library, Pyramid Gallery, Arkansas Arts Center, and Central Little Rock historic districts - and other venues throughout the region and the country - Delta Cultural Center, Civil Rights Museum, Stax Museum, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta.
  • Prepared an audience analysis based on data from Arkansas Tourism Annual Report.
  • Partnered with the architect contracted to preserve and rehabilitate the building to ensure that our proposed program strategies were feasible based on the building specifications and the construction budget.
  • Hosted several meetings Community meeting, Preservation Society, meetings with DAH staff and other museum directors.

KHA also conducted extensive outreach to include as many voices as possible in the planning process:

  • Attended Horace Mann and Dunbar Reunions
  • Held a public forum with over 30 community members in attendance
  • Held design-team meeting with Little Rock City Manager
  • Mailed out 300 informational flyers
  • Met with the Capitol Downtown Partnership
  • Met with Housing Department Staff
  • Met with Mosaic Templars Building Preservation Society
  • Held several meetings with Department of Arkansas Heritage staff and state museum directors
  • Produced TV and radio public service announcements for the Little Rock market

How KHA Tools Were Used in this Process

Change Mapping: KHA produced dozens of process drawings and graphics to clearly articulate where we were in the planning process and how we would meet each milestone. We also used change mapping to visually capture new processes and ideas as they emerged throughout our meetings. Our final strategic planning document included several drawings and graphics illustrating the phased development of the Center, the program development cycle, research targets, and the historical context of the Mosaic Templars and the development of the Ninth Street Business District.

Results

  • Our team produced a ten-year master plan to be used by the new museum staff.
  • Our firm in partnership with Aristotle designed and launched a much-needed website for the Mosaic Templars Building Preservation Society at www.mosaictemplarspreservation.org.
  • Based on the success of the planning process, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center received a grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to conduct a community history project, create an educational CD about Little Rock's African-American heritage, and produce a half-hour documentary about the Mosaic Templars fraternal organization. The Center again contracted with Ken Hubbell and Associates to design and manage this project. As a result, we conducted over 50 oral-history interviews with nearly 100 individuals, collected and digitized hundreds of photos, wrote story scripts for each video segment of the CD and documentary, produced historic maps showing the development of Little Rock's African-American community over the past century, and produced the 1,000 copies of the educational CD and a TV-quality version of the Mosaic Templars documentary to be aired on Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN).

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