Margaret Mitchell House to the Atlanta History and Community Center:

AHC Midtown Strategic Plan

Patrick Carmody, Jennifer Glaze, Allison McClure, and Autumn Smith

Museum Administration
Fall 2021
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Table of Contents

Step 1: Initiate and Agree on Process..……………………………………………………….Pg. 2

Step 2: Identify Organizational mandates…………………….………………………………Pg. 2

Step 3: Identify and Understand Stakeholders and Develop Mission……………………...…Pg. 3

Step 4: Internal and External Assessments………………………………………………....…Pg. 4

Step 5: Identify Strategic Issues……………………………………………...……………….Pg. 7

Step 6: Action Plans………………………………………………………...………..……...Pg. 10

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Step 1: Agreed Process

Schedule of strategic plan development

Step 1- August 22, 2021

Step 2- August 25, 2021
Step 3-August 29, 2021
Step 4-September 5
Step 5-September 12
Step 6-September 19
Step 7-September 26
Final meeting September 28, 2021

The Atlanta History and Community Center strategic plan is designed for the revitalization and
update of Midtown Atlanta’s Margaret Mitchell House and its three buildings. As the Atlanta
History Center continues to pursue the missions of a more inclusive environment, the AHC
Midtown location will promote diversity and inclusion. The Margaret Mitchell House will
introduce modern-day conversations to provide audiences with new perspectives on the histories
that carry the home, how it relates to our present day, and contextualize artifacts beyond the
current narrative.

Step 2: Identify Organizational Mandates

Our strategic plan parallels that of the Atlanta History Center in a few ways. Many of our goals
for the Margaret Mitchell House act as an extension of the AHC’s campus. With the Margaret
Mitchel House, we aim to touch on all of the AHC’s strategic goals: inclusivity, community,
service, relevance, growth, and performance.

Nondiscrimination Policy

Atlanta History Center is committed to the fair and equal opportunities for people with
disabilities. Reasonable accommodation is the key to this nondiscrimination policy. It is the
policy of Atlanta History Center to reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with
disabilities unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship.
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Code of Ethics

See Atlanta Historical Society code of ethics

https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/app/uploads/2020/11/code_of_ethics_june_11_2007.pdf

Previous Strategic Plan

See Atlanta History Center

https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/app/uploads/2020/11/AHC_Strategic_Plan_2017.pdf

Step 3: Identify and Understand Stakeholders and Develop Mission

Mission Statement
“The Atlanta History and Community Center aims to present, preserve, and promote the
historical significance of Atlanta’s complex history and serve as a community resource for open
engagement that promotes community, diversity, visibility, and inclusivity.”

The Atlanta community, specifically those living in the Midtown area and the universities in the
surrounding areas, are the most prominent stakeholders to the Atlanta History and Community
Center. We believe it can be utilized as a center for engagement and knowledge building for the
Midtown community. Under the relevance goal the Atlanta History Center’s strategic plan states
that they want to show up where they are not expected. High-rise apartments and shops surround
the Midtown location. The benefit of having a historical site as a center for community
engagement allows the Midtown community to grow more engaged with Atlanta’s past.

The Atlanta History and Community Center will offer Midtown’s growing and diverse
community an institution that supports conversations around critical issues related to democracy,
history, and culture such as LGBTQ+ issues and cultural misrepresentation. A primary pursuit
for the Atlanta History and Community Center is the use of community engagement. The Center
will allow Midtown citizens the opportunity to participate in all community engagement
programs. We aim to enable the communities of not only schools and educators but also
Midtown citizens to get involved in what they believe is vital to building a stronger community.
The Center will give the Midtown citizens a place of community togetherness and an institution
to share in different cultures, religions, and histories through tough conversations and
programming.
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The Margaret Mitchell House is a historic landmark registered with the U.S. National Register of
Historic Places and is an Atlanta Landmark Building. Through utilizing the historic home as
Midtown’s campus, our goal is to preserve the house and utilize its structure for community
gatherings. As the physical community changes around it, the home will remain preserved, along
with the campus’s additional structures. We will strive to work with prominent members of the
Midtown community and leaders from any underrepresented groups to understand what they
would like to gain from the Atlanta History Center’s Midtown campus. In turn, we will let the
community know that this campus is for them and we have their best interest at heart.

Some specific stakeholder community groups that we would like to engage with work towards
civic engagement. Some are:

● National Pan-Hellenic Council

● 100 Black Men of Atlanta
● 100 Black women of Atlanta
● Hands-on Atlanta
● Big Brother/Big Sister of Atlanta
● Meals on Wheels
● Atlanta Food Bank
● Religious organizations (Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, First Congregational, First
Presbyterian, etc.)
● Midtown Alliance

Additionally, we would request the presence of all stakeholders such as the AHC board, staff,
and members.

The center can also be a venue for education with the use of conference rooms and access to any
historical documents for research. Various college programs implement ways to engage more in
the community through visiting museums and historic sites. The Center can be a space for
historical programming trips for various history programs for universities in the city. The field
trip tours created by the Atlanta History Center for the newly updated community center will
align with the Georgia Board of Education standards for K-12 grade levels, as well as any
alignment of the curriculum in the university setting. The field trips will highlight the story of
Gone with the Wind and the social effects of the book and film through the use of in-house
exhibits.

Step 4: Internal and External Assessments

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Atlanta History Center’s mission statement aims to connect people, history, and culture, and they
are committed to serving the community. The goal of the Atlanta History and Community
Center’s strategic plan will aim to create a shared space, along with accurate interpretation and
programming regarding issues surrounding historical memory, Lost Cause ideology in Gone with
the Wind, and the issues it poses today. In turn, the Center will allow future discourse in the
community to aim for a better understanding of our pasts, present, and ultimately future.

The Atlanta History Center’s strength lies in its determination to effectively follow its mission
statement as well as its strategic plan. The internal strength of the Atlanta History Center
includes a great deal of funding, a higher level of staff quality, and an extensive archival
collection to provide multiple avenues for exploring history. On an external level, the Atlanta
History Center brings a degree of historical authority not all institutions carry. It is an
organization that has been around for ninety-five years and has built a strong trust with patrons
and the communities of Atlanta. Another factor to consider is the financial side of the
organization — there is a great deal of money to support the Atlanta History Center’s properties
and endeavors.

One way to promote the success of the strategic plan will be to effectively market, ensure quality
staff, utilize the connections the Atlanta History Center has to universities and organizations in
the Atlanta area, and provide the necessary funds to make the project succeed.

The Atlanta History Center also has internal and external weaknesses that may prove to be a
problem in implementing this project. However, knowing the present weaknesses will provide
potential remedies or even solutions for what is to come. The Atlanta History Center has had
issues in previous years regarding listening to the community’s needs surrounding the Margaret
Mitchell House. In the past, the site was mainly intended for out-of-state visitors with no
connection to the Midtown of the modern-day. Additionally, the Atlanta History Center lies far
removed from the Margaret Mitchell House due to its physical location, thus making it an island
removed from the Midtown location. Finally, the site has issues regarding the proper space
needed to accommodate visitor parking.

On the flip side of the coin, there is a lack of diversity within the organization, little professional
mobility, and a division within the staff on pursuing future programming on Margaret Mitchell
and Southern Memory. These problems are significant in several senses, but we believe they are
not unsolvable. They may yet be overcome by learning the views and opinions of both the
community in Midtown as well as the staff of the Atlanta History Center. This could be
implemented through voluntary surveys to the listed stakeholders on how the AHC should
present itself within Midtown. Once the results are returned, the surveys should have an
influencing factor on the appropriate action needed.
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Financially, the Atlanta History Center and the new Community Center will most likely flourish
from the exposure of making the Midtown campus more accessible for those who cannot make
the trip to the Buckhead location and more relevant to the surrounding community. Ticket sales
at both sites will most likely see an increase as interest from the Atlanta area spikes.
Simultaneously, the sites will see good media coverage as the updated Margaret Mitchell House
will present historically significant subjects pertaining to Atlanta and a diverse audience.

In terms of marketing, the updated Midtown campus will provide a broader focus on inclusion
and diversity, granting the organization a better reputation in the communities of Atlanta. This is
in part a correction to an oversight in the Atlanta History Center’s past by not providing a better
job of educating on minority issues.

With all the benefits the Midtown campus update has, there are some risks that are viewed as a
possibility. Possible threats include:

● Negative feedback from some communities

● Political issues arising from educating on the fallacy of the Lost Cause narrative and the
potential for the MMH to fail or underperform financially.
● If mishandled, the Margaret Mitchell House may spread misinformation dealing with
sensitive topics such as race history or disrespecting the area’s history and its people.

Trends, Audience, Competitors, and Collaborators

Audience:
Current audiences for museums in the state and region reach a more general audience — K-12,
those with an interest in specific museum exhibits, and middle-class people. After researching,
many organizations across the state are attempting to grow diversity in their audiences through
the use of marketing strategies, lowering ticket costs, and changing content in the museums. The
Atlanta History Center’s current strategic plan states, “ Increase the number of “Under the 50s”,
non-whites, and those who live in zip code beyond those in North Atlanta (traditional zip codes)
who visit our campus.”

Competitors:
The Community Center has a few competitors in the local area that may pull visitors from
attending the site. For example, the High Museum of Art, Oakland Cemetery, and the National
Center for Civil and Human Rights. Other competitors within the state include:

● The Augusta Museum of History

● The Georgia Museum of Natural History
● The Savannah History Museum
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Collaborators:
We may stand apart from these organizations by gaining sponsorship and/or insight from
organizations of the area such as the Midtown Alliance, the Atlanta Historical Society, the
National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and Hands On Atlanta. These groups would allow
the Midtown campus to have access to a variety of different businesses in the area and
potentially aid in future events held at the Atlanta History and Community Center.

Step 5: Identify Strategic Issues

There are five key strategic issues for adult programming:

1. Service to the community: providing programming events for the Midtown

community, opening our doors for reserved office spaces
2. Financial Growth: ticket costs and membership programs
3. Visibility: renovating and preserving the Midtown campus, and keeping
stakeholders updated through newsletters, social media, PR releases, etc.
4. Inclusivity: evaluating the Midtown campus’s staff to include all walks of life
5. Educational programming: presenting new exhibits and tours

We came up with various recommendations for all the key strategic adult programming issues.

• Service to the community: We aim to ensure community growth and engagement by

opening our doors to community members, leaders, and those enrolled in the Community
Center’s membership program. By opening our doors and providing discounted
membership rates to the Midtown community, the Community Center will provide the
opportunity to partner with many organizations that the Atlanta History Center hasn’t had
the chance to connect and collaborate with. Some ideas include: monthly discussions on
various historical topics that connect with the modern-day; conference room rental
opportunities at a small cost for discourse; annual summit on race relations in America;
bi-annual music get-togethers; local food swaps to utilize the green space.

• Financial Growth: AHC’s strategic plan aims to enhance financial strength by

diversifying income sources, seeking new grant sources, growing admission and
membership revenue, and growing shop sales. The financial growth of the MMH can be
monitored through the regular strategic planning cycle of the AHC, but the new mission
for the MMH can enhance opportunities for funding and financial support. There are
many opportunities for financial growth. We aim to source funding from donorship,
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grants, fundraising, and membership programs in order to create a stronger connection to

the Midtown campus. We can also promote rental facilities for various events —
weddings, outdoor events such as those bi-annual music get-togethers, classroom
meetings — to gather monetary funds, along with the small price from ticket sales.

• Visibility: One key factor is to push for visibility of the Midtown campus. To remain
visible and relevant, we aim to push marketing strategies to bring awareness to the
Midtown campus, not only as a museum but also as a community center. By using
marketing strategies such as social media, email newsletters, and fundraising events, we
can increase visitation and community involvement.

o Digital initiatives are also a huge step that we would like to pursue. Similar to the
Atlanta History Center’s digital storytelling, we aim to produce stories for the
Midtown campus, which includes relevant histories and truth-telling on an online
platform to reach audiences who may not be able to make it to either the parent
location or the Midtown location. These stories can be a few minutes long and can
utilize various public history methods such as oral histories and interviews of
Civil Rights groups and foodways discussions on Southern food, for example.
o We aim to remain relevant in our modern-day. Why is this Center essential to the
community and as a historical site? The Midtown campus, along with the Atlanta
History Center, can get involved with current events in order to discuss their
stance and perspectives on the past. In turn, these discussions can tell how the past
and present are much aligned. These discussions can also be hosted through
various digital initiatives based on the interest of the Midtown community,
marketing strategies such as social media, and email newsletters.

• Inclusivity: We speak of community engagement throughout this strategic plan for a

reason, but inclusivity strives to be one of the most critical strategic issues in museums
throughout the nation. We aim to partner with community-oriented groups to provide a
more inclusive mindset and offer a safe space during this crucial era of our history. In
partnership with various underrepresented groups of Atlanta, we can conduct various
surveys on what content or programming they would like to see.
o We also aim to provide truth-telling factors in the exhibit content to tell the
accurate story of Gone with the Wind and Lost Cause ideology. This will focus on
specific artifacts and stories that initiate corrective action while also highlighting
the legacy of Margaret Mitchell. The Atlanta History Center’s strategic plan aims
to become more relevant for audiences to understand what they stand for. This
issue is strategic because it aims to connect audiences with AHC’s mission
statement. The Atlanta History and Community Center is an opportunity to
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provide truth-telling storytelling to the public using specific exhibit content that is
provided.
o Another idea towards inclusivity is to offer audio tours in different languages to
reach a wider audience — Spanish and French are just an example. The Atlanta
demographic, according to census.gov, states that the majority of citizens within
the Atlanta perimeter are of black or white descent, but we need to keep in mind
that many visitors may not speak English, or speak it well enough to convey the
exhibit’s message. We suggest the possibility of hiring a consultant or utilizing
bilingual interns and staff for audio recordings for a walk-through audio tour of
the exhibit space.

• Educational programming: The educational programming initiative for the Midtown

campus will strive to discuss the history and legacy of Margaret Mitchell, as well as the
historical impact of her novel, Gone with the Wind. We recommend a three-year rotating
main exhibit in order to re-evaluate the interpretation of our storytelling efforts. Some
ideas for educational programming include:
● Classes on subjects related to the mission of the Atlanta History Center provided one
Friday evening or Saturday a month
● Author series on culturally-related novels or nonfiction
○ Decolonizing Museums by Amy Lonetree; A Misplaced Massacre by Ari
Kelman; Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Mailhot
● Resume and CV workshops for students
● Historical museum tours throughout the exhibit space for students in historic
preservation, public history, and museum studies, and general history tracks
● Discussions with leaders of civil organizations

1
“United States Census Bureau.” Census.gov online. September 28, 2021.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/atlantacitygeorgia
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Step 6: Action Plans to Manage Strategic Issues

Goals

1. Inclusivity
a. Action plan:
i. Partner with community-oriented groups in Atlanta in order to ensure a
more inclusive mindset due to current events
ii. Establish meaningful relationships with community organizations by
developing interesting content and housing artifacts in which these
organizations can utilize for research, education, programming, etc.
iii. Encourage a community gathering space for educational programming.

2. Visibility
a. Action plan:
i. Promote the AHC’s Midtown campus through various marketing
strategies in order to increase visitation and community involvement
ii. Explore digital initiatives in order to reach a wider audience
iii. Get involved with current events in order to provide awareness of the
AHC’s stance and perspectives by using our historical past. This will
enable relevant storytelling and interpretation during educational
programming and in-house exhibits.

3. Community
a. Action plan:
i. Promote community outreach and membership to have Atlanta citizens
feel connected to the organization.
ii. Establish surveys for community members, visitors, and staff in order to
gather input regarding exhibit content
iii. Often revisit interpretation to encourage discourse, discussion, and internal
knowledge building at the Midtown campus.

4. Implementation
a. Action plan:
i. Cultivate a healthy work environment for staff/executives to effectively
implement the Midtown campus goals. This includes professional
development programs, supporting staff’s personal goals in the field,
encouraging healthy communication amongst staff and leadership.
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ii. Ensure appropriate funding through various grants and stakeholders in

order to support all educational programming and collection care
iii. Internally examine how the Atlanta History Center has portrayed historical
topics under traditionally underrepresented groups.