National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

PROJECT PURPOSE

As the National Cowboy Museum embarks on its second half-century, it plans significant capital improvements to its facilities, with the foremost focus currently on renovating the Special Events Center that has served more than 1.5 million patrons since 2001 as well as upgrade its parking infrastructure to best suit the needs of visitors. The scope of this updates to the special events center is wide-ranging and contains a variety of renovations to both the space and the technologies utilized within it. These updates include the installation of new acoustic paneling, replacement of ceiling tiles, the installation of new carpet, trim, wall paneling and new paint throughout the venue, as well as accessibility improvements that bring allow the room to meet current ADA standards. Production improvements also incorporated include the replacement of house lights with efficient LED lights, as well as PTZ cameras to enhance visitor experience. The Museum also wish to provide significant updates to its parking infrastructure to include expanded capacity and ease of access for patrons visiting the Museum. These improvements when coupled will help ensure that the Museum remains among Oklahoma?s most recognized institutions for cultural tourism and a renowned facility for hosting nonprofit events.

EVIDENCE

The Museum?s special events center has worn carpeting, florescent lighting and dated acoustic panels and the parking infrastructure is insufficient and requires guests to often walk on busy streets.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The arts and cultural tourism sector of Oklahoma?s economy was dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary impact was in a downturn in destination visitation and engagement, and as a result a loss of critical operating revenues. Museums and other not-for-profit cultural destinations saw a decrease in these critically important revenue streams due to the inability to host visitors and events while also upholding public health guidance provided by state and local governments. With this downturn in cultural tourism, the community surrounding the Museum, which is primarily African American and low-income businesses, saw significant effects on their businesses as it relates to visitor spending within the immediate area surrounding the Museum. This revenue ceasing and its slow return during the pandemic was catastrophic to the Museum and the local economy surrounding it.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The Museum will measure project performance in numerous ways that include the tracking of financial expenditures and the gathering of key performance metrics on the utilization of these updates spaced. Primarily performance will be measured in use over the next five years with the main metric derived from the daily use of each space and specifically the number of event attendees served at the Museum on a monthly and annual basis.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding