In today’s Journal Star, former editor Barbara Mantz Drake profiles the Science Center of Iowa (Des Moines). She’s getting ideas for what should be included in the new Central Illinois Regional Museum here in Peoria. Along with the article is a sidebar titled, “Iowa Science Center has parallels for Peoria.”

Several things are similar between the two museums: size, exterior glass, planetarium and weather studio, cost to build, etc. But a couple things are much different: the annual operating budget in Des Moines ($7.8 million) is “nearly twice what is projected for Peoria”; and whereas Des Moines’ museum is limited in scope to science, Peoria’s museum square “will be a place for people of all ages to explore art, history, nature, science, technology, culture, high school sports and the Caterpillar story.”

So Peoria’s museum will have six times the scope and half the budget. Is that supposed to be a good thing? Also, how in the world is Peoria’s museum going to cover all of those subjects (art, history, technology, etc.) in the space Des Moines devotes to science alone?

Usually, museums limit their scope (they’re a history museum, or an art gallery, or a sci-tech musuem, etc.) because the type of museum affects a number of factors: how much storage is needed? what kind of storage conditions are needed? what kind of laboratory services are needed for restoration/preservation of artifacts/exhibits? what kind of skill/expertise do staff members need (e.g., you would want an archaeologist on staff for a natural history museum, but not for a sci-tech museum)?

Speaking of scope, the working title I understand is still the “Central Illinois Regional Museum.” So, in addition to broadening the subject matter, it appears they’re also broadening the subject area — how much of “central Illinois” is going to be covered by this museum?

When the museum idea was first pitched, it was called a Peoria history museum. How did we get from that to this unwieldy, unfocused museum described in the paper today? And how is a museum with such breadth of subject matter going to be supported by half the operating budget of a single-focused museum of the same size?