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 October 25
Good
evening, I am Glenn A. Walsh of
Last
month, the Columbus Center of Science and Industry (COSI) downsized and they indefinitely
mothballed their new Digistar II Planetarium. On October 8, the Historical
Society of Washington, D.C. announced the closing, next April, of the one-year
old City Museum of Washington, which occupies the 1903 Carnegie Library
building, which I visited in August of 2000 prior to museum renovation,
Museum
management told The Washington Post that
the museum opened without enough money to sustain the museum's plans and to
advertise its content. Through August, the museum had attracted only 36,500
paying patrons, far short of the 100,000 to 450,000.that had been projected--despite
being located across the street from a newly-opened
The same
type of wishful thinking, which occurred in Washington, is also reflected in
the business plan of the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, despite the
Children's Museum's $2.4 million accumulated operating deficit over the last
five years!
According
to the Children's Museum business plan:
1) They
will annually receive $112,000 in rentals, as well as another $32,000 from fee-based
services, from six non-profit organizations. I wonder how some of these
non-profits will be able to sustain these payments. For instance, the
Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra will annually pay $18,500 for rent and
$6,000 for fee-based services. Yet most,
if not all, of the Youth Symphony concerts are free-of-charge! Ultimately, the
Children's Museum will have to settle for less income from most of these
non-profits.
2) The
Children's Museum expects to receive $1 per visitor per year from the
cafe/restaurant, a non-profit "industry standard." Yet, this could be a golden
opportunity to bring in additional revenue!
When the
Allegheny Center Mall was converted to an office building several years ago, Pappan's
Family Restaurant, Northern Meat Market, Tavern on the Square, and a half-dozen
restaurants in the
3) As with
the attendance projections in
To avoid
the fates of the City Museum of Washington and COSI, and the problems of the Pittsburgh
Center for the Arts, I, again, urge this Board to insist that the Children's
Museum expand their mission statement to appeal to adults with the return of
the historic Buhl Planetarium equipment and artifacts to the Buhl Planetarium building, which
opened to the public 65 years ago today!
Thank you. gaw