Museum defends $1 per year lease
Your article, “Freeloading” (Winter ’12) raised concerns over a number of state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) leases, including one with the Museum of Science.
Colman Herman correctly points out that the Museum of Science has a 99-year, $1 dollar-per-year lease for the property on which it is sited. There are, however, several important facts that the article does not mention.
First, when the museum’s founding director, Brad Washburn, entered into this lease with the state, the property was an abandoned park. The lot, which was marred by unkempt lawns and overgrown bushes, was littered with debris and empty whiskey bottles.
Second, over the 60-plus years since the museum first signed this lease, the museum has invested millions of dollars in its facilities and the exhibits and programs presented in its halls, Hayden Planetarium, and Mugar Omni Theater. Further, the museum is recognized world-wide as a leader in both informal and formal science and technology education. It attracts over 1.5 million visitors annually to its Science Park location, the largest number of visitors to any Boston or New England attraction other than Fenway Park.
An economic impact study done for the museum in 2007 estimated that the museum’s direct and indirect economic impact on the Massachusetts economy was approximately $90 million annually. Additionally, while the lease does not require free public programming, the museum is committed to its role as an important community resource, providing a variety of free and discounted programs to the public.
For 25 years, the museum has offered a program that brings all second graders from Boston Public Schools into the museum to experience hands-on science exploration, with different groups of students visiting the museum every Tuesday throughout the school year. While the second graders receive a volunteer-led tour of the museum, their teachers attend a professional development workshop. In addition, an annual Eye-Opener Family Night in the spring offers students and their families an opportunity to explore the museum’s exhibits, special activities, and Omni and planetarium presentations at no charge.
Approximately 3,000 students participate in the Eye-Opener program annually. The annual cost to the museum for this important outreach program is $85,000.
Last year, almost 35,000 Boston students visited the museum (these figures exclude the Eye-Opener participants noted above). School field trip admission fees are substantially discounted from the museum’s general admission price. Additionally, the museum offers an even-further discounted admission of $2 at different times of the year. Thirteen percent of the 34,583 Boston field trip participants took advantage of the $2 offer. The cost to the museum for this field trip initiative was $47,000.
Over 10,000 Boston residents took advantage of free admissions provided through memberships, sponsored by the Lowell Institute, which are available at every branch of the Boston Public Library. The museum also participates in Countdown to Kindergarten, a program where families with pre-K children can receive four free tickets to visit the museum any day during the summer. Approximately 250 families took advantage of this opportunity this year. The value of these free admissions was $187,000.
Every year 35 to 50 high school students participate in the Fenway High School/Boston Day and Evening partnership with the museum. These partnerships offer structured academic science curriculum in conjunction with volunteer and summer employment opportunities, mentoring, and college application guidance.
Finally, through its SciCAP (Community Access Program), the museum offers free or reduced admissions to approximately 20,000 visitors annually who are served by after-school programs, community-based organizations, homeless shelters, and other agencies. A substantial proportion of the agencies receiving these passes are Boston-based. The value of these free and reduced admissions each year is $340,000.
The museum undertakes and funds all these programs annually as we consider them essential to our mission. We are pleased to be a resource to Boston students, teachers, and families.
Ioannis N. Miaoulis
President and Director
Museum of Science, Boston
colman herman responds
Mr. Miaoulis implies that the money for the activities he cites comes out of the museum’s own pocket. But the reality is the activities are funded by outside grants.
For example, Mr. Miaoulis notes that the museum for 25 years has offered a program for second graders from the Boston Public Schools and about 3,000 students participate in the Eye-Opener program annually. He says the annual cost to the museum is $85,000. Yet the website of the Germeshausen Foundation says: “At the Museum of Science, the foundation funded the Eye Opener program, which gives Boston students a full-day, guided tour of the museum. Every year since 1986, about 3,000 second grade students from more than 40 Boston public schools participate in this hands-on educational program.”
Money for the museums’s Community Access Program comes from corporate donations, according to the museum’s own website. And the free passes the museum gives out are paid for by the Lowell Institute.
Also, the museum, where adult admission is $22 and children’s admission is $19, has refused to make its payment in lieu of taxes—only $7,723 —to the City of Boston.
More review needed
“Historical roadblock” (Winter ’12) is a very good article As a developer and a preservationist, I appreciate the frustrations many have with the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which apparently is working despite severe staff cuts. However, there needs to be a review of developments impacting historic resources, and, coming from a predominantly minority community, I have to say that in many cases there should be more review, particularly of state-funded projects. Far from being obstructionists, in many cases Mass Historical reviewers have failed to stop very questionable projects. Prior community consultation and collaboration early in the project might be a big improvement.
Dave Gaby
Springfield
Occupy wasn’t sensible
Carol Rose’s article on the sensible process of protest by Occupy Boston (“Rule of law triumphs in resolution to Occupy Boston,” Winter ’12) omits the $200,000 site restoration it required. She doesn’t comment on the justice of that falling onto Boston’s budget. Occupy Boston was fundamentally a juvenile act of public nuisance. The interminable disruption wasn’t intelligent engagement of discourse by any stretch of definition.
Dave Bernard
Framingham
It’s class war
I lived at Dewey Square for the last seven weeks of its existence. I did not sign the affidavit to agree to leave. I do not hold the court and the justice system as valid in the current state. I have seen far too much evidence to the contrary, and even in the very words of Judge McIntyre herself in this case, serious breaches of logic and ethics.
However, I did help the denouement of the encampment to be orderly, and to avoid the kinds of scenes that happened in other cities. I resented the way that the police and authorities took all the credit for that, and for that reason, I am very happy to see this article. When Mayor Thomas Menino gave the eviction notice, it was inevitable that within a few days the camp would be raided. I was one of several people clearing the space, helping people find places to stay (many had no place to fall back to, being homeless), and starting dialog with the police.
I went to the police, gave them my cell phone number, told them what I expected would happen, and how they could avoid violence. I told them that violence was not necessary, and that if they waited a few days, we would be nearly moved out in an orderly way, because it’s inevitable. But not because it is wrong for Dewey Square to have an Occupy encampment. I think it was the most right thing in the world. I do not agree with the premise of the judgment handed down by a single judge, within a limited hearing, and in which she accepted the b.s. statements of the Fire Marshall, and did not condemn the way the city blocked all efforts to improve fire safety in the camp, while condemning the camp to go away because it is unsafe. That is a completely barbarian type of action for the authorities to have taken, and it’s without justification. It’s clearly a class war and the authorities used their powers to do this in a sneaky and underhanded way.
Sage Radachowsky
Roslindale