$400,000 for nothing

Page 200 of the FY 2014 Arizona JBLC Baseline Budget Book (Arizona Historical Society funding) contains the following:

The Baseline includes $410,500 and 1 FTE Position from the General Fund in FY 2014 for the Arizona Experience Museum. These amounts are unchanged from 2013.

This line item funds personnel and rent of the Arizona Experience Museum, previously called the Centennial Museum. The facility was previously the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum on the Capitol Mall. The museum closed May 1, 2011 for renovations. The Arizona Historical Society does not currently have an estimated reopening date.

Why does the legislature continue funding the AHS for a nonexistent museum that has no plan and no schedule?

Significance of AZ mining

A recent article in the Tucson Citizen describes the great significance of Arizona mining.  It briefly reviews the vital importance of minerals in modern life, the rich history of Arizona mining, and the economic importance of Arizona mining. It notes that Nevada is the only state with greater mineral production than Arizona. Finally, it described current Arizona mining operations in some detail.

How unfortunate that Arizona’s elected leaders and the Arizona Historical Society do not appreciate the obvious facts presented in this article. The pointless elimination of the once top rated Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum erased a vital bit of Arizona history and was an insult to the mining industry.  It was also, as detailed in prior posts, a serious blow to K-12 science education.

Based on the facts succinctly outlined by Jonathan DuHamel in the Tucson Citizen, the museum should be restored.  Hopefully, the future will provide more enlightened elected leadership.

Reference:

The value of mining in Arizona

by Jonathan DuHamel on Jun. 18, 2013, under Geology, Politics

Wry Heat - TucsonCitizen.com

http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2013/06/18/the-value-of-mining-in-arizona/

100,000 kids cheated

Three years ago, the initial, June 5, 2010 blog post documented the hostile takeover of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum by the Arizona Historical Society. Although the mineral museum curator resigned shortly thereafter, self-supported employees and volunteers operated the mineral museum for nearly another school year. They served 50,000 children, half participating in class field trips and half brought by family members or friends. 

Then, the AHS abruptly closed the mineral museum, even though some school and scout field trips were still scheduled. The closing was irrational, since funds for the proposed replacement (Arizona Experience Museum) had not been raised.

The building has now stood locked and empty during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years. One hundred thousand school children have now been cheated out of a unique and memorable learning experience. The AHS will not answer questions about either the museum or the mineral collection. Apparently, there are now no plans of any kind for the empty building.

Nevertheless, the AHS continues to receive approximately $500,000 in state funds each year for a non-museum. They even hired staff after the closure of the mineral museum.

One million dollars (thus far) for nothing!

Madness.

No one talking about Arizona Experience Museum debacle

Cronkite News recently explored the status of the Arizona Experience Museum. No one involved in the destruction of the mineral museum will talk, not the Governors office, not the Arizona Historical Society, and not the Arizona Centennial Commission.

Meanwhile, visitors still arrive at the old mineral museum building, bringing there children and grandchildren.  They are not happy to find the doors locked.

They are also not happy about the mineral museum budget being soaked up by the AHS each year for no apparent purpose.HS

 Reference:

Transformation of mineral museum stalled, supporters look for answers

Kelsa Wasung

Cronkite News, April 25, 2015

http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2013/04/transformation-of-mineral-museum-stalled-supporters-look-for-answers/

Phoenix museums and education

Salt River Project, Valley of the Sun United Way, and Southwest Human Development are corporate sponsors for the new Phoenix Great Start Pilot Program.  The program enables staff in the Balsz school district to give children a Passport to Culture and Education.  It is intended to broaden children’s experiences in preparation for school, and thereby facilitate learning. Said Mayor Greg Stanton “A child’s earliest experiences in life are important for their long term well being.”

The program will enable children to visit the Phoenix Zoo, Arizona Science Center, Pueblo Grande Museum, Children’s Museum of Phoenix, Arizona Latino Arts and Cultural Center, Heard Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, and Japanese Friendship Garden.

The currently closed Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum would have been a prime candidate for inclusion in the program. It was highly regarded for its educational value and admitted children for free. School busses were once lined up behind the museum nearly every day during the school year. Conspicuously excluded from the program is the AHS Marley Center Museum (AKA History Museum at Papago Park) in Tempe.

Why do Arizona taxpayers provide millions of dollars per year to the Arizona Historical Society  to operate a museum that hardly anyone visits and that the local community does not regard as having significant educational value?

Reference:

Phoenix museum subsidy aids some low-income kids

Eugene Scott

The Arizona Republic, Monday, 4.29.2013, page B1

Museum visitors vote with their feet

The figure below shows what services taxpayers receive from the AHS in exchange for the multimillion dollar annual budget. The annual statewide attendance for all AHS museums is shown from FY 2003 through 2012.

 The text below the graph states that the dramatic increase in FY2011 was due to operation of the Centennial Museum.  That is not correct. There was no Centennial Museum. The theme selected for the Centennial Museum was so absurd that only one Arizona company made a donation. The doors never opened.

The spike in attendance was actually caused by visitors to the mineral museum that operated in the building at the time it was reassigned to the AHS for the Centennial Museum. The mineral museum, by itself, attracted more visitors than all the AHS museums in Tucson, Tempe, Yuma, and Flagstaff.

The 80,000 visitors in FY 2011 were largely due to mineral museum attendance prior to the closing in April of 2011 (fiscal years do not match calendar years).  Subsequent to the closing, potential visitors did not choose to visit any of the remaining AHS museums. At the end of FY 2013, AHS attendance will again drop down to the approximately 30,000 level achieved in FY 2010. Or, perhaps less due to the declining trend exhibited from 2005 to 2010.

Why does the Arizona legislature continue to throw money at museums that people are clearly not interested in visiting?

Note: Admission to AHS museum is not free.  The AHS double dips by collecting both admission and an annual budget.

The Madness continues

Nearly two years ago, in April of 2011, the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum was abruptly closed. The entire staff was escorted offsite and fired, and police prevented access to the building as a contractor changed all of the locks. Children anticipating scheduled field trips were out of luck, as are visitors that still arrive at the building on a daily basis. The closing did NOT save money. As of this date, the AHS still receives funding for the mineral museum. According to the new state budget, they will receive the money next year as well.

The locked and now empty building still has a small sign in the window that says “temporarily closed for construction”.  What construction? When? Just how long is temporary?  Apparently what really happened was destruction.

Where is the state mineral collection?  Why can’t people see it, even though the taxpayers continue to fund both a building and a staff?

The AHS has now begun placing a “mineral gallery” on their website. This may be consistent with the thinking behind their centennial museum boondoggle, which suggested that a digital image of an artifact was as good as or perhaps even better than the real thing.  But, it is stupid.

Arizonians are still paying for a mineral museum, but they no longer have one. A “gallery” on a website is not a museum.