The Arizona Historical Society continues to operate six
history museums and manages one historic mansion for the State Park
Service. The history museums are not
successful, top rated museums like the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum that
the AHS closed and destroyed. According to a recent performance review
conducted Office of the Auditor General, the attendance at AHS facilities was
as follows in 2012:
Pioneer Museum, Flagstaff ……….
12, 487
Papago Museum, Tempe ..................
6, 867
Sanguinetti House, Yuma..................
4, 882
AZ History Museum, Tucson ...........11, 486
Ft. Lowell Museum, Tucson ……….
2, 376
Downtown Museum, Tucson ……….1,
243
Total history museum
attendance ….39, 341
The performance report
includes one other facility:
Riordion Mansion, Flagstaff
........... 24,732
The AHS currently manages the Riordan Mansion, a State
Historic Park, for the Arizona State Parks, with support from Northern Arizona
Pioneers' Historical Society and Riordan Action Network. Located on the highway
to the Grand Canyon, this old logging baron’s mansion draws over 60% as many
visitors by itself as all of the AHS history museums combined.
In 2010, the AHS was given control of the Arizona Mining and
Mineral Museum in Phoenix. Comparable attendance
figures for the mineral museum are not available for 2012 because the AHS
closed it in 2011. However, the average
attendance in 2007, 2008, and 2009 was 47,500. So, the mineral museum attendance
was approximately 120% of the total attendance
of all six AHS history museums.
Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum …. 47, 500 (prior year average)
Furthermore, the half dozen history museums are heavily
subsidized by a portion of the $3 million budget taxpayers provide to the AHS every
year. By contract, the mineral museum was operated by volunteers and self-generated
income. It served more visitors at less
cost.
Why did the AHS close the most successful of its eight facilities (7 museums and one historic
park)?
For the size and amount of money spent on this state agency the size of the attendance is pretty horrible!Hndreds of thousands and as many as several million tourists come to Arizona each year and the A.H.S. can't even attract more than this? Looks like the locals don't even want to go these places.
ReplyDeleteI remember that the Fremont House in Downtown Tucson used to be open too. They used to have some great walking tours through the downtown too. They are closed too. The attendance of some of these museums has dropped up to 90% since the AHS started charging an admissions charge.
Guess nobody wants to raise money. Some of these smaller museums were great but to charge $3.00 now, the public didn't think it was worth the price.
It was because Bill Ponder told the Az State Legislators when asked how much the AHS would make if they charged an admission charge. He told them a fanciful number that was no where near reality.Then the legislators told AHS to charge.
ReplyDeleteThe rest is history. Attendance dropped to almost nothing from where the old numbers where.
As Ponder and Woosley never come out of their offices how could they know what would happen. Couple that with a complete lack of an ability to raise money or have a community presence then this is what you get.