Arizona centennial to feature smells and vibrations

The Arizona centennial museum (AKA Arizona Experience) has been a museum in search of theme for nearly the last two years. First, it was (and still is by law) to feature the 5Cs, including cotton and cows. Then, the now defunct ADMMR website said it was to also feature technology, including solar panels and spacecraft. After that, the Arizona Centennial 2012 Foundation website said it would be story telling museum. Then, in a KAET 8 interview, an AHS spokesperson said it would be about “imagining the future”. Now, a new Foundation website just introduced an even more peculiar theme.

On http://az100years.org, the page on the Arizona Experience Museum says it will provide a multisensory immersion into the past, present, and future. There will be sights, sounds, and even smells and vibrations. How did they miss taste?  A $15.75 million museum constructed in an existing building should at least be complete.

The first floor plan shows displays featuring land, water, sky, mind, body, inspire, and remember. The second floor will feature celebrate, innovate, play, and a 500 square foot mineral gallery. Since Judge Charles E. Jones, President of the Foundation,  promised (in the Arizona Republic) that the complete Arizona mineral collection will be preserved, this galley will presumably be packed solid form floor to ceiling. Visitors will probably just have to imagine what is in the pile.

The centennial museum (with absolutely no chance of being open for the centennial) is steadily progressing from the trite, to the strange, to the absolutely bizarre.  Unfortunately, it will not simply be an irresponsible waste of money. The floor plan confirms that it is displacing and destroying the top rated Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum and its very successful and self-supporting K-12 science education programs.

The most unique part of Arizona’s heritage is being scrapped.