Strategic Direction 2023-27

Mission 

The Haggerty Museum of Art connects people—on campus, in the community, and around the world—to art, to ideas, and to one another. Through inclusive programming, the Museum uses the interdisciplinary lens of art to cultivate knowledge, insight, understanding, and belonging, all in service of Marquette University’s commitment to care for the whole person.

Vision  

The Haggerty Museum of Art sparks transformational experiences with art that amplify personal, intellectual, social, and physical well-being.

Values  

As the academic art museum of Marquette University, the Haggerty Museum of Art uses its collections, exhibitions, and programs to:  

• • Inspire wonder, open minds, and build curiosity for lifelong learning 
  • Embrace experimentation, innovation, and creativity
  • Fuel inquiry, expand perspectives, and prompt dialogue
  • Celebrate the richness, complexity, and diversity of human experience and expression
  • Foster human connection and belonging 
  • Facilitate collaborative learning experiences that use art as an instrument to bridge subjects, fields, and disciplines  

The art museum field has been in dialogue about the importance of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion for decades. Now, however, that dialogue has taken on much more urgency—and institutions are being held accountable. To paraphrase poet Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre, structural inequity “…. is not a shark; it is the water.” Museums now see the water in a way that they, perhaps, did not before. And we are both empowered and obligated to act. As noted by Race Forward, a non-profit organization that conducts research and training on pressing racial justice issues: “... equity is a process, a practice, and an outcome. Interrupting organizational implicit bias requires targeted, specific, explicit, and repeated/habitual interventions that cause culture and policy shifts over time. Any decision that an institution makes is a choice point. It can be a point of harm where institutional racism is sustained or a point of opportunity where an intervention will move individuals and institutions toward equity.” 

This strategic direction commits to using choice points to move the Haggerty Museum of Art toward structural equity. Strategic objectives and action items pledge to Center Equity in every aspect of the Museum; develop DEAI Action Plans for each area of the Museum that include short-, mid-, and long-term actions and agreed-upon metrics; Evolve the Museum’s Collection with a commitment to equity; and to center equity in—and strengthen—the Museum’s Staff Culture

See the complete strategic plan here.

While many academic art museums are committed to both academic and community engagement, those efforts often run on parallel tracks. The Haggerty Museum of Art has learned, however, that this work is far more impactful when those tracks converge. Taking the approach of Asset-Based Community Development, and measuring our work through Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation, the Haggerty catalyzes curricular and community engagement that centers the agency of participants. The Museum now commits to building upon that innovative work by adding a new, equally important focus on co-curricular engagement with Marquette University students. “Co-curricular” refers to activities, programs, and learning experiences that complement work that Marquette students are doing in their courses. The Haggerty’s new focus will strategically synthesize curricular, co-curricular, and socially responsive community engagement that is inspired by and aligns directly with Marquette’s intellectual resources.

With this strategic direction the Museum pledges to Increase Co-curricular Engagement with targeted student populations; Empower Students to be the Consumers and Producers of Culture; Continue to Catalyze Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Cross-disciplinary Collaboration; Leverage the Art Museum Experience as a Tool for Mutual Understanding; and Hospitably Convene and Personally Engage People, with art serving as a connective tissue and welcoming entry point.

See the complete strategic plan here.

The Haggerty Museum of Art has proudly advanced the mission, vision, and strategic priorities of Marquette University—its parent organization—for nearly forty years. Just as the art museum field is changing, so too is higher education. American colleges and universities have lost 1.3 million students since the COVID-19 pandemic began. With birthrates falling, the pool of prospective students is not expected to grow. Fewer students means fewer tuition dollars, even as operational costs rise. National headlines commonly question whether college is a worthy investment. Given these headwinds, Marquette University’s commitment to a sustainable future includes transitioning the Haggerty Museum of Art to a financially self-sustaining model. While Marquette will continue to fund indirect expenses such as building maintenance, utilities, and insurance, the Haggerty is committed to funding its administration, operations, exhibitions, and programs entirely through contributed and earned income.

This strategic direction articulates and investigates the structural issues that will position a financially self-sustaining Haggerty Museum of Art to thrive well into the future. The Museum commits to Receiving Accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums to ensure the full confidence of donors and lenders. Working with Marquette University leadership, the Haggerty will Confirm Marquette’s Commitment to the Deaccessioning Policy articulated in the Museum’s Collection Management Policy and Code of Ethics. And the Museum will study the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating the Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art for purposes of both fundraising and maximizing efficiencies—and implement the study’s recommendation.

See the complete strategic plan here.

Contributed income—and fundraising—will play a critically important role in a thriving, financially self-sustaining Haggerty Museum of Art. To get there, the Museum will need to formalize its fundraising strategies to maximize both contributed income and its partnership with Marquette University’s University Advancement area. Through this strategic direction the Museum commits to embracing—and evolving into—a thriving, productive culture of philanthropy. This means that everyone in the Haggerty’s organization will embrace a community-centered and donor-centered environment. Each staff and Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art board member will understand that fundraising is critical to organizational health, and that each individual has a role in the process.

Through this strategic direction the Museum commits to building Haggerty Museum of Art Staff Capacity for Fundraising, and to developing and maintaining with discipline a Detailed Three-year Fundraising Plan with clear goals that are tracked on a quarterly basis.  It will Increase Marquette University Alumni Support of the Museum, and Build and Manage a Larger and More Diverse Museum Donor Base. The Museum also pledges to Increase Unrestricted Endowment, and to creating a fundraising pathway that will address the Museum’s critically important Building Maintenance and Renovation needs.

See the complete strategic plan here.

The Haggerty Museum of Art’s transition to a financially self-sustaining institution will require deep interconnectedness between the Museum’s finances, and its impact. Financial sustainability is the ability to generate resources to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. Programmatic sustainability is the ability to develop, mature, and cycle out programs to be responsive to changing times. Sustainability is bolstered by strong alignment between those two aspects—and when there is a shared understanding that sustainability is an orientation, not a destination. The action planning team assigned to this strategic direction used the Matrix Map Analysis described by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka, and Steve Zimmerman in Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability to conduct an Impact Assessment of all Museum program areas.

 

That assessment determined that the Haggerty’s most impactful programs are curricular and co-curricular engagement with the Marquette University community, exhibitions, adult public programs, and K-12 programs. This strategic direction compels the Museum to Contain Costs and Maximize Revenue for Its Most Impactful Programs without degrading their impact. The Haggerty will also Invest Resources in and Grow the Program Impact of Unrestricted Endowment Income, and Sustain and Reap Benefits from Collections Management and Art Acquisitions while ensuring their continuing and increasing impact. It will do the same for Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art Non-Event Driven Activities such as annual fundraising campaigns. At the same time the Museum will Significantly Re-engineer or Stop Low-Impact Friends Event-Driven Activities in a way that preserves as much of the benefit as feasible. All event-based fundraising will at least break even, and will ideally generate significant net revenue, with staff time calculated in the event cost. Community Programs that do not directly relate to other Marquette University activities will be significantly re-engineered or stopped in a way that preserves as much of the benefit as feasible.  The Museum’s Annual Budgeting Process Will Be Restructured to maintain ongoing biannual impact assessments, and the Long-Term Sustainability of the Museum’s Collection of Art will be assured.

See the complete strategic plan here.

Strategic Planning Steering Committee

Co-chairs:

John Su, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Student Success, Marquette University

Susan Longhenry, Director and Chief Curator, Haggerty Museum of Art

Members:

Betty Arndt, Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art Past President

Dr. Heidi Bostic, Dean, Helen Way Klinger College of Art and Sciences and

the College of Education, Marquette University

Christine Fleming, Manager of Community Engagement, Haggerty Museum of Art

Ann Keiper, Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art President

Rachel Kieselburg, Manager of Museum Administration, Haggerty Museum of Art

Emilia Layden, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Haggerty Museum of Art

Dr. Donte McFadden, Senior Associate Director, Undergraduate Research and High Impact Practices (McNair Scholars Program Director), Marquette University

Fred Syrjanen, Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art Treasurer

Dr. Robert Tatterson, Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art Past President

 

Haggerty Museum of Art Staff Members

The following current and former Haggerty Museum of Art staff members participated in, and made important contributions to, the Museum’s strategic planning process.

Kay Antonelli, Art Across Curriculum Educator

Michelle Burton, Registrar

Mary Dornfeld, Marketing and Development Assistant

Christine Fleming, Manager of Community Engagement

Daniel Herro, Head Designer and Preparator

Rachel Kieselburg, Manager of Museum Administration

Emilia Layden, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions

Lynne Shumow, Curator for Academic Engagement

Mary Wagner, Administrative Assistant

MalVy Westbrook, Visitor Experience Associate

 

Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art Board Members

The following current and former Friends of the Haggerty Museum of Art board and at-large board members participated in, and made important contributions to, the Museum’s strategic planning process.

Betty Arndt

Philip Babler

Maggie Beckley

Claire Boles

Hugh Dugan

Donna Farrell

Catherine Faught

Anna Clair Gaspar

Curtis Gorrell

Linda Haag

Jean Holmburg

Kate Hookham

Ann Keiper

Carrie Matteson

Christianne Murn

Casey O'Brien

Meghan Posnanski

Maura Rabideaux

Lindsay Ruch

Robert Sobczak

Frederick Syrjanen

Robert Tatterson

Janice Welburn

Rev. Frederick Zagone, S.J.

 

Action Planning Team Members (in addition to those named in other categories)

Sheena Carey, Internship Coordinator/Lecturer, Marquette University Diederich College of Communication

Clara Dwyer, Executive Director, Alpha Sigma Nu, Marquette University

Averia Flasch, Assistant Director, Project Planning and Development, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Marquette University

Dr. Carie Hertzberg, Assistant Dean of Community Service, Director of the Burke Scholarship Program, Marquette University

Patrick Kennelly, Director, Center for Peacemaking, Marquette University

Alisha Klapps, Trinity Fellow, Marquette University

Katherine Kreuchauf, Founder and Principal, OnPoint Philanthropic Consulting

Jay Kutka, Senior University Budget Director, Marquette University

Jen Maney, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and Coordinator of the Catholic Jesuit Higher Education Cooperative, Marquette University

Jaclyn Ness, Managing Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Marquette University

Emily Raclaw, Director, On Your Marq, Marquette University

Rachelle Shurn, Engagement Officer, Marquette University

Dr. Kantara Souffrant, Curator of Community Dialogue, Milwaukee Art Museum

Dr. Theresa Tobin, Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Education Preparedness Program (EPP) at the Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach, Marquette University

 

Participants in the External Assessment

The following people generously offered their time, expertise, and ideas via interviews held during the external assessment phase of the strategic planning process.

Marquette University

Jacqueline (Jacki) Black, Director for Hispanic Initiatives and Diversity & Inclusion Educational Programming

Joya Crear, Acting Vice President for Inclusive Excellence 

Ana Garner, Professor and Chair, Department of Journalism and Media Studies

Paul Jones, Vice President for University Relations and General Counsel

Sara Harvey, Senior Philanthropic Advisor, Strategic Initiatives

Leigh van den Kieboom, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, College of Education

Dr. Conor M. Kelly, Associate Professor, Theology Department and Director, Marquette Core Curriculum

Joe Kearney, Dean and Professor of Law 

Rev. Gregory J. O'Meara, S.J., Rector of the Jesuit Community at Marquette University and Associate Professor of Law

Dr. Robert S. Smith, Director of the Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach and Harry G. John Professor of History at Marquette University

Amy Souders, Board of Trustees 

Darryl Todd, Urban Scholars Coordinator 

Dr. Kimo Ah Yun, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs 

Collaborating Milwaukee K-12 Schools and Community Organizations

Justin Hegarty, Executive Director & Environmental Engineer, Reflo

Joelle Worm, Director, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Arts ECO

Donors and Community Members

Laurel Britton, Marquette alum and former Senior Vice President, Revenue and Operations at the     Metropolitan Museum of Art

Flavius Cucu, philanthropist

Andre Ghelfi-Thomas, Marquette alum and former Haggerty Museum of Art student employee

Janelle Hines, Vice President, Community Impact, Greater Milwaukee Foundation

Josh Hoppert, Director of Advertising, Milwaukee Record

Marianne Lubar, philanthropist 

Polly Morris, Executive Director of Lynden Inc. and the Bradley Family Foundation and Coordinator of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists Program 

Andy Nunemaker, philanthropist and art collector

John Shannon, philanthropist and Director, Guardian Fine Art Services 

Keith Stanley, Executive Director, Near West Side Partners 

Julie Tolan, Executive Vice President, Owner of Lauber Business Partners

Jenny Toutant, Chief Education & Engagement Officer, Milwaukee Repertory Theater

Miles Vilski, collector

Zach Willenbrink, attorney