Category Archives: Museum Block

The incredible shrinking museum

Reading Polly Peoria’s latest post reminded me of a rumor I heard about the Peoria Riverfront Museum: it’s getting smaller.

You know they’ve been having a little trouble raising the money for this monstrosity, the plans for which are antithetical to the Heart of Peoria Plan. Rather than taking that as a hint that maybe people aren’t really as excited about this project as they thought they were, they’ve now (I’ve been told) begun cutting construction costs by making it smaller. Specifically, I hear they’ve cut it down to a one-story building except for the generic-IMAX part. Won’t that look inspiring? Maybe they can put up a weather vane and plant some prairie grass next to it to complete the anatopism.

So let’s think about this for a minute. First, the idea was to use just a portion of the old Sears block for a Peoria history museum sponsored by the Peoria Historical Society. Then Lakeview got involved and it mushroomed into a mega-museum that would include art, history, science, nature, a digital big-screen theater ala IMAX (but not actually IMAX), the African American Hall of Fame, the IHSA Peak Performance Center, and a partridge in a pear tree. All this in only 70,000 square feet. And now they want to make all that fit in an even smaller space?

Why don’t they just admit they bit off more than they could chew and go back to the drawing board? If they root around the drawing board long enough they may even happen upon this:

Guest Editorial: Peoria Riverfront Museum

First, a special thanks to CJ for the opportunity to submit this piece and explore the potential of the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

As a 30-year resident of Peoria — where my children were born and grew up — I am very interested in how my city faces the future. So when the museum project came on the horizon, I wanted to find out just how this will “play in Peoria.” After much research, I am a firm supporter of the new museum. I believe communities are largely defined by how well they preserve their heritage, promote and present the arts, stretch young minds and imaginations, and celebrate human achievement.

The Peoria Riverfront Museum will do all of those things in a unique way — known as the Delta concept. Through the Delta concept, museum visitors will learn about history, art, science and achievement in a way that puts it all in a shared context.

While one-dimensional museums present an isolated view, the Delta concept will blend and merge many views so that the visitor learns about more than just a single historic event or piece of artwork. They will be able to understand the many factors that influenced the historic figure or artist as they made their decisions or created their painting.

Museums are, first and foremost, about education. Lakeview Museum has been a magnificent resource to this community for arts and sciences education. By joining with its other partners—Peoria Historical Society, Illinois High School Association, African American Hall of Fame and the Peoria Regional Museum Society — the education component of the new museum will explode. In one setting, thousands of people will be able to explore hundreds of subjects in a depth and scope normally found only in museums in much larger cities.

The education component is particularly important for our children who are struggling in school. It is no secret that the core of our community is going through difficult times. Those factors affect and impact on children’s abilities to stay focused in school. All children can benefit from the stimulation and sense of wonder that comes from visiting museums. I am hopeful that there will be a special emphasis to bring in children who are having a difficult time in school—perhaps through after school or weekend programs sponsored by businesses—to help spark their interest in education. The community as a whole will benefit.

Another issue that has been put forth by some is the use of such a large space for just two buildings, the museum and Caterpillar Visitor’s Center, and how that fits in with the Heart of Peoria Plan and its emphasis on what is known as New Urbanism.

First, it should be mentioned that the museum planners originally received two-thirds of the space for the museum, with the remainder being retained by the city for possible retail development. Caterpillar then stepped forward and asked for the other one-third for the visitor’s center, which was granted by the City Council with full knowledge of the general space utilization and overall footprint of the two buildings.

As a general comment, I support New Urbanism as it applies to new development; it makes a lot of sense. Upon doing research regarding New Urbanism I found that the proposed use of the space fits in well with New Urbanism principles. Rather than criticize the approach, New Urbanism proponents should be using it as a shining example.

First, the riverfront area should be defined as a neighborhood, or even a district in New Urbanism lingo. A neighborhood consists of mixed uses for apartments, homes, shops and offices, while a district has a more defined use but should retain the principles of neighborhoods where possible. One could consider the riverfront more of an entertainment district than a neighborhood.

But for these purposes, let’s consider it a neighborhood. In New Urbanism, a neighborhood has a public space at its center which is no more than a five or 10 minute walk for all of those in the neighborhood. The Charter for the Congress For New Urbanism says, “Civic buildings and public gathering spaces require important sites to reinforce community identity and the culture of democracy. They deserve distinctive form, because their role is different from that of other buildings and places that constitute the fabric of the city.”

Adreas Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyber, the inspiration for Peoria’s New Urbanism efforts through the Heart of Peoria Plan, put it this way, “Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities (emphais added).”

And finally, the Heart of Peoria: Implementation Charrette Report and Master Plan produced by Farrell Madden Associates with Urban Advisors in May of 2006 suggests creating new outdoor civic spaces and providing new outdoor public spaces, people places, squares and civic greens. The report focuses on the Warehouse District, Sheridan Triangle and Prospect Rd., but did not look at the museum block. It did make a brief reference to “reclaiming” the Peoria riverfront for all of its citizens through walkways, displays of public art, access to the water, etc., all of which were in place at the time the report was prepared.

If you consider the area from the RiverPlex to WTVP and from the river to Washington St. a neighborhood, then the new museum is clearly the center of the neighborhood and the open space there meets all of the recommendations cited above for gathering places, people spaces, community meetings, education, cultural activities and so forth.

The use of the outdoor museum space as a gathering place is the very definition of what New Urbanism recommends for the center of a neighborhood. Other aspects of a neighborhood already exist, including a variety of housing options, shops and offices, all with entrances right off the street. There are many entertainment venues as well.

Consider a bright spring day with people enjoying the outdoor space at the museum, perhaps playing a game of chess with giant chess pieces, playing hopscotch, watching street performers or enjoying lunch or coffee at an outdoor café. Children are creating giant bubbles while another group listens to a storyteller. This is what gathering places and people spaces are all about, and they just don’t exist without some kind of driving force such as a museum.

The only reference I find in the Heart of Peoria Report and Master Plan to the museum block is a rendering that shows seven buildings in the space, six of which I believe are to represent separate buildings for the various museum partners and one is designated for retail space.

This approach is so ill-advised that it really doesn’t deserve comment. Clearly the report producers did not understand the museum’s vision of creating a Delta concept, nor did they have any grasp of or give any consideration to the cost of building, maintaining and staffing six different museums. Increasing the density of the block eliminates the center of the neighborhood and is actually in conflict with New Urbanism principles.

There are many other aspects of the project that have been challenged at one time or another: the cost; the need; who supports and controls the project; the potential use of tax credits for funding; will be a tourism draw; and, of course, the name. I hope the planners don’t listen too much to all the naysayers and give up and I hope delays are minimized so that increasing costs don’t result in a downsized museum.

There is a great deal of work yet to be done and few final decisions have been made. As with most projects of this magnitude there surely will be changes and compromises in the future. But when the doors open, I will be at the head of the line and I’m sure I’ll be joined by thousands of other central Illinoisans who will be proud of the result and proud of all the people who worked so hard to make the Peoria Riverfront Museum a reality.

Museum project too big, too expensive

Now that they’ve lost their federal earmark funding, the already-heavily-underfunded Peoria Riverfront Museum is looking for something — anything — to prop up their big plans for the old Sears block. The latest funding scheme: The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program.

As I understand it, the way NMTC works is that investors would donate money to a for-profit corporate entity (usually a limited liability company) called a Community Development Entity (CDE) which, in turn, makes debt and equity investments in low-income areas — presumably the proposed museum in this case. The benefit to the investors is that they get a 39% Federal income tax break distributed over seven years, plus a possible cash return during the life of the CDE if it’s profitable.

The first question I had was how the Sears block could possibly be considered a “low-income area.” It’s the crown-jewel of downtown Peoria, right next to Caterpillar’s world headquarters. It’s a prime piece of real estate. Well, it turns out that the way the federal government figures whether or not it is a low-income area is by census tract. Museum Square is in census tract 12, as shown here:

Census Tract 12

As you can see, this census tract not only includes downtown, but also an equal area northeast of I-74. Thus, statistically, the census tract poverty rate is 50.2%, and therefore qualifies as a low-income area. Don’t you just love statistics?

Whether this funding will be the panacea for the museum group’s fundraising woes remains to be seen. It looks like this project would qualify based on the standards set forth by the NMTC statute. However, there is still an application process through the Treasury Department, and the Museum Collaboration won’t find out if their application is approved until late summer, which means, according to the Journal Star’s report:

Officials hope to finish the New Markets financing plan by late summer and start construction of the underground parking deck by September 2008. Construction would begin on the visitors center and museum by January 2009. Exhibit installation would begin in March 2010 with a grand opening scheduled for November 2010, about a year behind original projections.

But there’s another option: redesign. Most of the $24 million they’ve already raised can be used to build a state-of-the-art Peoria History Museum on a smaller footprint, and the rest of the block could be sold for commercial development once the new Land Development Code is adopted. That would put the project more in line with the Heart of Peoria Plan, the available funding, and a reasonably-manageable project scope. It could open a whole lot earlier, with construction of commercial ventures starting even sooner, meaning more property tax revenue for the city.

Long time, no hear from museum group

It was November 17 when we last heard from the museum collaboration group. Jim Richerson announced a $1 million gift toward the IHSA Hall of Fame portion of the museum from Country Insurance. The Journal Star also had this quote:

“We’re still in the silent portion of our fund drive,” Richerson said. “What we’re hoping for is that gifts like the one from Country Insurance will now inspire others to come aboard.”

Hmmm, the “silent portion” of the fund drive? Readers may remember last fall Kathleen Woith of Lakeview Museum was answering some of our questions about the museum(“Museum Partners answer readers’ questions (Pt. 1)”). Did anyone notice there was never a “Part 2” to that post? That’s because I never received any further information from Ms. Woith, unfortunately. She said she was waiting to hear back from some other people on some of the questions, but then I never heard from her again.

In fairness, from reading the comments, it didn’t look like she was changing anyone’s mind about the museum, so perhaps she felt it wasn’t worth the time. As one commenter said, “some answers just beg more questions.” Still, I will try to follow up on the original unanswered questions and try to bring that series of posts to a resolution.

Museum Square

No surprise: “Peoria Riverfront Museum” wins

Here are the vote totals from www.namethemuseum.org:

  • TOTAL VOTE NUMBERS -5328
  • PEORIA RIVERFRONT MUSEUM – 2658 – 50%
  • ILLINOIS [RIVER VALLEY] MUSEUM – 1389 – 26%
  • PORT OF EXPLORATION MUSEUM – 617 – 12%
  • MUSEUM ON THE SQUARE – 375 – 7%
  • HEARTLAND CENTER – 162 – 3%
  • WRITE IN’S – 127 -2%

I find it funny that “Peoria Riverfront Museum” got 50% of the vote in a five-way race despite the fact that museum names with “Peoria” in them “didn’t test well” in focus groups. I suppose that should give us all pause as we consider the value of such groups.

Thank you to the museum collaboration group for listening to the public on this one. There were some really good choices this time around (second place winner “Illinois River Valley Museum” was a good name, too) and it’s clear the winning name has a lot of support.

Now, let’s see if we can’t listen to the public some more and get that design to conform to the Heart of Peoria Plan….

Good riddance, AMAZEum

The new choices for museum names have been released, and they’re about 1000% better than the previous ones. See if you don’t agree:

  • PORT OF EXPLORATION MUSEUM:
    The Peoria Center for Art, History, Science and Achievement
  • ILLINOIS RIVER VALLEY MUSEUM:
    The Peoria Center for Art, History, Science and Achievement
  • HEARTLAND CENTER:
    The Peoria Museum of Art, History, Science and Achievement
  • PEORIA RIVERFRONT MUSEUM:
    The Center for Art, History, Science and Achievement
  • MUSEUM ON THE SQUARE:
    The Center for Art, History, Science and Achievement

All the advertisements start off with the self-congratulatory opening line, “We heard you!” That is gratifying, and I’ll give them credit for that. I’ll also give them credit for not making “Lakeview” a choice, as I’m sure that would push the other museum partners right over the edge. By and large, the new names are more meaningful. There are still a couple of holdovers from the first voting, but the most ridiculous names (AMAZEum, ExploraSphere) have been rightfully thrown in the dustbin.

Not surprisingly, I’ll be voting for Peoria Riverfront Museum. You can vote for your favorite at www.namethemuseum.org.

Museum Partners answer readers’ questions (Pt. 1)

Museum Square

You asked, and now the museum is answering!

Rather than wait until all the answers were in, Kathleen Woith of Lakeview Museum has provided the answers she has received so far. “Some of the questions concerning the Peoria Historical Society and the Peoria Regional Museum Society (which owns the Duryea) I have sent along to them and will get back to you next week,” she writes.

My thanks to Kathleen Woith for taking the time to get answers to our questions, to the museum partners for answering them, and to Neil Hardin for getting the ball rolling by contacting Kathleen in the first place.

And now, without any further ado, here are your questions (in bold) and the museum’s answers:

How much retail space will be available? Total square footage?
We will have 15,000 square feet on Water Street. In addition, a Museum Store and Book Court will be located inside the museum. They will be accessible without having to pay admission to the museum.

Why not increased density? Too much open space will make the downtown “Lakeview” just a nicer version of their existing suburban facility. If the museum doesn’t need the space, why not increased space for retail / hotel projects? MORE DENSITY!
The partners have worked closely with the Heart of Peoria Commission to formulate plans for the project. We consider the open space to be an extension of the museum. The café will offer outside dining in warm months, the science and art parks will offer sculpture and hands-on activities for families. If you look at the diagram of the plaza, the grids represent an important part of Peoria’s history. Grids running from the direction of the river reflect the street patterns that the original settlers laid out. The north to south and east to west grids represent the Jeffersonian plan of running streets in those directions. If you notice, streets often take a jog when you reach the top of the bluff. This stems from when the street patterns were altered as Peoria grew.

Much of the green space near the corner of Main and Water and Liberty and Washington are bioswales. These bioswales will capture the rainwater runoff from the site and filter it through native plantings and rocks, naturally cleansing it before it is returned to the river watershed. We will make bioswales educational, developing natural environment programs for students and visitors.

The plaza will provide space for 1,000 students visiting on a spring or fall day to have lunch and just fun. We also envision concerts, markets and shows, all which will bring people downtown and encourage their use of other riverfront and downtown stores and businesses.

As we sought architects, all of the firms we received proposals from reiterated the same position. While the site is great, it is not large enough to include hotels and condos, a museum, visitor center and businesses and still include the required parking each of these entities would need in order to be financially viable. Our parking on the site will be under the museum, which is a direct result of influence from the HOPC.

If not, just expand the existing museum. There seems to be some existing land around the museum and YWCA / Owens Center area.
Lakeview Museum opened in 1965 as Lakeview Center for the Arts & Sciences. The Galleries consisted of a huge hall-like wing of the building. Today this same 10,000 square feet of exhibit space holds the permanent hands-on Discovery Center and the growing Illinois Folk Art Galleries. The Permanent Collection also takes up a sizeable portion of the space. Just 3,000 square feet is left to bring in first-class traveling exhibitions . Everything from Rodin to dinosaurs has filled the galleries, but outstanding exhibitions today require much more room — most now need 4,000 to 6,000 square feet. We routinely let outstanding exhibitions pass us by because we simply don’t have the room for them. Our Affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution has opened the doors to the “nation’s attic.” We have been disappointed several times that we had to let pass nationally known Smithsonian shows because our gallery space would not allow us to host these shows.

Other areas of the museum are bulging at the seams. The museum opened with just three employees. Today there are 21 full-time and 19 part-time. Offices are doubled, tripled and quadrupled up. Through the gifts of generous donors, the Permanent Collection has grown to more than 14,000 items. Vault space is at a premium and just a small portion of the collection can be exhibited at any one time.

In September, 2001, the Board of Directors of Lakeview Museum accepted the recommendation of E. Verner Johnson, museum planner and architect, and the Museum Site Selection Committee of 14 citizens, to focus development of the new regional museum on the riverfront Sears block. The Museum Collaboration Group also were pleased that the city-led Duany Plater-Zyberk charrette study recognized the riverfront and the Sears Block as the cultural and entertainment center of downtown.

The Museum is considering increasing its size from the current 38,000 square feet to more than 96,000 square feet, with an additional 15,000 square feet of commercial/retail space. If this expansion were done in Lakeview Park, this would consume quite a bit of green space. Other developments by our neighbors also are impacting the park. The YWCA has opened a state-of-the-art pool and expanded their facility; Owens Center could be expanded, as well. The Peoria Public Library Lakeview Branch continues to be it’s busiest. It’s apparent that Lakeview Park would become Lakeview Parking Lot if the museum expanded on site.

Another consideration is the impact on traffic and the surrounding neighborhood. Our current site, when developed in the mid 1960s, was considered the far end of Peoria. Now, it’s right in the center. Lovely neighborhoods and two busy streets, Lake and University, surround us. The additional traffic generated by an estimated 300,000+ visitors annually would be a challenge to add to these already crowded thoroughfares and cause many problems for those who live nearby.

Attractions of this size must draw out-of-town visitors. To do this, it must be visible and in a location visited and passed by thousands every day. The Sears block site provides the opportunity to be seen and also to give Peoria a new look. Imagine crossing the interstate bridge and looking to a vista unfolding around a first-class architectural statement. The lovely wooded acreage of Lakeview Park is both beautiful and a detriment to Lakeview Museum. Often visitors drive by the park looking for the museum. They are unaware that the two entrances to the park also lead to our front door and to the doors of the YWCA, Lakeview Library and the Girl Scouts offices.

Other issues to consider include the increased quality of life, making Peoria attractive to outside visitors. Enhanced educational opportunities, new revenues and critical customer mass helping to strengthen existing new businesses are vital to the area.

Why not use IMAX instead of ‘off-brand’ IMAX. The name has appeal to greater numbers. What are plans to make the screen usable for special events or showing of first run movies?
We are planning a giant screen theater that will provide an experience that you find when you visit an IMAX theater — or even better. (IMAX is like Xerox or Kleenex, it’s become a generic term for the giant screen experience.) Everyone knows that technology is changing by the day. The same goes for the theater industry. Digital projection is future of theaters. Currently IMAX theaters still use film. But we’re watching the industry as new developments unfold. We are visiting other theaters around the country to test the quality of other types of theaters. As we continue with the detailed design development for the theater and the rest of the museum, the architects are laying out a flexible theater that could be adapted to any brand we finally choose. We will wait till the last minute to choose the vendor. But we promise you will be just as thrilled whether it’s IMAX or an other brand.

Staffing Levels. Are there going to be more employees for a larger, more complex facility?
Absolutely and unequivocally we will add staff. Exactly how many we can’t say right now. It all depends on the programming of the building. We’ll increase both our full and part time staffs and will know more will know more about numbers in the future. Here’s a bit of trivia: When Lakeview Museum opened in 1965 it had two and one-half staff members. Today we have 21 full time and 19 part-timers.

What is the organization of the museum collaboration? Are all the museums being rolled into one organization, or will they continue to exist as distinct entities? In other words, after the museum is built, will there just be one organization called “Museum Partners” (hypothetically) that would own all the collections of Lakeview, the Historical Society, the African American Hall of Fame, etc., and have one board of directors that will decide what’s displayed, stored, or disposed of? Or will all those organizations continue to exist independently, administer their own separate collections, and have their own boards? How was the organization of the collaboration decided?
We’ve been working for more than a year to come up with a viable plan that is acceptable to all of the partners. Each will make their own decision as to whether they merge into the new museum or remain their own entities. Our Task Force on Organizational Effectiveness includes all the partners and is considering issues such as governance for the new museum. The new regional board will likely be composed of representatives from all of the partners in designated seats. Will the partners maintain their own boards and collections? That is a decision for each of them to make.

As for the collections in the new museum, they will continue to be preserved, protected and presented in accordance with the rules of the American Association of Museums. Lakeview is one of only 800 museums (of more than 17,000 museums nationwide) that are fully accredited by the AAM. This means we adhere to the strictest high standards of museums on everything from collections to exhibitions, from education to the planetarium, from public relations to program outreach. Every few years we must go through a reaccreditation process. A team of evaluators comes in for a week and pores through every inch of the museum. (Have you ever seen anyone measure the acid content on a gallery wall?) During our last reaccreditation, we had to send in 17 inches of paperwork before the team even arrived! The partners are in agreement that we will continue this prestigious accreditation, as well as continue our Affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.

Are all the “partners” in this project represented equally? I noticed in the paper today that Lakeview gets to choose the name for the museum, and the “Contact Us” page on the name-the-museum website lists all Lakeview representatives. Yet the downtown museum project was originally headed up by the Peoria Historical Society. Does Lakeview have more pull, or more say, than the other partners?
Yes, all of the partners are represented equally in the new museum project. It’s true that the Lakeview board will vote on the final name because Lakeview Museum itself will cease to exist as Lakeview and will become part of the new entity. But all of the other partner boards will consider the name, too. The naming committee is composed of representatives from the partners, so every organization has a voice in the process. And the Lakeview board itself is composed of representatives from the partners.

The Peoria Historical Society did consider a small museum building on the Sears block. At the same time, Lakeview Museum was considering a small expansion of our current building. As we all sought out advice from our local political leaders, Rep. Ray LaHood took the initiative to invite the groups to meet together. This was the birth of the Museum Collaboration Group. We knew we would accomplish much more working together than separately. We also realized that Lakeview Museum would have a difficult time rehabbing the existing building and adding on. (See the question about expanding the current museum.)

As for Lakeview Museum having more “pull,” it just seems that way because we are the largest entity of the group. Believe me, we always refer to the museum partners and try to correct the media and others when they refer to the new “Lakeview” regional museum. We hope when we have a new name it will help deflect the spotlight from Lakeview.

Why has the Peoria Public Library not been included in this endeavor?
We work with the library to provide reading lists for our exhibitions and programs. We also offer Museum passes that are available at all library branches. Families may check out the “book” for a week and gain access to all of Lakeview Museum’s exhibitions. We’ll continue to work with them in the new museum.

Will the Peoria Street exhibit have representations of buildings that exist currently or once existed in Peoria?
The Peoria Stories Street will consist of facades that can be interchangeable. For example, one exhibit could be on the 1850s and 1860s with Abraham Lincoln speaking to the people of Peoria during a campaign stop. Exhibits inside the building would reflect that period of life here. Next, it could be turned into the Roaring 20s in Peoria, or the time when the whiskey barons ran the town. The shell will be designed that the buildings will take on the look and feel of the era that is being represented. Yes, they could include facades of buildings that existed or do exist now. We’ll know more when the exhibit design phase begins. To see more of the exhibit details, go to the Lakeview Museum website lakeview-museum.org and check out the storyboards.

Museum Partners back to the drawing board for names

I received this press release today from Kathleen Woith, Lakeview’s Vice President of Community Relations & Communications:

Museum Partners Going Back to the Public to Choose Favorite Name

We heard you!

The Museum Partners asked for the public’s opinion on proposed names for the new museum and more than 4,000 responses and votes came back!

Love them or hate them or something in between — the four original names —
Port of Exploration Museum, Amazeum, Museum on the Square and ExploraSphere — inspired passionate and impassioned opinions. Reactions ranged from “All these names are terrible!” to “fascinating names, I can’t decide which one I like best.”

So the Museum Partners are going back to the public to help choose a name. What will the new choices be? They will be revealed when the vote reopens Friday, Sept. 22. Polling will continue through noon, Monday, Oct. 2. The Naming Committee will meet that week to choose a name. The Partner Group Boards will consider the names with an announcement to come in November.

What will the choices not include? Some of the write-in names popular with the public just aren’t available or can’t be used. Including words in the names such as Riverview, River’s Edge and Riverfront aren’t available because they are trademarked or close to names of other museums.

Popular sentiment ran in favor of recognizing the museum’s home city in the name and that is being considered by the group. Other names suggested were trademarked names of existing museums, such as the Exploratorium or Discovery Museum.

Another name that won’t be an option is Lakeview Museum. The museum was gratified to see that more than 150 people wrote-in or commented that they would like to retain the name — especially since the museum finally will have a “lake view.”

With the collaboration of all the partners, including the Peoria Historical Society, the African American Hall of Fame Museum, the Peoria Regional Museum Society, Lakeview Museum, the IHSA, and others, the museum is growing into an entity that embraces all of the disciplines. Art, history, science and achievement will be explored and displayed in a museum unlike any other in the country. Lakeview Museum was created by 26 groups who joined together in the early 1960s. Today, that legacy is continuing with the groups who are forming the new regional museum. The new museum will continue the tradition of offering outstanding exhibitions and programs created by the partners.

The Museum Partners continue to involve the community in the process with the new vote.

Ask the Museum

Museum proponent and recent commenter Neil Hardin has thrown out a challenge to those who have questions about the downtown museum project:

Talked with Lakeview’ P.R. person, Kathleen Worth [sic], and she says she will put together a meeting anytime to answer questions about the museum, it’s process, the name, etc. It’s your chance to participate. Any takers?

Of course, I’ll be more than happy to meet with Ms. Woith. However, I know that some commenters are anonymous and wish to stay that way, so here’s your chance to ask some questions and get some answers. I’ll work with Neil to set up a time and place and will post it here for any who would like to come. In light of Neil’s latest comment, here’s the new plan: I’ll set up an appointment with Ms. Woith to ask her our questions. I’ll accept questions up until the day I meet with her.

As for anyone who can’t come, don’t want to come, or don’t want to reveal their secret identity, please leave your question(s) in the comments section of this post. I will make a reasonable effort to ask all questions that are submitted, as long as they’re pertinent and respectful.

“Peoria” doesn’t play in Peoria? Oh, the irony

The “Word on the Street” column Monday had this tidbit of information regarding naming the new museum. So far, all we’ve been told is that the name didn’t “test well” in focus groups. But what does that mean? Now we know:

Apparently, it’s not that people don’t like Peoria. Unfortunately, we’re unknown to a majority of the focus groups they interviewed in southern Wisconsin, northern Indiana, St. Louis and Chicagoland.

“Sixty-nine percent said either they didn’t know enough about Peoria or Peoria sounded like a small town to them,” said Woith, adding that proponents want a museum name that will be attractive to tourists far and wide.

So, from this we can deduce that the museum folks are concerned that people won’t come to the museum if it has the name “Peoria” in it because people have never heard of it or think it’s a small town. So, they’re going to call the museum something meaningless, like the “AMAZEum.” Presumably, people from Wisconsin, Chicago, and St. Louis will think that any museum with a name like that is fantastic and must be visited, so (I’m just guessing here) they’ll want to know where this incredible AMAZEum is. They’ll look for an address and perhaps directions on how to get there. Now, where are the museum people going to tell them it’s located? Just outside Chicago? A suburb of Rockford?

But beyond that, I wanted to point out the sheer irony of the situation. You know the phrase you love to hate: “Will it play in Peoria”? Wikipedia has a good entry on that phrase:

The phrase initially came into fashion during the vaudeville era, believed to have been first asked by Groucho Marx when putting together a new act. The belief was that if a new show was successful in Peoria, it would work anywhere in America.

Years later in the 1960s and 1970s, Peoria was deemed an ideal test market by various consumer-focused companies, entertainment enterprises (films and concert tours), even politicans, to gauge opinion, interest and receptivity to new products, services and campaigns.

Isn’t it ironic that a city that had been known throughout the 20th century for its discernment in entertainment and sensibility for testing new products would find its own name won’t “play” anywhere in America, not even regionally? I, for one, don’t believe it.