SCIENCE CENTER COMING BACK TO LIFE
Detroit museum to open with new board, budget, commitment to education
By Mark Stryker Free Press Staff Writer
Think of it as a Science Center reboot.
Fifteen months after severe financial trouble and mismanagement forced the closure of the former Detroit Science Center, the newly reconstituted — and debt-free — Michigan Science Center will open its doors Dec. 26.
For an institution facing red ink totaling more than $10 million and almost certain liquidation in July, the reopening puts an exclamation point on another successful Detroit turnaround story.
Trumpeting new leadership, a conservative business plan and a new commitment to science, technology, engineering and math education, science center officials announced Tuesday that they had raised more than $5 million to relaunch the institution and promised a stable future.
The General Motors Foundation has committed $1 million, leading a list of two dozen companies, foundations and individuals who had given more than $50,000.
“This science center will be a world-class, 21st-Century science center — that’s what we aspire to be,” said board chairman Tom Stephens, retired vice chairman of General Motors. “Everything isn’t absolutely rosy, but it’s going to be. We’re going to grow into it.”
The board projects a 2013 budget of less than $5 million with a staff of about 45, including college and high school interns as docents interacting with visitors. Pre-closing, the budget had ballooned to $12 million with about 100 employees. As much as half the budget was tied up in a manufacturing subsidiary business in Ferndale, which helped sink the institution.
There is no shop affiliated with the Michigan Science Center, which was incorporated as a nonprofit earlier this year.
Stephens said the center would target $2 million to $2.5 million in annual fund-raising, a figure he was confident the board could reach because it was less than what the center had raised in the past. Ticket income and other revenue will more than make up the rest of the budget, he said, allowing the center to accrue cash.
About two dozen employees have been hired so far, a few of whom previously worked for the center. Jim Issner, a former engineering executive with Chrysler and Fisker Automotive, is a volunteer interim president. Most of the board members are new.
Special hours will carry the institution through the end of January, when the center settles into a regular Wednesday through Sun-day routine. The traveling exhibition “Bodies Human: Anatomy in Motion” will greet visitors from Day 1, along with other familiar permanent displays, including the IMAX Theater, that were featured before the center closed.
Located behind the Detroit Institute of Arts, the science center is widely viewed as a key cultural and educational asset in Detroit and its closure was an ugly black eye for a city built on the engineering achievements of the auto industry. Before closing, it attracted about 300,000 visitors a year.
“I was very disheartened when it closed,” said Commerce Township resident Kim Murray, who regularly took her two boys, now ages 7 and 9, to the center.
“I think it’s more important than ever that kids are immersed in science and technology. We know that jobs will be more competitive than ever, and I’m not sure what the schools do is enough. The science center gave kids access to that information in a fun and entertaining way. They’re getting more out of it than they realize.”
The center closed in September 2011, unable to make payroll or pay bills after defaulting on a roughly $6-million mortgage. The rising tide of red ink was tied to an entrepreneurial business model that promised income from running a Ferndale business that built traveling exhibitions. Former president Kevin Prihod left the institution, followed later by the resignation of the board chair and acting president.
A Free Press investigation found it was highly likely that the center was using money earmarked for exhibits and programs to pay bills, which violated donor intent and standard accounting practices for nonprofits. Marathon Oil, for example, contributed $2.4 million for the Future Fuels exhibit and several of the company’s business partners put up $1.5 million, but only $2 million worth of work was ever completed.
“We have had continued dialogue with the Michigan Science Center, but we have been disappointed in their response,” Marathon spokeswoman Angelia Graves said Tuesday. “We would have hoped to have had a fuels exhibit completed or acknowledgment of the significant contribution that we and some of our business partners have made.”
Shelly Otenbaker, a science center board member, said Marathon is not currently recognized inside the center but “it is in the plans as we work to update how we recognize contributors.”
The white knight who saved the center from liquidation this summer was Ron Weiser, an Ann Arbor businessman and national Republican power broker, who acquired the property, building and assets this summer from Citizens Bank of Flint for significantly less than the $6.2 million owed. He has now sold it to the new science center for less than he paid.
“I think this board is heading in the right direction,” said Weiser. “They’re dealing with the mission, the strategy, tactics and the financial oversight that quite often non-profits lack. I think it’s starting up that way, and I’m excited that it’s going to expand its mission beyond what anybody ever thought it could do before.”
• CONTACT MARK STRYKER: 313-222-6459 OR
MSTRYKER@FREEPRESS.COM
The colorful neon tunnel leading to the IMAX dome that opened in 1979 is still lit. The theater will be a feature of the new Michigan Science Center.
PHOTOS BY ERIC SEALS/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Business leader Ron Weiser, left, shakes hands with Michigan Science Center board chairman Tom Stephens at the museum.
Michigan Science Center
Dec. 26-Jan. 6(closed Jan.1): 9a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays,10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat., noon-6 p.m. Sun. After Jan. 6, the center will be open Sat.-Sun. only. Starting Jan. 30, regular Wed.-Sun. hours begin: 9a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays,10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat., noon-6 p.m. Sun. Ticket prices: $12.95, $9.95 children and seniors, free ages1and younger; $5 first IMAX or planetarium show, $3 second show. “Bodies Human: Anatomy in Motion” (includes general admission): $20.95, $17.95 children and seniors. 313-577-8400 www.michigansciencecenter.org
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