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.