WHY THE 5C ARIZONA CENTENNIAL MUSEUM FAILED

Guest post by an anonymous contributor:

The Arizona centennial is now history and there is no centennial museum celebrating Arizona history. Why did the grand plan for the $15 million “centerpiece” of the centennial celebration” fail?

Perhaps because the plan was not really so grand?

In fact, it was not even any good.

The flaws become obvious when the loosely defined plan is compared to recommended practice for establishing a new museum.  In the following paragraphs, ten key points for creating a new museum are compared to what actually happened.  The numbered recommendations are in normal type, and actual centennial museum planning is summarized in bold italics.

Best 10 Practices for Creating a New Museum *

 

          Recommendation:

1. WRITE A ONE - PAGE DESCRIPTION OF THE IDEA OF THE NEW MUSEUM.

  What Gov. Brewer, AHS, and Centennial 12 Foundation Did!

Announced a 5C Arizona Centennial Museum honoring the 5 C’s (one line description of new museums theme), announced who the sole-source designer (Gallagher) would be and chose the sole-source museum manager (AHS) who is also on the Centennial Foundation 2012 Board. 
Done Deal!!!

         

2. HAVE A COMMUNITY MEETING AND LISTEN!

Planned museum in secret, later announced it as a “Birthday Present” others would have to pay for, and instantly gagged the mining and mineral museum (MMM) staff. 

3. VISIT 20 LIKE (HIGH-TECH) MUSEUMS.

Omitted this step.  They could have at least gone to the AHS’s Marley Museum to figure out why a high-tech museum might fail and how expensive it is to maintain one.

     

4. FIND A REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER.

No need to do this.  The clique simply planned to hi-jack an existing building-the Polly Rosenbaum building dedicated to and containing the very successful Mining and Mineral Museum.  Oops—they forgot to consider the bad press and anger this would cause.

5. DO THE NUMBERS:  GET A BUSINESS PLAN.

The initial cost estimate used to support the centennial museum bill was on a half-page of paper and was hopelessly incomplete. After the bill became law, the cost ballooned to over $15 million. Since there is still no transparency, the soundness of that estimate is unknown. That’s also without any consideration for maintenance costs and who will agree to pay for them for years and years.

6. OWN THE WORDS—DESCRIBE THE MUSEUM IN DETAIL

The project was forever changing and never described to the public.  After announcing her “birthday gift”, Gov. Brewer, one year later, said we would hear more from her soon.  It never happened.  Meanwhile the theme somehow morphed from the 5Cs to the Arizona “experience” which was never clearly explained. AHS and the Centennial Foundation made some vague attempts that have proven to be glowing generalizations with no money or concrete plans behind them. 

7. FORM A NON-PROFIT WITH A COMMUNITY BOARD TO PROMOTE.

The Centennial Foundation is a non-profit with community leaders, but they failed to promote the new museum or answer opposition.  They made a small number of “public” presentations only to small, select groups such as town councils. They did, however, allow the Governor and AHS to use their 501 (c) 3 status as a way to allow for sole-source contracts rather than open bidding.  The Centennial Commission and the AHS’s Board of Directors apparently said nothing.

8. CREATE A SMALLER SAMPLE FACILITY. TALK TO DESIGNERS.

No need for this step—they already chose the designer first!  There was plenty of room (in the mineral museum building) for a pre-view but that never happened—everyone was just supposed to accept whatever the Governor, the AHS, and the Foundation wanted for their expensive “signature” project.

9. RAISE FUNDS.

Fundraising failed due to a “jam it down your throat” attitude, using pressure from the Gov.’s office and the guise of a “birthday gift” others had to pay for. The “signature” project supplanted other worthy efforts for our Centennial and destroyed the historic, well-respected, popular, and almost self-supporting MMM.

10. SHARE THE VISION.

The vision was never adequately shared, and for some it was a true nightmare.  The public still does not know what the Experience Museum is.  Without the funds, the vision is diminished.  The reality now being shared is that Arizona lost a valuable and historic museum and had an empty building for our Centennial celebration.

Discussion:

The secrecy surrounding centennial museum planning and the statute to authorize it was inappropriate. It produced angry community opposition and led to a legislative compromise that had the MMM “housed” in the building, sharing it with the Centennial Museum. Then, this legislative action was completely ignored. The centennial museum project proceeded in blatant violation of the new state statutes.

Instead, a strategy of silencing the opposition failed.  The MMM was abruptly closed, with the staff laid off (fired) and the doors locked to the 25,000 school students plus 30,000+ visitors each year.  Untruthful information about low MMM attendance and serious budget concerns didn’t stand up to the fact that the MMM was self-supporting but for the use of the historic state owned building.

Freeport reportedly began a feasibility study very late in 2011 after it became clear there would be no centennial museum for Arizona’s centennial. Such studies are normally done at the beginning of a project.  At this point, a failure analysis would be more appropriate.

After several focus changes and near total failure to raise anywhere near the money estimated (guessed) for the centennial / experience museum, the project is in very serious trouble.  Credibility was further damaged because the public was given ever changing amounts that were greatly inflated as fundraising reports for the new museum.  At one point supporters claimed they had raised one third of the money. Then, the news media reported only 2 or 3 million had  been raised. The latest figure (ABC 15 news report) is even lower than before— $250,000 raised for a guestimated need of #$15.75 M.   

Summary:

Recipe for Success: Items (normal type) 1 through 10.

Recipe for Failure: Actions of Governor Brewer, AHS, and the Centennial 2012 Foundation from mid-2009 through the centennial.

Reference:

 * Museum Planning      http://museumplanner.org