loving art, science and creative kids

Over the summer I edited a second edition of “Lives of Museum Junkies,” bringing events affecting the museum community up to date. The American Alliance of Museums estimates that one-third of the nation’s museums and science centers will close as a result of COVID-19. Impression 5, the museum I founded in Michigan and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry look like they will survive. They do what they can to educate children who are sequestered and provide limited in-museum offerings for those needing help with homework. A variety of programs reach adults craving intellectual stimulation. Special exhibits like the one OMSI has on  Genghis Khan are available with a timed entrance reservation.

       What staff is doing is not easy. OMSI, for example, had to reduce its budget by half which meant laying off fifty-three percent of its employees Though the organization remains viable due to commitment and inventiveness of its staff and financial support from the community, each day is a struggle. Before Covid, like minded institutions across the nation, joined together to develop, share, and circulate exhibitions and programs. With museums concerned about staying alive, they lack the staff, time and resources to band together.

  In the late nineteen-sixties there were a dozen science centers in the United States and another  handful in Europe. Before Covid nearly three thousand dotted countries around the globe. Focused on increasing science literacy, each center developed unique attributes that make it a novel place to visit. Unfortunately, with tourism down and the entertainment business curtailed, the public has limited access to their resources at a time when it is needed the most. The pandemic has focused our attention on how important it is to listen to scientists and medical professionals who have years of training rather than giving credence to wishful thinkers and rumor mongers that extend Covid’s dangerous reaches. When open, science centers play a critical role in helping the public separate truth from fiction.

  When I was a young wife and mother, I started a science museum in my basement. It was 1972 when Impression 5 Science Museum was incorporated as a non-for-profit organization in Lansing, Michigan. That action heralded the beginning of an adventure that changed a timid, naive woman into one capable of running one of the nation’s foremost science museums.

A wise man advised me, “When the time feels right, go for it! Don’t wait for everyone else to agree with your dreams because that never happens. Grab your own opportunities.” And that is what I did, though not alone. In Lives of Museum Junkies: Second Edition I share the joys and difficulties I experienced, as well as the struggles of eleven men and women who were on the leading edge of an international movement to create experiential museums dedicated to science. 

As pioneers, we were change agents influencing the country’s education ethos. And, as  visionaries, we broke from tradition by combining art with science, engineering, math, and technology. Years later schools followed our leadership with a curriculums known as STEM, and when the arts got included, STEAM education. We saw ourselves as promoters of lifelong self-improvement, practitioners of creative problem-solving, believers in equal opportunity, disseminators of the latest scientific information, and teachers who made learning so much fun that students were compelled to ask the next question. We wanted visitors to leave the museum yearning to know more. 

We were unsophisticated when we started our museums and not skilled at fundraising, board development or staff management. We were artless in the way we constructed interactive displays and did not understand how chauvinism, race, poverty, and social class played a role in what we were doing. Included are sections called “lessons learned” so you will understand how the people I write about were changed by their experiences. Hopefully, these insights will be helpful to anyone attempting a new venture.

You’ll read about how the director of the New York Hall of Science fought Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on behalf of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and learn how directors dealt with deadly accidents, managed a devious press, and spoke to slippery insurance companies. You’ll see what it’s like to run a multimillion-dollar auction for the elite and read heartwarming tales about   underprivileged children who were inspired by museum experiences. You’ll be introduced to dedicated volunteers like author Jean Auel of The Clan of the Cave Bear fame and staff in granting organizations like the National Science Foundation (NSF) who helped the movement grow.

For twenty-five years I built and ran science museums. In my late fifties, I took a risk by leaving the comfortable cocoon spun around me. With the help of twenty-two national museums and several board members, I left OMSI and started the Museum Tour Catalog to spread science literacy to two million households. My goal was to provide parents with information and hands-on manipulative devices so they could help their children be actively engaged and questioning rather than retreating to mindless television programs. Before retiring, the catalog was mailed to 2 million households annually. For eighteen years, the Museum Tour Catalog and science centers inspired toy companies to develop hands-on science materials for children. Today hands-on science and art kits can be found everywhere toys are sold. They are at Target, Michaels, Bi-Mart,  Amazon and a host of other stores, including science museum gift shops. 

Lives as Museum Junkies: second edition demonstrates how entrepreneurs who follow their dreams have to stay motivated and dedicated despite setbacks. Staying positive and reaching for a better tomorrow is as important today as it ever was then. As Norman Stiles implied in his children’s book Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum, the entire universe is everyone’s museum and we just have to fine tune the way we see things to take advantage of all that is there.  I hope my writings will encourage readers to do just that.

Lives of Museum Junkies: Second Edition is presently available online in ebook and paperback formats. The print version will be in bookstores beginning Monday, November 2nd.

    About homeless and runaway youth. 

Virtual Book Talk at Lake Oswego Library, Tuesday, November 17th at 7pm.

For information, Go to https://www.ci.oswego.or.us/calendar/month/2020-11?og_group_ref_target_id=13