St. Joseph is blessed and cursed with museums. Each works at carving out a niche and finding community support, and all struggle for survival.

The St. Joseph Museums, the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, the Fire Museum, the Doll Museum, Robidoux Row, the National Military Heritage Museum, the Pony Express Museum, the Patee House and Jesse James museums all have a story to tell.

But, in the coming years, that story could get harder to tell because of limited funding and other challenges.

“If they (the museums) are going to last, you have to operate them as a business,” said Terry Oldham, director of the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art.

“Absolutely, it’s a no-brainer,” said Ted Allison, president of the St. Joseph Area Chamber of Commerce.

Museums need governmental tax support for about 28 percent of their budget, Mr. Oldham said. But it has to be a funding mechanism that doesn’t antagonize the local population, he said.

The principle of some governmental support is a good concept, said Dick DeShon, the president of the Pony Express Museum board. Mr. DeShon said he has no idea what the percentage should be.

The last time the issue of tax support for museums was presented, voters turned it down 2 to 1. But survival will depend on some kind of tax support, said Gary Chilcote, the director of the Patee House and Jesse James museums.

A big problem for many of the museums is staff to operate and provide dependable hours, Mr. DeShon said.

Dependable hours can lead to more visitors, which means the community will receive a payback in increased sales tax and more sales for lodging, gas and food, Mr. Allison said.

Community support through donations to museum trusts or endowment funds is another financial need.

A mid-sized museum should have a trust or endowment totalling $5 million so that it has a steady stream of interest income, Mr. Oldham said. But the pool of potential patrons who could donate funds doesn’t appear to replenish as fast as benefactors are dying, he said.

“It would be remarkable to me if one museum ended up with a $5 million trust fund,” said Tom Watkins, a local attorney and art museum board member.

The membership has to include between 400 and 800 paying individuals, Mr. Oldham said.

No museum in St. Joseph has all three components of tax support, trust fund and large membership, said Marci Bennett, director of the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Those components certainly would be ideal, said Jackie Lewin, director of the St. Joseph Museums. The St. Joseph Museums can claim city tax revenue, a small trust fund and about 250 members.

Consolidation appears to be one way to ensure some institutions survive. The Knea Von Black Archives and the Glore Psychiatric Museum combined with the St. Joseph Museum, which became the St. Joseph Museums.

“Frankly, the Pony Express, Patee House and St. Joseph Museums should all combine,” Mr. Watkins said. “The community and the museums would all benefit.”

At the very least, the museums should consider having a centralized volunteer base and financial services to handle accounting, audits and marketing, Mrs. Bennett said. There is a fledgling museum association that has brought the museum directors together and provides an avenue for communication, she said.

Mrs. Bennett sees the association as a first step.

Museums already are cooperating in other ways. The Pony Express sought and received assistance from the St. Joseph Museums. A decade ago, there was serious doubt that the two could work together when the St. Joseph Museum took back a Pony Express painting it owned. Eventually, the issue was resolved.

Today at the Pony Express Museum, staffing is an issue, and that includes having curators, Mr. DeShon said. The board realized how much knowledge the St. Joseph Museums already had when it came to taking care of collections, so the Pony Express seeks advice and assistance from the other staff to fill the gap when it comes to caring for the Pony Express collections, Mr. DeShon said.

“It makes sense to pool resources and not duplicate operational expenses,” Mr. Allison said. “The museums have a tremendous potential that has yet to be capitalized.”

So far this year, museums have seen some positive developments. Despite the increased cost of gas, attendance at museums is up 14 percent this year, Ms. Bennett said.

The concern is for the long term.

The Patee House started out strong in early June, but numbers really dropped, Mr. Chilcote said. Until some children’s groups came Thursday, there were only six visitors. The museum can’t keep its doors open with those kinds of numbers, he said.

Museums with regular hours could lead the business community to begin bringing small- to medium-sized meetings and conventions to St. Joseph, Mr. Allison said.

“Businesspeople like to go someplace interesting,” he said. “But if something doesn’t change, all of St. Joseph’s museums will reach a crisis point sometime in the next 10 years, and that would be a disaster.”

At the Pony Express Museum, Mr. DeShon said he doesn’t see anything changing for the next few years. The community will be asked to deal with schools, sewers and other needs, he said. So museums may have to tighten their belts and hope they can wait.

Marshall White can be reached

at marshall@npgco.com.