Proving the power of the internet to quickly spread important news: I found this information posted by my boss in an online forum before he could walk over to my desk.

Using that same power for good: Please read and act on this urgent announcement.

The Bead Museum in Arizona is in danger of closing after 23 years. The Bead Museum in DC has already closed; the Arizona museum is the only one to showcase beads and beaded artifacts from around the world.*

A period without an acting director has left the Bead Museum of Arizona without grantwriting and fundraising for the current year. The economy has taken its toll. Jamey Allen, Alice Sheer and others are working to raise funds, and they’re asking for our help. Rings & Things and other bead sellers are contributing to the efforts. Here are some snips from letters and posts about the fund raising campaign.

The Bead Museum of Arizona is the original bead museum begun by Gabrielle and Ted Liese in the mid-1980s. The closing of the smaller Bead Museum in DC, and the much earlier closing of the Museum of Native American Cultures in Spokane, WA, left the Bead Museum of Arizona as the primary bead-centered museum in North America. (The Picard Trade Bead Museum and African Art Gallery in Carmel, CA is the only other.)

If there are angels who could pledge large sums toward the effort to preserve the Museum and its collections intact, please contact Alice Scherer at alice [at] europa [dot] com or call her in Oregon at (503) 655-3078. Or if it is more comfortable for you, by all means contact the acting Director of the Bead Museum, Kelly Norton, at director [at] beadmuseumaz [dot] org Or simply go to http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/ , find the Donate button on the left, click on it and follow the PayPal prompts from there. 1800 individuals with $100 donations and 20 who can give $1000 may be more realistic, but we’ll be glad to accept all donations!

In the meantime, if you are not currently a member of the Bead Museum, please join. The cost for an individual member is $40, and here is the web address: http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/membership.htm

The Bead Museum of Arizona is the repository for:

• the collections of Peter Francis Jr. (the Center for Bead Research), including a collection of many hundreds of bead sample cards
• the vast majority of the artifacts collection of the Center for the Study of Beadwork, including what may well be the largest collection of bead looms in the world, as well as nearly 100 bead sample cards, and a slide bank of thousands of slides of the work of contemporary beadworkers from the United States, Europe and Asia in the period around the late 1980s and ‘90s (pre-The New Beadwork)
• an extensive collection of beads, necklaces and relevant artifacts from Asian, African , Latin American and European sites donated by the Lieses, Lois Dubin and other long-time collectors
• a collection of the work of contemporary glass bead makers starting with those of the early period in the 1980s and ’90s who exhibited in the ground-breaking 1993 exhibit at the Bead Museum
• the Library: several thousand books and periodicals originally started as a private Art Library and grown to a valuable Research Library about the history of personal adornment, which includes important information on the history of glass

Also included in the collections are archived letters and papers of many collectors / researchers, including:

• Elizabeth Harris
• Peter Francis, Jr.
• Lady Gloria Dale
• Albert Summerfield
• Michael Heide

Please make a donation using the link above or mail it directly to:

The Bead Museum
5754 West Glenn Drive
Glendale, Arizona 85301

Read more at beadcollector.net… Thanks for your consideration!

Ever visited the Bead Museum in Arizona? Have thoughts about why they’re such a valuable institution for our community? Leave a comment to talk about it!

April giveaway: “DIY Display Ideas”:
* You enter by leaving comments under the March 31 giveaway announcement
* At the end of April, 2 winners will receive coveted Rings & Things goodie packs!
*So read the blog regularly to see if you won!