Vernon Philly Art Museum thanks Pratt County and asks for membership renewal plus modest increase

Bridal Novotny, executive director of the Vernon Philly Art Museum (Speaker 5), and grants coordinator Emily Stefan Smith (Speaker 6) presented program and impact information and thanked the county for an annual $5,000 membership donation. Novotny said membership accounts for about 50% of the museum's funding and described free family programming and senior events that have expanded community participation.

Smith said the museum reaches roughly "about 1,200 students every year from the schools, Skyline, Pratt" through school programs and partnerships with Pratt Community College and the recreation department. Novotny described upcoming events (a photography exhibit timed with a gravel-racing event, a Pratt High pop‑up exhibit, a May 5 annual meeting) and asked commissioners to consider renewing membership and, if possible, a 5% increase to help cover rising staff and technology costs: "If it's possible to consider a 5% increase to that $250 to kind of help offset our rising costs," she said.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about attendance numbers and facility planning; Novotny said the museum's board hired architect Anderson Knight to study long‑range facility expansion because the museum has outgrown its space. The museum invited commissioners to the May 5 annual meeting to hear more detail about the facility-planning process and impact data.