Jan. 9, 2025
Beth Nance's Dedication, Heartfelt Story and Legacy of The NC Museum of Dolls, Toys & Minatures
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Join us for an inspiring conversation with Beth Nance, the co-founder and executive director of the North Carolina Museum of Dolls, Toys, and Miniatures. Beth shares the emotional journey that led to the creation of the museum, deeply rooted in the memory of her late sister, Amy, who lived with spinal muscular atrophy and had a profound love for dolls, especially Barbie. Discover how this personal connection blossomed into a cherished community space in Spencer, North Carolina.
Through Beth's heartfelt narrative, we'll delve into the joys and challenges of building a museum from the ground up, fueled by her family's entrepreneurial spirit and the unwavering support of their small town. Amy's legacy lives on through the museum, inspiring and uniting visitors while celebrating the endless possibilities that dolls represent.
Step into a world where toys and miniatures serve as powerful storytellers, bridging the past and present. Explore the museum's captivating collection, from World War II-era children's tea sets to toy soldiers that enlighten young minds about the French Revolution as well as how interactive exhibits engage visitors of all ages, fostering a space where learning and imagination flourish.
We'll also explore how Amy's experiences with spinal muscular atrophy have driven important advancements in accessibility, positioning the museum as a beacon of inclusivity. As we look to the future, see how the museum serves as a hub of empowerment, honoring past creators and sparking discussions that transcend time.
To learn more about the Museum visit NC Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures – Spencer, NC
Thanks for joining us on The Dollpreneur™ Podcast! We hope you enjoyed the episode and feel inspired by our amazing guests and learn something new about the creative people within the doll community.
We would love for you to stay connected so please subscribe to us on Instagram, FB & our Youtube Channel all @thedollpreneurpodcast
You can also subcribe to The Dollpreneur™ Podcast newsletter by visiting our website The Dollpreneur™ Podcast to subscribe.
Until next time, have a Dollpreneur™ Fabulous Day!
Thanks for joining us on The Dollpreneur™ Podcast! We hope you enjoyed the episode and feel inspired by our amazing guests and learn something new about the creative people within the doll community.
We would love for you to stay connected so please subscribe to us on Instagram, FB & our Youtube Channel all @thedollpreneurpodcast
You can also subcribe to The Dollpreneur™ Podcast newsletter by visiting our website The Dollpreneur™ Podcast to subscribe.
Until next time, have a Dollpreneur™ Fabulous Day!
Transcript
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Hello everyone, welcome to the Dollpreneur Podcast, where I get to chat and share with you the amazing doll creators and creatives from around the world.
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I am your host and creator of the Dollpreneur Podcast, georgette Taylor, and I'm so excited to highlight the inspiring stories from the people who keep the doll community buzzing with creativity and passion.
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So, whether you're a long-time doll lover or just curious, looking for something new and creative to listen to, join us for engaging, powerful and insightful conversations that celebrate the heart and soul of the people within the doll community.
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So what do you say?
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Let's get this show started.
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Hello everybody, welcome to the Dollpreneur Podcast.
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I'm your host, georgette Taylor, and, as always, I'm so excited that you're joining me today.
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I really have a phenomenal guest and I cannot wait for her to share her story with us.
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It's so moving and touching and I'm sure you'll feel the same way once you hear it.
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Today's guest is Beth Nance.
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She is the co-founder and executive director of the North Carolina Museum of Dolls, toys and Miniatures, and I want to say thank you so much, beth, for joining me on the Doll for no podcast today.
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Well, hi, Georgette.
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Thank you so much for having me on the show.
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It's an honor to be here.
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Oh, thank you.
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It really is an honor for me to have you here, because I looked at your museum and it's just filled with so many beautiful things, like not just the toys and the miniatures and the dolls, but they always have so many stories behind those dolls and the things that you put in the museum, and I'm excited for you to share your story.
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So can you tell a little bit about yourself, where you're from, and then talk a little bit about how you decided to create this North Carolina Museum of Dolls?
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Sure, I'd be happy to.
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Well, 12 years ago my mother and I got together and thought what are we going to do with this beautiful collection of dolls that we have that belong to my sister?
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Amy was just 22 years old when she passed away from a very rare muscle degenerative disease.
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It's today we know it as spinal muscular atrophy and it's extremely rare.
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And amy loved to collect dolls and um.
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So of course, as two young girls, we had, you know, so much fun playing um with our dolls and toys and um.
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After she passed away, my mom and I held on to her things and I found it very hard to part with a lot of the things that Amy collected because they were hers, and you were mentioning earlier about how a lot of the items in our museum tell a story, and you know Amy's dolls were part of my story, and so my mom said, oh well, let's just start a museum and I thought, oh right, mom, you know, who does that right?
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I had a background in English literature and professional communication, so I never, ever thought anything about what it would take to start a museum.
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But we forged ahead and now we've outgrown our little 4,000 square foot building that we started with 4,000.
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And we're located right in the heart of North Carolina and so we're in Spencer, North Carolina, and we've just expanded and have really found a niche.
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That really helps us remember not only my sister but those people who have collected previous years and who have a special connection to their history and dolls and toys.
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Yeah, that's, that's pretty cool.
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She's like oh, we don't know how to do a museum, but let's just go ahead and build one.
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Oh, yeah, Do that Now.
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You said that Amy was, and I again, you know, I just, you know, want to say I'm so sorry to hear you know that your sister had passed away from that, and just sending loving memories to you and your mom.
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Thank you, thank you.
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You're so welcome.
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So you know, you said she was a passionate doll collector.
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So how do you feel like dolls really helped her in a way?
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Well, I'm glad you asked me that question because I really truly believe she was a big Barbie collector and I think she saw herself as Barbie, you know, had she not been afflicted with illness.
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She had long blonde hair and blue eyes and fingernails.
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She always dressed, you know, so great.
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And I was the little tomboy you know.
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Amy was the very feminine, the feminine one.
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We were only 18 months apart.
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And.
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I joke and tell everybody that Amy was the boss.
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You know, I was the oldest but Amy was the boss, and so I think being able to see the dolls in their wholeness and their fullness physically, I think Amy projected a lot of what her life could have been.
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She, you know, she never lived a moment of regret.
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Now, she was in the marching band, she was a cheerleader, she rode horses.
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Whatever me and my friends and her friends did, she was right there beside us.
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So I always think of Amy as a trailblazer for children with spinal muscular atrophy and most of the children who have the type one that she had.
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Typically their lifespan is ends around two and so the fact that Amy made it 11 days before her 22nd birthday is, you know, yeah, a shared testimony to her her zest for life you know?
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Yeah, that's so true.
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So when you, when your mom said to you, let's do a museum, what did you think about that?
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Well, you know, I kind of thought, oh well, I thought sounded a little overwhelming at first, but I kind of thought, oh, you know, not a bad idea, mom, you know, and my mom has always been had an entrepreneurial spirit.
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And so I thought, well, we live in a small town and I thought, you know, people in our town will appreciate this and at first I kind of thought, well, we'll just showcase some things from people in the community.
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And then really I always feel like the Lord's blessing has been upon us this whole entire time, because somebody donated all of the cases, and then somebody donated this, and then somebody donated that, and so I set up the museum as a nonprofit 501c3, because, you know, the purpose is not to make money, the purpose is to offer a hub in our community for people who have like-minded collecting interests.
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You know, people who want to learn too about doll makers and doll artists, doll collectors and education and preservation.
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So we do a whole lot at the museum.
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Yes.
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And I'm just really thrilled at the growth we've seen.
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And so, like I said, we didn't even anticipate having a gift shop.
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And then people started saying, well, do you have a key chain, do you have a magnet?
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I'd like to have these things.
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And I thought, oh my gosh, you know we never really thought about that.
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So now, after 12 years, you know I've become involved in a lot of the museum councils here in North Carolina and really have spent some time getting education and developing a board of directors, and so we've gone from this homegrown little museum to a new place that's opening on December 7th of this year and we're now.
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thank you.
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Thank you, it's and it's been it's.
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You know I give everybody else the credit all the time because I can't.
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You know how it is.
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It takes a lot of people volunteering a lot of time and effort to make something really fabulous.
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And that's.
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I'm so proud of all our volunteers because everybody's just come together and we're now going to be in a 9,500 square foot facility with a state-of-the-art everything and I'm just thrilled that it's going to be a wonderful hub for hobbyists of all sorts.
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That is so beautiful.
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Just think of, just literally think about your mom saying let's do a museum to where you're at now.
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That must be mind-blowing in some sense, you know, and I'm sure your mother is probably still so proud of that too you know, yes, she is, yeah, she's involved quite a bit too.
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So when she's she's retired now.
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So when she's not playing golf, she's definitely Good for mom.
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Yeah, exactly, helping out.
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That's great.
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So how many dolls did you start with?
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Like an Amy's collection.
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Well, amy actually had a ton of Barbie and you know, amy was, like I said, very high spirited and no one ever really told Amy no, because she was the creative idea person in the family and Amy probably had several I would say probably 600 dolls or more.
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He had quite a collection, and so when we started the museum, we reached out to all the ladies that were in our doll club and said would you like to take a case, and why don't you showcase your favorite things?
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And so we started out sharing, you know, everybody's collection with the community, and to me, that's something that we're looking forward to getting back to.
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I'll tell you along the way, folks came in and said, well, I don't want this anymore, would you like to have it for the museum?
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And so we were just shocked and honored and we'd say, yes, we, I don't want this anymore, would you like to have it for the museum?
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And so we were just shocked and honored and we'd say, yes, we would love that.
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And then we'd put it in a case and put a little tag that said who it was donated by and in memory of this person.
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And now all of the cases are like overflowing because we haven't had any climatecontrolled storage.
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So our new move is going to really allow us to be able to highlight very special pieces from the collection and put the things that we don't want to keep out all the time away in our new climate-controlled storage.
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And preserve things better too.
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Yes, absolutely, that is so cool.
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Yeah, that's so cool.
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I just love it.
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I, I, I just love the fact that you know, like you said, it was a big community effort you know, you're sharing dolls or things that you know people like you said come across or that their parents had or their grandchild has, anything like that you know, and they just wanted to donate in memory of them, or just because it's a beautiful piece that you know, the person that they love to spend time with you know Right.
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Absolutely, absolutely, and so all those wonderful donations have really helped us round out all of the exhibits.
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And when we transition over into our new place, because it is at the holidays we're really looking forward to, you know, having sort of a Christmas through the decades and holidays around the world, and you know, we intend to include, you know, hanukkah and Kwanzaa and all of the holidays, right, yeah, so everybody feels welcome and included and and and that's also a great way to educate people about traditions.
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That is so true, that's so true, so it would be a great space for that, you know.
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So that's so cool.
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I can't wait.
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I mean, I'm not that far from North Carolina, I may have to come take a trip over there.
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Absolutely, I'm going to take a trip over there to see that.
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So I know you curate dolls or get dolls in and toys and miniatures to come into your museum.
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I know you work a lot with the stories behind a lot of those things, because that's kind of really what started the museum.
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Right, there's a story behind your sister having these beautiful dolls and you wanted to be able to present that.
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So can you share some stories?
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I guess that kind of has sparked your interest.
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Oh, I would love to that was just really, really powerful.
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One of the things that I do love so much is the history behind all of the pieces, and so one of the sets we have a little tea set in the museum and it's a children's tea set and it doesn't look like a whole lot but it's very special to me because I love the story behind it.
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And there was a young lady who lived in England during World War II and so when the air raids alarms started going off, she would always grab this sweet little tea set and take it into the fallout shelter with her.
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And so you know it has a few chips and a few cracks, but that's okay because that's part of the story and I.
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I feel like we can all relate to that, because as humans, we always, you know, we're sometimes have a little chip or a little crack, but you know we're always better.
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Better for those, um, because they've, you know, taught us lessons along the way.
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Yeah, so I love that tea set, and then there's a in the case we have another little doll that goes with the tea set, completely different design donation.
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It came from the state of a lady in town.
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Her name was Jesse Edwards and Jesse's parents.
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Before the war, while the World War II was going on, her parents had two young men from church come over after church and have dinner with them, and they went off to Germany and part of their job was going through the towns and clearing out once the Germans had been liberated so once the Germans had been liberated, the two guys from Rowan County would go through and they were clearing out a school and making sure that no one was there and they found this sweet little rag doll that was laying on the floor and I mean it was just made out of scraps of clothing and but it has a hand-stitched face and I just think that is such a sweet piece.
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To go with that tea?
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Yeah, to go with the tea set.
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And so when?
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children come in, we can tell them about World War II and use pieces like those two to highlight, you know, parts of our history.
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That is just so touching though, like you said, to connect that tea set to something that you know a young lady would take with her to feel safe Right when they were being bombed, to, after all the bombing, to find a doll that kind of made it through all of that.
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Then to put that together, like you said, to create that you know that narrative, you know for somebody to come along and see that story.
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Because you can read about it and you can see it in a book, but when you can like physically put your hands on the doll or the tea set, that really does connect us to history.
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Wow, I love it.
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I love the fact that you know, did you get a chance to really talk about history in your museum?
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And it's not just like oh, that's a really nice doll, Like there's a history behind all the toys, all the miniatures you know.
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Right.
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It's a history by whoever was playing with that right their love for that.
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Right history, by whoever was playing with that right, their love for that so right right makes it so much more important.
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And I think, too, you know all of the pieces that we have, you know dolls and toys and miniatures.
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They're not just play things, they really are a snapshot into our culture.
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You can, you can pick any one item at the museum and look at it, and it gives you an idea at any point in time what was going on in history, what we were celebrating in our culture, what the times were like.
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Yeah exactly.
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But I think that that's why and I was going to ask you that, like, why do you feel that dolls are so nostalgic for people?
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Or just you know what draws people into collecting them or making them or creating them?
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And and I think it is that because it just it's a piece of something that makes somebody feel safe.
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You know, and dolls have been around forever really, I mean, whether you know hand stitched or whatever sticks or whatever it is, but it's just something there to make a connection that another person has.
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You know that makes them feel safe when everything else around them is, you know, is not for them.
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So I know you have a lot of other exhibits.
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What other kinds of exhibits do you have in there?
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Well, we have a toy soldier exhibit.
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That's fairly popular and over 20,000 pieces were donated to the museum by a fellow school teacher in Fuquay, north Carolina, and he used the toy soldiers to teach about history and the French Revolution, and so I think that is amazing and I think he told me it took him over an hour to paint each little piece and you know, they're all less than an inch in height.
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Oh my goodness, you know.
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But I think it's just like you say it connects us all through time and space and, honestly, I feel like our museum is like a little time capsule, you know, because you come in and you can, you know, really be transported back to anywhere just by, you know, looking at what we have on display in the cases.
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Yeah, Now, you do have interactive things there, right?
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You do have interactive exhibits for children.
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So what are those like?
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Well, currently we have an iSpy and it's pretty neat.
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That's one of our easiest interactive pieces.
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Kids just grab a clipboard from the front counter and they go around and they complete the I spy.
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And then we have also what's called a curriculum, called what's in the bag, and so kids can take items that are in a little bag that they get when they come to the museum and it'll have instructions on where to go, what to see, what to do.
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Ok, and we like that.
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It's pretty neat, it's pretty neat and that was created by Dr Julie Jocelyn, who's our educator.
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We were just blessed to find her.
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She lives in the community and helps us out.
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You know a few hours a week, but we now have curriculum for first, third and fifth grade that's approved by the state of.
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North Carolina.
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So it's been a wonderful addition and it's also kind of fun for adults.
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I mean, I told you I said that sounds so cool.
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I was thinking about that like, wow, that'd be really neat, like she was in a bag or even an ice pie.
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You know, yes.
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And so, and then we have a scavenger hunt.
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That is for adults, because we all know there's a kid inside, right?
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Each one of us and we like to play and have fun, and so you know, we have a big hands-on section.
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Also because I think you can't have a museum, which to me is a place of learning, and you expect children to come in and not touch anything and and expect adults to not touch anything.
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We are the worst.
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Are you kidding me?
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All of the miniature doll houses that we have are so amazing and you should see everybody.
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People will just peer.
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We have these big magnifying glasses and people will pick them up at the front desk.
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They'll peer into the doll houses looking for this, that or the other.
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You know that is so great, it is fun.
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So when I hear parents or grandparents tell their children don't touch, this is a look, not touch place I say, well, you know, I don't want to correct you, but we have lots of hands on.
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So, unless it says don't touch it you know, feel free to pick it up, examine it, ask questions.
00:19:18.409 --> 00:19:18.990
I mean it's just.
00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:34.207
It just seems like such a fun place to be you know, besides being educational, you know, like you said it's, I think if you come into a space where you feel like you can't participate in it, then I think that's a little bit more daunting, especially for kids.
00:19:34.207 --> 00:19:39.743
You know like they want to be able to be part of things you know, so I do love that fact about that.
00:19:40.384 --> 00:19:56.278
One of the other interactive pieces we have is a new audio tour, and so we were awarded a grant from the Canon Foundation for that and we're thankful and it's just really made a difference because people can pick and choose what they want to learn more about.
00:19:56.278 --> 00:20:09.421
So we're looking forward to enhancing that and I'm hoping in the future they'll have some sort of virtual reality goggles and some sort of more of an interactive way to explore the museum through those.
00:20:09.661 --> 00:20:11.605
Wow, that sounds great.
00:20:11.605 --> 00:20:14.396
I mean, you guys have gone like you said.
00:20:14.396 --> 00:20:17.823
You went 4,000, now you're going to 9,500, you said yes.
00:20:17.823 --> 00:20:19.786
Wow, that is so cool.
00:20:19.786 --> 00:20:23.638
So now look, I mean I know people are listening to this oh, the museum sounds great.
00:20:23.638 --> 00:20:25.684
And they thought about oh, let's do this museum.
00:20:25.684 --> 00:20:27.195
What were the challenges?
00:20:27.695 --> 00:20:28.817
Because let's be real.
00:20:28.857 --> 00:20:35.025
Like you know, we're talking about entrepreneurship too, like what were the challenges of creating a museum.
00:20:35.505 --> 00:20:35.865
Right.
00:20:35.865 --> 00:20:42.421
Well, you know, because I didn't have a background in museum studies, I always sort of felt like I was behind the eight ball.
00:20:42.421 --> 00:20:50.000
I mean, granted, I had a great education in marketing and English literature, but that, you know, has helped along the way.
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:57.057
But, you know, really not having any entrepreneurial classes, you know I always felt behind the eight ball.
00:20:57.057 --> 00:21:03.667
But I think having the foresight to set the museum up as a nonprofit really has been our saving grace.
00:21:03.667 --> 00:21:20.477
And then the fact that, you know, my mom was able to buy the building and it was able to just be, and, you know, not having that burden of having a rent every month hanging over you has been, you know, really a tremendous benefit.
00:21:20.477 --> 00:21:31.739
And so I and I had thought that was going to be our, you know, forever home, but we quickly saw that we have outgrown our space and so the new location has been donated to us in perpetuity.
00:21:31.858 --> 00:21:38.075
So, as long as we're around it's there, you know, and it's really to be utilized by the community.
00:21:38.075 --> 00:21:40.604
I mean, that was the whole purpose.
00:21:40.604 --> 00:21:51.324
Yeah, and you know, I think too, the success has been really partnering with other people in the community, having interns from the local college come in and help us.
00:21:51.324 --> 00:21:56.890
You know, write descriptions, doing research and writing descriptions on items.
00:21:56.890 --> 00:22:04.726
You know, partnering with the local museum councils those things have really been beneficial.
00:22:04.726 --> 00:22:09.040
And then, you know, convincing people that it's important for them to.
00:22:09.040 --> 00:22:11.487
You know, buy a membership to the museum.
00:22:11.487 --> 00:22:22.954
You know $35 doesn't sound like a whole lot, but when you get a collective community that believes in what you're doing and it's something that's affordable donation that they can make to, help.
00:22:24.336 --> 00:22:37.328
Yes, so I think that's been, that's been great, and then just staying relevant, you know, trying to find, trying to stay on trend with you know what.
00:22:37.429 --> 00:22:38.810
Anything is daunting.
00:22:40.914 --> 00:22:41.876
Right, right.
00:22:41.876 --> 00:22:42.578
Yes, it is.
00:22:42.659 --> 00:22:43.240
Yes, it is.
00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:45.443
And just trying to make that.
00:22:45.443 --> 00:22:48.048
You know, make the museum relevant.
00:22:48.895 --> 00:22:50.099
Yeah, that's important.
00:22:50.401 --> 00:22:56.618
For example, madame Alexander I mean everybody, almost everybody, has heard that name before If you're a doll collector.
00:22:56.618 --> 00:23:13.474
But if you're not a doll collector, you know trying to find ways to have programming at the museum that connects young people who are seven, eight, ten years old and their parents or their grandparents or great grandparents.
00:23:13.474 --> 00:23:16.700
I've heard about Mountain Alexander and they're like who are?
00:23:17.121 --> 00:23:17.382
they.
00:23:17.502 --> 00:23:33.398
Right, you know, and one of the ways we've been able to do a lot, I think, is through American girl, because there's still a large group of young yes, girls and boys that are collecting American girls.
00:23:33.585 --> 00:23:37.096
And the story for the historical characters is so strong.
00:23:37.096 --> 00:23:50.117
So you know being able to have fun days around that and you know we, like I say we connect to, we try to do so much in the community with Toys for Tots and you name it.
00:23:50.117 --> 00:23:50.679
We've done it.
00:23:50.679 --> 00:24:07.253
We tried to partner with Nickelodeon and the American Children's Museum Association and we participated in their day of play and we had a hula hooper come out and we had a giant connect four, and so it was so much fun.
00:24:08.126 --> 00:24:11.917
And so everybody says to me well, no wonder you're enjoying what you're doing.
00:24:13.527 --> 00:24:14.990
You get to play too, in the same box.
00:24:14.990 --> 00:24:16.093
Absolutely.
00:24:16.294 --> 00:24:18.317
You do, absolutely.
00:24:18.826 --> 00:24:19.710
That's so funny.
00:24:20.025 --> 00:24:36.478
Meeting so many wonderful people along the way has been just to me, the bonus, you know, just the icing on the cake, because I tell people all the time you know I may have lost my sister, but I gained a whole new family of friends and people who are like-minded.
00:24:36.478 --> 00:24:38.681
So I'm so thankful for that.
00:24:39.105 --> 00:24:40.308
I like how you said that right.
00:24:40.308 --> 00:24:50.228
You know the fact that, like you may have lost somebody that you cared about, but you've gained so many other people who care about what your sister cared about, who care about what you care about.
00:24:50.228 --> 00:24:55.116
You know what I mean, yes, yes, and you know who care about what the museum is about.
00:24:55.116 --> 00:24:56.159
So I think that's beautiful.
00:24:56.159 --> 00:25:00.776
How do you balance your life, you know, with building this museum?
00:25:00.776 --> 00:25:07.771
And the other part of that is how do you balance preserving the history of the dolls and making sure that the museum stays relevant?
00:25:07.771 --> 00:25:08.133
You know.
00:25:09.086 --> 00:25:10.792
Well, I'll tell you, it's a challenge.
00:25:10.792 --> 00:25:12.931
It's definitely a challenge, definitely a challenge.
00:25:12.931 --> 00:25:27.836
I spent, you know, 20 years at IBM, working in a very fast paced, you know, worldwide marketing team, and so I'm blessed I was able to leave that job and really focus on the museum full time.
00:25:28.037 --> 00:25:28.176
And.
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