Museum hits goal for redo grant
Hot Springs site to get $7.8 million for exhibits, face-lift
HOT SPRINGS — Mid-America Science Museum officials announced Tuesday that the facility has reached its $1.6 million match goal to receive a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
“The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation gave us a grant of $7.8 million to redo the entire museum, renovate the facility and install new exhibits,” Diane LaFollette, the museum’s executive director, told more than 50 civic leaders and government officials Tuesday at the museum at 500 Mid-America Blvd.
The museum raised the $1.6 million after receiving numerous donations, including $265,000 from the Oaklawn Foundation, $10,000 from the Hot Springs Giving Circle and more than $700,000 from the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission.
“I think it’s a wonderful situation,” said Darrell Meyer, chairman of the Oaklawn Foundation.
“This is a jewel here, but it’s gotten a little stale. So with the money coming from Reynolds, we wanted to make sure they could get that money, and this [museum] is going to be even better now.
“We gave $250,000 to kind of jump-start them, and then when they came up just $15,000 short, we gave them the rest,” he said Tuesday.
Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, who was commended for his support of the museum, said the facility is “going to be a great attraction for the city of Hot Springs.”
“We’re excited about it. The whole commission was excited to participate.”
Arrison said that while the advertising commission owns the museum, it is operated by its own board.
“We did some bond improvements, and when those are paid off, we’ll turn the title over to the operating board. They have done a great job with it,” he said.
Lance Garner, chairman of the museum board of trustees, said the museum is almost 35 years old and “beginning to show her age a little bit.”
“We’re so fortunate that the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation chose us to come in and improve this crucial part of our community by offering us an opportunity to participate in a planning process that went on for some two and a half years.
“We completely redesigned the museum from top to bottom, both in governance, as well as programming, personnel and the things we had to offer to the community through the process of developing a vision of what we want this place to be,” he said.
“We’re committed to this being a place of learning and education. We’re also mindful that we’re also a tourism attraction for Garland County and Hot Springs, and you’ll be amazed at what is going to happen here in the next 18 months,” he said.
LaFollette said that once the renovations are complete the museum will have several new areas.
Among the highlights LaFollette pointed out during her presentation are the Oaklawn Foundation Digital Dome Theater, the Bob Wheeler Science Skywalk, Arkansas Gallery, Forces in Motion exhibit gallery and Inventors Workshop gallery.
Work on the skywalk, sponsored by the advertising commission, is expected to begin in June. The outdoor exhibit will extend about 230 feet into the forest canopy from the main building, and at its highest point will be 30 feet above the forest floor.
The Digital Dome Theater will offer a diverse array of shows that complement the museum’s education objectives and traveling exhibit content. It will seat 50-60 people and have a full-dome projection-style show that will offer audiences a 180-degree viewing area.
Exhibits in the 5,600-squarefoot Arkansas Gallery will explore the effects of erosion on the state’s geology, geography, flora and fauna. It will include a refurbished “underground” cave, refurbished Mastodon skeleton replica, and a central tree-shaped structure that will function as a base for exhibits on soil.
The 3,500-square-foot Forces in Motion gallery will be devoted to the effects of matter, energy and gravity.