Chapel Hill Museum may move to the Internet

CHAPEL HILL -- The Chapel Hill Museum wants to go virtual, says director Traci Davenport.

In an e-mail to Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and others, Davenport says although the museum has asked for a meeting with town officials, it is not seeking to keep the museum's East Franklin Street building open.

Donald Boulton, co chairman of the museum trustees, and Town Council member Laurin Easthom still hope there is a way to come out the July 21 meeting with the museum staying open.

But Davenport is unequivocal.

"The physical museum will no longer be," she wrote the town in the June 24 e-mail.

Museum officials announced they would close after the Town Council appropriated less operating money than the museum requested for the new fiscal year. The town also said it would not be making the museum a part of town government, as museum leaders said they were led to believe.

The group is now looking for a small office "to focus on continuing our award-winning education programs and creating a virtual presence for the museum to remain a resource to the community," Davenport wrote.

Its meeting with the town is to coordinate a "logistical exit plan," Davenport said.

"It is important that we conduct this closing in the same responsible manner in which have operated these last 14 years," she wrote. "Town official assistance will allow this closing to take place in such a manner."