Friends of the Zeiss
Telephone:
412-561-7876
Electronic Mail: <
friendsofthezeiss@planetarium.cc
>
Internet Web Site: <
http://www.friendsofthezeiss.org
>
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate
release: 2004 August 30
For more
information -- Glenn A. Walsh:
Daytime: E-Mail < gawalsh@planetarium.cc
>
Evening: Telephone
412-561-7876
CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OPERATING BUDGET DEFICIT
GROWS TO NEARLY $1 MILLION
TO SURVIVE FINANCIALLY, MUSEUM
NEEDS TO ALSO APPEAL TO ADULTS
In a
prepared statement
before the RAD Board on Monday evening, Friends of the Zeiss Project Director
Glenn A. Walsh said, “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!”
Mr. Walsh pointed out that with the closing
of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and the downsizing of a large Science
museum in Columbus, Ohio (including the mothballing of their Digistar II
Planetarium), expansion of the Children’s Museum’s mission, to include a
greater appeal to adults, may be the only way for the Children’s Museum to
avoid closing or major downsizing.
- 30 -
* 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
To read the complete statement, click here: < https://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/friendsofthezeiss/ST-ARAD-COSI.htm > gaw Glenn A. WalshElectronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc > Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --