Save The Museum: CZ and the IRS / Update
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 30th, 2008
[Find an update at the end if you have already read this beginning text. Thank you.]
It is with deep appreciation for all the past contributions that I come to the readers of Cryptomundo today, asking for your important help. Your vital assistance is needed. Whether you are thinking about contributing $10 or $1000 (via PayPal, donate to me at, lcoleman@maine.rr.com ), I think you deserve a full accounting of what is going on, and why this call now.
I must reveal something I have kept relatively quiet for nearly a year, which has added all kinds of stress to my life. I must place in context my call for small donations and large ones today.
Ten months ago, in August 2007, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contacted me to conduct an audit. During the last year, it has not been an ordinary audit, I’m sure they would agree, and has taken on the strangest routes imagined. But I am not here to write negative words about the IRS or demonize them. Indeed, what has occurred during all of this has been educational, intriguing along the way, and in many ways has focussed my efforts to explain, enhance, and present the best face forward of the International Cryptozoology Museum.
The first Homo floresiensis skull replica (above) in the country was donated to the International Cryptozoology Museum by Bone Clones. Also among the fifty specimens of the museum-quality replicas of hominoid skulls is Homo erectus newyorkensis, a skull (below) rediscovered in Manhattan and taken by Teuku Jacob back to Indonesia.
The audit has gone to five or more levels of meetings and appeals, as I have attempted to explain what being a “cryptozoologist” is all about, that I do make my living this way, and that the museum is an essential part of the overall plan.
I began with a vision of the museum, after displaying objects and items in a decade of rentals after my divorce, to purchase a house a bit bigger than I needed, to turn over a main floor and extra storage to a cryptozoology and Bigfoot museum where researchers, documentary filmmakers, and visitors could see cryptozoology in three dimensions. It would be the International Cryptozoology Museum, for cryptozoologists, the media, and the public to enjoy.
Three of the hundreds of cryptia replicas in the museum include the rare maned wolf example, above, and below, the Giant Ground Sloth museum-quality replica used by David Oren to interview eyewitnesses of the Mapinguary in the Amazon, and the Japanese rendering of the Mothman. For more images from the museum, see here.
In 2003, I took a penalty and cashed out my retirement TIAA/CREF funds to get a down payment on a modest six room house in a residential neighborhood of Portland, Maine, where I live. With a limited income anyway, I knew it would be a few years before the museum could make a lot of money to support itself, but I made a conscious decision to not charge anything for researchers and general visitors, but to access a fee to film companies who wanted to tape here. Also, I would ask for donations.
The museum contains objects like the carving of the “Maine Mutant” ~ above ~ and the FeeJee Mermaid ~ below.
Not having a business head on me (hey, I majored in anthropology, zoology, and psychiatric social work in school), I saw no difference between my book income, my magazine writing charges, my lecture fees, and the museum monies. It was all cryptozoology to me.
The eventual plan was to get the museum up and going and then find and move into other space, say, in a decade.
Things were moving along. Film companies were contacting me to ask to shoot at the museum, Bates College set up a room in their exhibition on cryptozoology which was stimulated by my museum to promote the future of this museum, and donations were coming in.
Then the audit began. What was being challenged, initially, was, first, the reality of “cryptozoology” as an occupation.
I had to educate the IRS on what “cryptozoology” is. I established proofs for them of how books, films, tv interviews and more were generated by what I did, delivering DVDs, books, and comic books as physical evidence of cryptozoology at home and of expeditions, for example, to the swamps of the South or to Loch Ness.
During the audit, I have had to hire tax accountants to organize and defend myself (an unforeseen expense, to say the least - and thousands of dollars). Because I sure don’t understand the tax law or, really, even finances at all, I needed help on many fronts.
I must greatly thank volunteers too, like Jeff and Jess Meuse and Rob Carignan who assisted me with the little things that became big deals, like painting a wall in the museum or measuring out the space and drawing blueprints of the floorplan of the museum (which was for the IRS). A big hearty thanks to Duncan Hopkins for the new logo for the museum. There are people like Corey Chimko who researched how many mentions of the museum are on the internet for the IRS audit, and created an International Cryptozoology Museum bibliography I submitted.
There have been several of you, most of who wish to remain unnamed, along the way who have donated time, loans, or gifted a little money to support the museum. All of those donations from $3.23 to $100 add up. I appreciate you all, sincerely, you have been lifesavers of the museum.
Part of my education in this process has been to become a willow tree, bend along the way, and understand where the IRS is going with their audit and their challenges. They, in essence, have found that despite my career as a cryptozoologist, which they are firmly convinced about now (I think the Swamp Thing tribute comic book did it!), it is now a matter of “income streams.”
In 2004, Richard Corben drew “me” as the comic book character “Coleman Wadsworth” chasing an Abominable Snowman and then in turn being chased by the Swamp Thing (#7 and #8). The story is by Will Pfeifer and my end is death in #8 at the hands of a villian, but I was told by the comic book people that characters do come back to life, so not to worry. The museum is pictured as a two-page-panel in #7.
To the IRS, the museum verges on being a hobby (as per Code 183), and it needs more income (even if donations) to support itself, on its own. To me, the merging between my interviews, the book sales that come out of the museum appearances, and the visibility of the museum on the net are all interwoven. I’ve never had a great income since I was laid off from adjunct teaching, but combined together, I live at the cryptozoology poverty level with no complaints. But to the IRS, the museum is a separate entity. I understand now, and must comply with that view. I’ve lost my appeal on my “merge” view.
No fighting this any longer, for I stand fully enlightened about how the IRS is viewing Code 183, as it applies to my life’s career. The museum has to make money, or it ceases to exist.
Therefore, my ten year plan for where this museum was going needs to be sped up. It has come time for me to push into play the next phase of where this has to go, for the museum, to be kept alive, I see it has to be moved into a separate facility within one year and get a regular, separate stream of income.
The late Scott Norman of Mokele-Mbembe fame enjoys a light moment at the museum in October 2007.
In the meantime, right now, I need to get donations to pay the mortgage for the house-museum where it is now, to keep it from foreclosure, and to pay for the other bills associated with the museum. Yes, it has been a major financial drain on my cryptozoology income to pay for this last year’s IRS-related accountant/defender fees and more. Stress? Yep, there’s been plenty this spring, not to mention the deaths of my mother and stepsister. (The future looks like there will be IRS fees coming down the pike too, but that’s another matter entirely.)
Someday, I’d like to buy the Minnesota Iceman exhibit for the International Cryptozoology Museum. We have to have dreams, don’t we? But first things first.
Realistically, for the museum to continue alone, I have set a goal of $15,000 to raise for the museum in the next three months, to keep the International Cryptozoology Museum alive and deal with finding and moving into new space. I need to find a location that is affordable, which gets good people traffic. In the future, in a new location, the museum will charge a bit and be set up to sell many kinds of cryptozoology books (beyond my own) and cz objects.
If you wish to contribute now, a little bit or a lot, I thank you.
Please DO NOT use the Cryptomundo PayPal button on this page for your donation, which is directly for Cryptomundo, an entity I do not own.
Go to PayPal, and donate to me at, lcoleman@maine.rr.com
Or you may directly send a check made out to
International Cryptozoology Museum
c/o Loren Coleman
PO Box 360
Portland, ME 04112
Here I am, in costume, to the left, playing an extra, perhaps a seasoned elder, during the town villagers’ riot in a lake monster episode of the short-lived new series, “In Search Of…” on the SciFi Channel. I’ll do anything to earn money to support the cryptozoology museum.
The International Cryptozoology Museum is highlighted in various books, including exhibits from it shown in Cryptozoology Out of Time Place Scale by Mark Bessire and Raechell Smith, the companion volume to the Bates College exhibition of 2006.
Boing Boing TV’s comes for a visit to the museum:
Just for clarification, this museum is not a 501(c)3 public charity or private foundation.
Please send a contribution today, via PayPal to lcoleman@maine.rr.com
Thank you very much.
Loren
P.S. I’ve closed comments. Your financial support, especially, will speak volumes about how you feel.
Use PayPal, to donate to me at, lcoleman@maine.rr.com
[The above was originally posted on June 25, 2008.]
UPDATES:
Late June 29th:
The International Cryptozoology Museum website will soon begin listing donors’ names, per:
$10,000 and above: Museum Benefactors / Life Members
$1,000 and above: Museum Principal Donors / Life Members
$100 and above: Museum Donors
$99.00-$1.00 Museum Supporters
In the last 24 hours, the first “Museum Principal Donor / Life Member” contributed $1050.00. This individual “Morbus” challenges others to join him in donating at the $1000 level to meet the goal of keeping this institution open.
June 28th:
Forty-two people have donated various amounts (the majority being $20 and $10 each, but with amounts ranging from $3.01 to the highest, $200). It does all build. The total is $1997.00, as of 4 am, Saturday, June 28, 2008. Deeply appreciated.
Donations mostly occurred in the first 24 hours, on Thursday pm into Friday am, and have slowed to a virtual thin trickle. I’ve welcomed the great coverage, the friends, and the support from Boing Boing, The Anomalist, The Daily Grail, the Anomaly News Syndicate, Frame 352, the Los Angeles Times, Crikey, NPR, and scores and scores of bloggers. Your continued support is important and welcomed. I am hopeful more donations will come in over the weekend and in the coming weeks.
Thank you.
No one likes the thought of becoming extinct!
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