Jeep Museum and Learning Center

I have spoken with Brian about my A1 a few times, and I told him if I lived near him, I would be at his shop so much he could claim me on his taxes. lol. He a is a great great guy and has so much knowledge. That would be a place I would stop to see for sure.

 

Starting such a museum is wonderful.

Maintaining, sustaining, and funding such an enterprise over the long term is much more difficult. All the enthusiasm expressed above is fine, but paying the rent and electricity and insurance year after year is a different matter.

 

Running a museum is tougher than it seems.
From a financial point of view, just google the name of the museum and irs 990.
The overall budget and payroll information is public.
I'd estimate that an endowment of $12 Million would buy you 8-10 years if you didn't own your building and/or have a banquet center.

In the past 18 months, I've visited the following:

LeMay - Americas Car Museum
Harold LeMay's Museum at Marymount (4600 cars?)
Brothers Museum - (Private) in Salem Oregon
Crawford Museum - Cleveland Ohio (TRW)
Petersen Museum - Los Angeles
California Auto Museum - Sacramento, CA
National Auto Museum - Reno Nevada
Mel Martin Museum, Glendale AZ
Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn
GM Heritage Center - Detroit
Klairmont Kollections - Chicago
Revs Museum - Naples, FL
(PLUS 2 Private Jeep museums totalling 300 Jeeps)

Since the original post was 2012 or 2013 I didn't see it the first time around.
I agree both Brian and Dave have the best chance of making a Jeep only brand museum work.

The rough demographic for such a museum is 80% of patrons are males above 50 years old.
Works great if your funding comes from the same demographic. As a Public not for profit, that would not be likely. You have to accomodate all sorts of demographic profiles and interests.

At best case, you sell a few jeeps and buy a flintstone golf cart and a scooby do mobile or a Barbie Jeep.
At worst it could be what I saw at the Smithsonian Air and space museum yesterday.
They removed the Aircraft carrier display and Amelia Earhart display, and replaced them with a "SPEED" display updated space/moon display. Clearly focused on being inclusive and not like the traditional Smithsonian.

 

You want Air and Space, we got air and space...

 

free to visit, but parking is gonna cost you...

 

waaaaiiitttt a second....

um,

 

But how do we know if it's antique air and space? Smells ripe for fraud.

 

Judging by Brian's YouTube videos over the past few years, I would say it's another project on the shelf. But he has built a really nice shop and paint booth since then.