White Rock Lake Museum on July 5, 2022. Photo by Renee Umsted.
The White Rock Lake Museum is still on display at the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake, even though the museum board was given a July 1 deadline to remove the exhibit.
Benjamin Espino of the Office of Arts and Culture sent the museum board an email in March, volunteering staff resources to help take down the displays and other objects.
The board has expressed time and again its preference to keep the museum at White Rock Lake, and one location that has been discussed as a potential new home for the exhibit is the Recreational Services building on Doran Circle near Flag Pole Hill Park. This suggestion was initially proposed by Dallas Park and Recreation Department Director John Jenkins.
However, renovations will need to be made to the building before the museum displays could be installed there, so the panels would need to be stored somewhere.
Michael Jung, a White Rock Lake Museum board member, tells the Advocate in an email that according to an email received in June from Espino, the OAC plans to move the exhibit into storage this month. Espino did not immediately respond to the Advocate’s request for comment.
The OAC asked the museum board to remove the exhibit from the Bath House in late February, to create space for art workshops, exhibits and “vibrant, active programs,” as Jennifer Scripps, the former director of the OAC, said. But the OAC has asked the board to find a new place for the museum in previous years, including as recently as 2017.
Neighbors and community members raised funds to commission museum-grade panels and displays to document the history of White Rock Lake, and they were installed at the Bath House in 2004. That’s where the museum has been ever since.
The Advocate will continue providing updates as new information becomes available.
