Apr 16 2009
Just Go! Visit a Museum Before It’s Closed.
I just finished reading a news release from the Minnesota Historical Society that outlines likely cuts in service due to an expected 16% funding reduction. It is a reminder that we need to travel and explore now, rather than waiting for a rainy day.
This is a lesson I learned the hard way a few months ago. Two museums in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, closed their doors with little advance notice. They had been on my to-visit list, but we just hadn’t gotten there yet. The Minnesota Museum of American Art was just down the street from the Science Museum, and I had fully intended to make a combined trip there last summer, but somehow we never got around to it. The TRACES museum dealt with history topics and I was waiting until the kids were a little older to take them there. Both were participants in the library Museum Adventure Pass program, so it wouldn’t even have cost us much to go.
Now they’re both closed.
The Science Station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is another museum that we really enjoyed. We were fortunate enough to visit it in early 2008, before the severe floods caused so much damage that it hasn’t yet reopened. It’s a museum I’d highly recommend . . . if only it were open.
Looking at the list of possible closures or severely limited hours from MNHS, I see the Lindbergh House in Little Falls, which was on my re-visit list for this coming summer; Historic Forestville, which I’m glad we drove to last fall; Northwest Company Fur Post (haven’t been there yet); and the Sibley House and Ramsey House, which we toured with young kids but I’d love to see again when they’re older.
Slated for weekend-only hours by the Minnesota Historical Society are the Oliver Kelley Farm, the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, the Forest History Center, and Jeffers Petroglyphs. As someone who loves to visit museums when there are fewer people to compete with, these reductions sadden me as well.
I visited the Minnesota Legislature a few weekends ago, and I know they have some tough decisions to make. As a constituent, I’m not sure where to ask them to preserve funding. Libraries, schools, early-childhood education, and the historical society are all high on my priority list, and it’s hard to ask for additional funding (or no reduction) for one over the other.
If these cuts do take place, it makes me worry that it will only get worse. Will MNHS membership suffer because there are now only 21 or 23 sites open instead of 26?
I realize that none of these reductions are set in stone, but this information will certainly affect my priority list of sites to visit in the next month or two.
It’s a reminder that we need to seize the day and see the world while we can, even if it is in our backyard, because we never can be sure if it will be there tomorrow.
It definitely IS very sad. I don’t know what the solution is in this economy. I hope that the sites that are forced to close today can reopen next year. (Trying to think optimistically.)
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Thanks for the sad, but good reminder. I am regretting that we missed the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at our local art museum by a day (got the dates mixed up and just kept putting off the trip)…I’d be really sad if our local museums started shutting down. Good reminder to get out there and show our support by making more regular visits.
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That really stinks! We love our museums here. I don’t think we visit enough. Thanks for the reminder.
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What a shame to see these valuable public organizations suffer such consequences with all this bail out funds going to business that create their own problems! Where is the balance?
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The Science Station in Cedar Rapids is actually currently open in a temporary location at Lindale Mall.
http://www.sciencestation.org/
Jessica, thanks for the information. I’m hoping for an Iowa trip this summer, so maybe we can stop in and check it out. Do you know of plans for reopening in the original location?
We’ve seen some reduction in days open at some museums in the Detroit area. I’ve seen worse times, so I’m hoping this is as bad as it gets now and things start to turn around.
We’re making the effort to keep all of our memberships this year, to get out to a lot of these places–and I’m making an effort to blog about them and encourage people to get out to these places.
The one bright spot I’ve seen lately seems to be the University of Michigan Museum of Art at Ann Arbor, MI. They recently reopened with a big 24-hour party after a huge renovation/expansion project…yup, I blogged about that, too
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We haven’t seen any cuts in Tucson yet but I’m sure they’re coming, especially with the University of Arizona dealing with a decrease in monies. It seems we don’t appreciate museums and other cultural activities until they are going.
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I’d been planning to focus on museum related service projects with my Girl Scouts in the Fall, now I’m thinking I better not wait!
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I don’t get it. How can a museum just close? I mean – there’s valuable stuff in there! You know, living so close to Washington, DC I forget everyone else pays for museums…I did grow up outside of NYC so I remember paying. Sad. Very sad.
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