Mid-America sees largest crowds since 2015
Mid-America Science Museum saw its largest crowds since 2015 on Thursday, with over 1,600 people visiting the interactive venue.
It marks the first time “we’ve hit that number since we reopened for our renovations in 2015, so it really feels real again,” Casey Wylie, director of education, said Friday.
“Apparently yesterday shows us people have missed us,” Wylie said. By noon Friday, over 650 people had entered the building.
“We knew it was going to be a good spring break before last week,” she said, when “we had a thousand people on a Thursday.”
“It was very surprising, so we knew this week was going to be amazing,” Wylie said.
“On one hand, it’s very exhilarating. I’ve gotten to do sold-out Tesla shows; I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve done Tesla shows with more than 50, so it’s really exciting,” she said.
On the other hand, “you kind of look around and go ‘I haven’t been around this many people in a long time,’ but I know that people are wearing their masks, doing a good job. Our entire staff has been vaccinated now and I know that Arkansas’ vaccine numbers are looking really great so it’s giving me hope,” Wylie said.
“I think people realize that we’re a safe place to come, and being a science museum, we take cleanliness and germ warfare very seriously,” she said.
Diane LaFollette, the museum’s executive director, was also enthusiastic about
the attendance. Agreeing that this is “the most that we’ve had since 2015,” LaFollette said “it’s good to see.”
While walking through the packed parking lot, she said she could see license plates from across the country.
“All over — Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas — not just Arkansas,” LaFollette said. Wylie added that she “saw one from Hawaii.”
LaFollette said that as this is spring break, they were expecting to see an increase in attendance, “but we didn’t expect this at all. It was amazing.”
“It’s so great,” LaFollette said, noting that “a good Saturday is 800, so that’s double a good Saturday” on a Thursday.
She said that by the end of Friday, they expected to have had over 1,000 visitors that day too, and were expecting more on Saturday.
Wylie said that two of the museum’s employees in the education department at the museum were hired in 2020, so they “hadn’t experienced a big crowd.” She said both were excited to see the place full of people.
“This is awesome,” Wylie said, quoting both workers.
Both LaFollette and Wylie said that the weather likely helped the crowd size on Thursday. “Yesterday was 1,600, today will probably be lower because it’s nicer weather. We are a great place to come when it’s nicer weather but people still thing ‘Oh a museum is inside.’ Tomorrow it’s going to be rainy. It’s going to be a hopping day,” Wylie said.