Posted: December 14, 2023 11:15 am
Now is an exciting time for the Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA). We’ve just completed exterior renovations at the Johnstown Flood Museum, we’re planning the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival (our 3oth festival, set for July 26-27), the 15th anniversary of the Johnstown Children’s Museum, the 135th Anniversary of the 1889 Flood, and we’re getting ready to open a wonderful new permanent exhibition on the history of Johnstown’s steel industry from its earliest days through the present.
JAHA has always worked toward long-term goals, and now is no exception. In 1991, JAHA released a strategic plan that called for a “festival park,” the development of heritage tourism assets, and the elevation of Cambria City into a cultural district.
These goals have been achieved – Peoples Natural Gas Park opened in 2012 and is busy all season, the Heritage Discovery Center/ Johnstown Children’s Museum and Wagner-Ritter House & Garden welcome thousands of visitors annually, and JAHA and many other like-minded organizations and businesses have made Cambria City into the cultural heart of Johnstown. From JAHA’s 1971 founding as the Johnstown Flood Museum Association through every goal we’ve ever achieved, the support of our community has been critical.
JAHA is currently developing a new strategic plan – you may have helped us by completing a recent online survey – and we are listening. This new strategic plan will help guide our next decade by setting new goals and sketching out a road map for getting there. Part of this process includes a rebranding project that will help JAHA better communicate who we are and what we do. We are energized and excited by this process – and we look forward to sharing more about all of this in the new year.
No museum in the country supports itself on admissions alone. And although JAHA earns a significantly higher proportion of our operating revenue than most similar organizations, we depend on community support to keep doing all the things we do to make Johnstown a better place to live, work, and visit.
Now, as JAHA looks toward our immediate and long-term future, we are asking for your support with a contribution to our Annual Fund. Letters are going out to supporters and friends now. You can donate securely online through our Community Foundation for the Alleghenies fund (linked below), or mail a check to JAHA at PO Box 1889, Johnstown, PA 15907. We are grateful for your generosity!