[Nhcoll-l] Status of Natural Science Collections

[malcolm McCallum]

we are on a path to become Eloi.
Who will be the Morlocks?


On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 9:50 AM, Roberta Faul-Zeitler <
faulzeitler at verizon.net> wrote:

> Please post. The situation gets more dire daily – Brooklyn Botanic Garden,
> Field Museum, now Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Especially note the
> comment in this article by Denver CEO George Sparks: "If you worry about
> customers, things will work out well. If you worry about scientists or
> internal things, generally you are not very successful," he said. "I was
> impressed by the [Carnegie museum] team that came here. They were
> passionate and seemed headed in the right direction. I was very encouraged."
>
>
> http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5182201-74/museum-carnegie-history#axzz2muyM2ID7
>
>
>
>
> http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/12/06/Museum-s-new-focus-on-revenue-customers/stories/201312060137
>
>
> Carnegie Museum of Natural History's new focus on revenue, customers
>
> December 6, 2013 12:10 AM
>
> By David Templeton / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
>
> The Carnegie Museum of Natural History's new focus on programs, exhibits
> and research to generate more public interest and revenues has been
> unsettling to some researchers and museum staff.
>
> But museum officials say they are confident they are headed in the right
> direction.
>
> "We're going forward, and we want our research efforts to support the
> mission of the museum," said David Hillenbrand, interim president of the
> Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh -- the parent organization for the natural
> history museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Science Center and
> the Andy Warhol Museum.
>
> On Thursday, Mr. Hillenbrand along with Ann Metzger and Ron Baillie, the
> co-directors of the Carnegie Science Center who also are serving until
> year's end as interim co-directors of the natural history museum, explained
> museum finances and the new strategy to heighten public interest and
> revenues and maintain the museum's collection of 22 million specimens,
> fossils and artifacts.
>
> While the natural history museum is financially solvent, it has been
> running a deficit offset by borrowing from the cash flow of the Carnegie
> Museums of Pittsburgh, whose board of trustees wants to eliminate the
> deficit within four years.
>
> The new research mission will revolve around its newly created Center for
> Biodiversity and Ecosystems, which will use the museum's collections and
> new research to better understand and manage ecosystems, especially in the
> mid-Appalachian Region and upper Ohio Valley. Another research focus is its
> new Center of Evolutionary Studies.
>
> The museum also has offered voluntary separation packages to museum
> curators who meet a certain threshold of age and years of service. Mr.
> Hillenbrand would not discuss the status of individual curators.
>
> The goal is to develop "a more cohesive team rather than a bunch of
> individual researchers pursuing topics of their own interests," Mr. Baillie
> said. Those who continue with personal topics will be required to acquire
> 100 percent funding for their research.
>
> Historically, Ms. Metzger said, "researchers pursued topics of individual
> interest funded by the wealthy," as was the case with the natural history
> museum. "That's no longer the model. The natural history museum contains a
> wealth of information about our ecosystem management and habitats in
> crisis, and the impacts of climate change. These are issues of social
> relevance" that can be topics of museum research.
>
> Museum officials visited museums that pursued that strategy successfully
> and followed recommendations from a consultant who recommended an even more
> aggressive approach.
>
> For now, the museum is seeking to hire a director of science and research
> to help implement the new strategy. It also is seeking a new president of
> Carnegie Museums to replace Mr. Hillenbrand, which could occur by April.
> Then the board of trustees will seek a new director to replace Samuel
> Taylor, who left the position in September 2012That could occur by the end
> of next summer.
>
> The strategy also includes more popular traveling exhibits and public
> programs, classes and lectures.
>
> George Sparks, president and CEO of the Denver Museum of Nature and
> Science, said he began implementing a similar strategy nine years ago with
> success. The museum is increasing revenues with no debt, he said.
>
> Its new museum will open in February, with a strong emphasis on customers.
>
> "If you worry about customers, things will work out well. If you worry
> about scientists or internal things, generally you are not very
> successful," he said. "I was impressed by the [Carnegie museum] team that
> came here. They were passionate and seemed headed in the right direction. I
> was very encouraged."
>
> David Templeton: dtempleton at post-gazette.com or 412-263-1578
>
> Read more:
> http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/12/06/Museum-s-new-focus-on-revenue-customers/stories/201312060137#ixzz2muyiMSxi
>
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>


-- 
Malcolm L. McCallum
Department of Environmental Studies
University of Illinois at Springfield

Managing Editor,
Herpetological Conservation and Biology



"Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan
Nation

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