Friends of the Zeiss Statement
of
Telephone:
412-561-7876 Allegheny
Regional
Electronic Mail: <
friendsofthezeiss@planetarium.cc
> Asset
District:
Internet Web Site: <
http://www.friendsofthezeiss.org
> 2004 August 30
Good evening, I am Glenn A.
Walsh of
Last
week, I visited the
Due to a drop in
contributions from major donors, COSI sponsored a
referendum last March, which
asked Franklin County, Ohio voters to increase property taxes by one-half mill,
to subsidize the museum. This subsidy would allow
Consequently,
after Labor
Day, most of the south wing of their new building will close to the public. And, their new planetarium will be
mothballed indefinitely.
This is the type of thing you
may see happen to the Children’s
Certainly, the Children’s
Museum’s revenues will increase with the opening of the expanded museum in
November. However, will revenues increase enough to cover the additional costs
of operating a facility four times the
size of the current museum? I do not think so, do you? To cover the costs
of a much larger building, the Children’s Museum needs to appeal to a much
wider customer base than their current niche audience.
The return of the
historic
Buhl Planetarium equipment and artifacts, to the Buhl Planetarium building, would
be one way to expand the appeal of the Children’s Museum to adults. Yes,
tourists would come to see the
oldest operating major planetarium projector in
the world!
To avoid the fate of
COSI, or
the fate of the
Thank you.
gaw
* Children’s Museum annual operating deficits, according
to the 2005 grant application of the Children’s
FY 2000: $77,407 ** FY 2001: $206,149 ** FY 2002:
$555,559 ** FY 2003: $595,789
FY 2004: $934,869