The Friends of the Coleman are volunteers. Gifts go into the building — the plaster, the wiring, the paint, and whatever turns up next.
Where it goes
Into the building, and what is in it
The only person on the payroll is a part-time archivist, contracted to digitize the collection. Everything else a gift pays for is the building itself.
The fabric of it
Plaster, wiring, roof and paint — the unglamorous work a 1929 building needs before it needs anything else.
The things in it
A pipe organ is a living machine. So is a two-thousand-pound chandelier. Both need people who know them.
The record of it
Programs, photographs, ledgers and oral histories, scanned and catalogued before the paper goes.
Monthly giving
The Fishbowl — $11 a month
In 1990 there was a fishbowl on the concession stand counter, and every time it reached eleven dollars the volunteers went and bought a can of paint. Monthly giving is the steadiest money the Friends have, and it is still measured the same way.
