Governor Announces Centennial Birthday PresentPrivately-funded museum dedicated to telling Arizona’s remarkable story of growth
PHOENIX (February 12, 2010) — Governor Jan Brewer today announced that in celebration of Arizona’s 100th anniversary of statehood, an Arizona Centennial Museum will be created for all residents and visitors to enjoy.
In a ceremony at the historical Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum located in downtown Phoenix, the governor presented her vision and plans that will be instituted over the course of the next two years to transform the historic Mining and Mineral Museum into the Arizona Centennial Museum. The museum’s exhibits will be devoted to showcasing the enduring legacy of Arizona’s dynamic economic growth and industrial development.
“This new Centennial Museum will be a vibrant, interactive facility, offering state-of-the-art technology and exhibits unlike any in Arizona,” said Governor Brewer. “This facility will feature educational
profiles of each industry, showcasing the rich heritage of Arizona’s economy and providing a vision of its brilliant future.”
Arizona’s story of economic advancement will be told through the “Five Cs” (Copper, Cattle, Citrus, Climate and Cotton) of our state’s industrial heritage. Interactive displays will highlight these key industries allowing the Arizona story to unfold. Each of these displays will bring to light how these prime industries continually bring prosperity and contribute to Arizona’s economic health and vitality.
Working in partnership with these businesses to tell the Arizona story will be Gallagher & Associates, a world-renowned design firm with vast experience creating interactive museums. The organization was selected by the Arizona Centennial 2012 Foundation, a non-profit organization established for the Arizona Centennial commemoration.
“It is an honor and a thrill for us to be part of this fantastic opportunity,” said Patrick Gallagher, president and CEO of Gallagher & Associates. “Arizona has such an incredible history and we look forward to working with industry leaders in chronicling this state’s amazing journey.”
The Governor also explained that no public funds will be used to build this new museum. The Arizona Centennial Commission, the Arizona Centennial 2010 Foundation, the Arizona Historical Society and representatives from the “Five Cs” are working collaboratively to collect the necessary private sector funds to renovate and maintain the museum. The Arizona Historical Society will assume management of the Centennial Museum upon completion.
For more information about the planning for Arizona’s Centennial and opportunities to participate, visit http://www.arizona100.org/, or contact Karen Churchard at 602-364-4158 or via e-mail at kchuchard@azot.gov.
About Gallagher & Associates
Gallagher & Associates is a professional design services firm serving clients throughout the United States and abroad. The organization is recognized for creating outstanding visitor experiences and graphic packages for public and private museums, visitor centers, learning facilities, science centers, traveling exhibits, and corporate organizations. For more information on Gallagher & Associates, visit http://www.gallagherdesigns.com/.
About the Arizona Centennial Commission
The Arizona Centennial Commission and its non-profit Arizona Centennial 2012 Foundation is comprised of distinguished Arizonans from public and private life, and is committed to involving all Arizonans to help fulfill the Centennial vision -- “to appreciate our state’s rich past, celebrate the present, and together, create a vibrant and sustainable future.”
18 comments:
And what happens to all of the wonderful minerals and fossils that are currently on display at the "Historic Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum"? Is that collection being relocated? Mothballed? Sold off and down the river? And how long do we have before the Mineral Museum is closed?
The State of AZ can't pay it's own bills and yet it can still find ways like this to waste our hard earned tax dollars.
Once agian, the people of AZ lose out to big corporations. Where will the children of Az go to view, study and learn about the beauty that lies within our natural wonders? What a loss this will be, $$$$$$ has blinded our government officials again!
What a politically disingenuous announcement by our govenor- to not even acknowledge the closing of an institution- the Mining and Mineral Museum. They didn't even have the decency to suggest that the displays of Arizona minerals (all donated by AZ corporations and dedicated individuals) would even be a part of their new endeavor. Surely there must be a different venue nearby that could be used for this Centennial idea rather than scrap an already good one.
Jim Van Wert
President, Verde River Rockhounds
Cottonwood, Arizona
Surely the minerals will remain as an important part of Arizona's history. Only an idiot would take out a display of a large part of the states history.
A copy of the Gadston purchase can only take up so much room.
I prefer keeping it a mining and natural history museum... Let the "private donors" build a museum dedicated to their business... Don't forsake an industry which helped make the state what it is today!
Well we have to pay for all those prisons and criminals to live there, even when more then 3/4 of the prison population is in there for non-violent crimes. They're talking about their only choice now is to cut education, or public safety to help save the state. WTF?
This is an extraordinarily bad idea. The existing Mining and Mineral Museum predates statehood, so history will be wiped out. Also lost will be a superb educational facility visited by over 20,000 school children each year. Is Arizona trying to hang onto it's near last place in education.
Governor Brewer's Centennial Commission has proposed the establishment of a Centennial Museum. The proposal suggests the museum be placed in the building that currently houses the Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum (AMMM). In other words, the AMMM would close. This proposal will impact the education of Arizona school children as well as residents of Arizona on the value of minerals and mining in our everyday lives. Listed below my concerns and an alternative proposal:
The outside mining displays do not exist on the Centennial museum plans.
Designer Richard Gallagher, stated the outside displays would be relocated and the building be returned to it original state.
The logistics of moving a 35 foot head frame, a hoist house with a 17,400 pound hoist, an operable 1890’s stamp mill is time consuming and costly. This will take months to properly remove this equipment at a cost of many tens of thousands of dollars. I was involved with the original move of the headframe from Bisbee to Phoenix and the project cost was estimated at $60,000 and took over a year to relocate the Bisbee copper mining artifact. Is this in their budget? These components were not designed to be moved and there could be serious damage incurred if they are moved in a hasty manner. Moving the artifacts and painting over the haul truck mural on the north wall of the museum is an attempt to destroy, not save, Arizona’s Copper Mining History.
The inside mineral displays do not exist on the Centennial museum plans.
The mineral displays in the museum educate over 25,000 students annually from Arizona’s schools that visit the museum from Maricopa County about the uses of minerals.
There would only be a small portion of our present “copper” minerals on display at any given time. The cost would be extensive to package and relocate the rest of the 3,100 minerals on display.
The services of the Friends of the Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum (FAMMM) would no longer exist.
The Outreach Program is funded by FAMMM. This program conducts sessions at schools outside Maricopa County that cannot afford to travel to the museum. This traveling educational program is one of the few ways children can be educated on the importance of minerals in our everyday lives.
My Alternative Proposal:
Place the Arizona Centennial Museum on the state fairground. There are several buildings that could be renovated at a cost less than the logistics associated with the present project. The fairgrounds already display many of the 5 C’s including cattle and agriculture annually.
I have been a volunteer at the Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum for over 17 years and have over 20,000 hours of volunteer activities at the museum. I am the founder and Chairman of the Board for the Friends of the Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum (FAMMM) for the last 7 years. This 501 (c)(3) organization is dedicated to supporting the museum to make it a world class forum. We have had support from many community organizations that donated their material and time and mining companies including Freeport Copper & Gold, MINTEC, and in the past Phelps Dodge.
Charlie Connell
As a volunteer at the museum for many years, I have seen thousands of excited children learning about Arizona’s rich history in mining as they listen to tour guides in the classroom with a hands-on experience. They are so in awe of the displays of beautiful mineral specimens. This is so much better than just looking in school books. They will have a lasting memory. Also the museum offers teachers’ kits with sample specimens and educational material. If this museum is changed as proposed, the biggest losers will be the children!
This is a world class museum with a wonderful gift shop. If one were to look at the sign-in book, they would find visitors from all over the world have come to see this display of natures minerals.
Outside the museum are working machines from Arizona’s historic past. This display makes a permanent impression on anyone that sees it, children and adults alike. Let us keep the museum as it is.
Another place to post your concerns...
http://www.ktar.com/public/comment/group/cms/1262918?ipp=15&comments=1
I like to would say I don't believe this. But considering the state is very conservative and therefore oriented towards helping the wealthy developers just par for the course. But since it's privately funded and sanctioned by the legislature. We wouldn't want them to donate their assets, there are plenty of places the legislature will donate to them. Pueblo Grande, the Irish Cultural Center, The Arizona Historical Museum, The Hall of Flame, Papago Park, Keniworth School, Tovery Mansion.
The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum has an exceptional collection of mineral specimens, and an educational history of the state's mining industries.
The proposed makeover of the museum into a Centennial Museum would apparently involve hiding away, dispersing, or selling off those beautiful and unique geological specimens, and replacing them with what would mainly be a few murals and dioramas of the type seen in numerous bland museum exhibits around the nation.
I can't imagine that this would be a good deal for Arizonans or a grand tourist attraction for Arizona. It would be much better to seek out corporate and other sponsors for the wonders we already have, than try to find sponsors for a dumbed-down replacement.
The mineral collection will remain part of the Museum, as Mining will remain an integral part of the new exhibits. Anyone saying that the museum will be demolished, eliminated, sold off, or otherwise would be advised to get the facts.
There is barely enough room for the current collection! That IS a fact. Let Citrus, Climate, etc create their own museums. Leave the Department alone. Don't take the great museum they developed over the years and give it over to industries that didn't see fit to invest in their story. The current museum just finished putting in a lot of improvements/additions through the generous donations of many people. It would be a shame to neuter our museum! I like the State Fair idea: what better place to host a Centennial museum??
Further discussion may be found on Mineral Museum Madness at www.minmumad.blogspot.com
I'm very upset that the Governor thinks that a gift from her is more important than our history, than this amazing and important gift to our children of our history and one the world's best mineral musuems.
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