Pratt County art museum seeks repeat $5,000 county donation and a 3% inflation adjustment

Britney Novotny, executive director of the Philly Art Museum, told the Pratt County commissioners that the museum had about 8,000 visitors last year, ran 10 exhibits featuring roughly 80 artists and conducted about 40 tours serving about 1,000 youth. She asked the county to renew last year’s $5,000 donation and to consider a 3% increase to preserve the grant’s value.

"Last year, you gave $5,000, so we would ask that you might consider $5,001.50, which would be just that 3% increase to kind of maintain that value," Novotny said.

Novotny described the museum as operating with one full-time employee, two part-time employees and about 40 volunteers who contribute roughly 1,200 hours annually. She highlighted new fundraising events (including a Mardi Gras event that the museum says accounted for about 17% of its budget) and local tourism partnerships, including participation in a Sunflower Summer attractions program that brought visitors from multiple ZIP codes.

Why it matters: The museum emphasized regional cultural and tourism benefits, noting about 30% of last year’s visitors came from outside the immediate area and that museum programming serves schoolchildren and regional audiences.

Novotny also invited commissioners to a strategic-planning session led by the museum’s vice president and said the museum is exploring use options for a house and lot acquired south of the museum. She said the museum will host a reception for the high school student exhibit on the 26th at 2 p.m.

The museum’s request appeared during the public-comment/presentation portion of the meeting; commissioners did not take immediate formal action on the request during the session.