A new website (www.miningmineralmuseum.com) displays photos of what the mineral museum looked like before the AHS gained control of it in 2010.
The mineral museum was then the only top rated museum under AHS control and it had more visitors that all the other AHS museums combined. Teachers depended on it to support K-12 science education. It was also far more efficient, requiring state funding for only one of the employees.
So, the AHS locked the doors because ---------------------------- ?
Note:
The most recent AHS attendance figures are on page 236 of the FY2016 Budget
Tucson 7,014
Tucson Downtown 927
Tucosn Fort Lowell 3,086
Yuma 2,066
Tempe 3,375
Flagstaff museum 6,277
Flagstaff mansion 22,008 (state park property)
Total 44,753
Mineral Museum attendance was over 50,000
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I like to do math so here are some calculations. The Museum at Papago Park is open 6 days a week and so was the Mineral Museum downtown in Phoenix. That is approximately 313 days a year both museums were open!
ReplyDeleteNow if you divide the attendance at the Papago Park Museum (Tempe) by 313 days as follows:
3375/ 313 days= 11 people a day going to the museum.
Now lets do the same thing for the old mineral museum downtown:
50,000/313 days =160 visitors a day.
Which museum is doing better in attendance? Obviously, the former mineral museum which needs to be reopened!
The reason/s were never given, but the act was abrupt, hostile, unauthorized, and unnecessary--they never raised enough money to even do the 5C's part. The way in which AHS chose to close the MMM suggests serious problems as an agency. Here are some real possible reasons:1. AHS thinks it is above the law. The sense of self-importance is at a dangerous level. 2. AHS has a language problem; they confuse the terms inherit with entrust. The transfer of the MMM to AHS entrusted the care of the MMM. The MMM did not die,
ReplyDeleteit was closed and dismantled by AHS (killed?) so they could get the minerals for themselves. 3. AHS is insensitive to children's programs--the MMM's incredible
free service to schools is gone--the kids are just collateral damage. 4. AHS needed to do something with the Marley (Papago) long-standing failure and big cost drain, so trying a "gallery" by closing the MMM and grabbing the minerals, was very tempting. Five years later, the gallery in incomplete, the Mining and Mineral Museum is not there, and addendance is still abysmal. (Close the Marley!)