So, why not look to models of institutions that we'd like to have in our city and imagine what it would take. I mean, let's envision something on the scale of New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture here in Philadelphia? What steps would we take now (or might have taken 50 or 75 years years ago) to make this happen? Is it about somehow developing a critical mass out of two less-strong orgs? I don't think so.
So what IS in the magic sauce of the truly successful orgs? And how could we get some of that!
That's definitely a good idea! A Schomburg model in Philadelphia would be amazing--though I'm not exactly sure of their institutional history. Would that be more of a collaboration or an offshoot of the Free Library, then?
For some clarification, rather than the creation of a new organization, I'm speculating here about regularly scheduled joint programming that would highlight both institutions and jumpstart their community engagement ( for the Blockson in particular).
Yes, the idea is to absolutely NOT create a new organization but build on strengths of existing ones in such a way that new excitement and momentum is created.