The Victoria Mansion, a time capsule of pre-Civil War architecture and design in downtown Portland, has launched a five-year capital campaign aimed at securing its future and expanding its offerings as a museum.

Administrators hope to raise $8 million during the “Forward Facing” Campaign, which will cover interior and exterior rehabilitation projects and support expanding the museum’s staff and educational offerings, which range from archival visits to hands-on restoration classes, Executive Director Timothy Brosnihan said.

“This museum is for everyone, and we’re preserving it so that people can come see it, appreciate its beauty and be inspired by it,” Brosnihan said on a Tuesday afternoon phone call. “At the end of the road, with a five-year campaign and some institutional growth, we expect to be able to push what we have here outwards into the community more effectively.”

Built around 1860 as a summer home for Ruggles Sylvester Morse and his wife, Olive, as an escape from New Orleans’ swelter, the structure was turned into a museum in 1941.

“Every generation essentially has to save this building anew, and we’re having that moment now, where it’s this generation’s turn to step up,” Brosnihan said.

So far, the mansion has raised about $5 million, mostly from large donations pledged before the campaign formally kicked off, including one bequest of $4 million, he said.

The largest chunk of money — $3.3 million — is earmarked for work on the building’s exterior, restoring windows and cornices, repainting and restoring the perimeter fence, and conserving the brownstone masonry, Brosnihan said. He added that crews have already begun some projects, including the masonry work.

Another $1.2 million is slated for interior work: restoring window treatments, replicating certain textiles and preserving the decorative paintwork that adorns the grand stair hall and other spaces.

Brosnihan said the mansion currently holds “some of the most important interiors” that have survived since the 19th century, noting that about 90% of the mansion’s furniture is original, designed by iconic craftsman and designer Gustave Herter.

“You can see Herter furniture on a pedestal in major art museums,” Brosnihan said. “This is the only place you can come and see it in context, in the interiors that it was designed for.”

The campaign also seeks to raise $1 million for educational programming, including specialized preservation training programs for construction workers and craftspeople that the mansion began hosting last year. Those courses last about two weeks, and participants receive a stipend to cover time lost at work, Brosnihan said.

“There are too many historic buildings and not enough people with those skill sets,” he said.

In larger markets, like greater Boston, construction companies may specialize in preservation work, giving workers a chance to learn on the job. But most of the firms in northern New England are small — sometimes one-person — operations, which can be difficult for newcomers to break into.

“We need to do something to help the education process along. And where it’s not happening organically, we have to make opportunities for that learning to take place,” he said. “We’ve been fundraising as we go each year, and we’ve been able to do about one class a year, but we’re looking to make that sustainable.”

The final $2.5 million is aimed toward ensuring the mansion’s stability and growth in the long term. That means hiring more staff and possibly establishing a satellite office so workers are no longer confined to the mansion’s third floor, carriage house and service quarters, Brosnihan said.

“We’re kind of pushed to the far little corners of the building and the property,” he said with a laugh.

The campaign comes amid nationwide cuts and delays to arts and historic preservation funding. Mansion administrators learned last month that a $90,000 grant originally promised by the Institute of Museum and Library Services had been clawed back.

That money would have gone toward the stair hall, Brosnihan said. And while the loss is certainly a temporary setback, the restoration will be able to continue with support from this campaign.

“So we’re going to forge ahead,” he said. “Certainly the landscape of federal funding has changed for the foreseeable future. … What can you do but roll with it?”