WMBD 1470 has the scoop on proposed names for the new museum. Here they are:
- ExploraSphere Museum
- AMAZeum
- Port of Exporation Museum
- Museum on the Square
Noticeably absent: “Peoria” and “history.” These names illustrate my main criticism of the museum. From any of those names, do you know what this museum is supposed to be? What kind of museum it is? What kind of exhibits it has? Every one of them is nondescript.
The museum’s website has this description:
A new museum of art, history, science and achievement is coming to downtown Peoria. Its galleries will be full of fine art and Illinois folk art, Illinois High School achievements and replays, African American histories, plus oral and interactive history exhibits that tell the story of the entire region. There will be an Illinois River Encounter – from the Ice Age to today, a digital planetarium, and a giant screen theatre, all in a beautiful and environmentally cutting-edge new building on Museum Square.
Again, no mention of Peoria, other than its address. Perhaps the ambiguity of the museum is part of what’s hampering fundraising efforts. I have a suggestion regarding fundraising, though: If it’s going to be a place that “tell[s] the story of the entire region,” then they should ask for donations from the “entire region,” whatever that is, instead of just Peorians, who apparently aren’t worth mentioning in the museum’s name or description.
You can vote for your favorite name at www.namethemuseum.org.
Subtitled: The Center for Art, History, Science and Achievement
The subtitle is more descriptive than the actual names.
And yet, all it tells me is that it’s going to have lots of exhibits, all of them done poorly. And HOW many people are supposed to visit this wasteland daily in order for it to turn a profit?
I have a feeling that the museum directors are going to find every way possible to screw up this project. Just wait until the “giant screen theater” opens: will there actually be any first run theatrical movies, or will it all be bad documentaries?
bwah ha ha ha ha ha!
Those are so …. focus-grouped. So new-drug-name-ish.
So HORRIBLE! ExploraSphere? Seriously?
Those aren’t the real names……come on…..what are they really?
CJ – excellent point about raising money from the ENTIRE region for it. Time for East Peoria, Pekin, Dunlap (don’t they have all the money anyway), etc. etc. to pony up some dough.
I did have one contentious thought, though. Couldn’t you consider this a multipurpose building/development? Which fits in with the whole new urbanism concept? Seriously. They’ve got those stores in the lower level, parking underneath (although I agree it’s utterly unnecessary), open, park space and a variegated museum. No, it doesn’t follow the HOP plan but it is kinda new urbanist. AND, it’s very ecofriendly, following the LEED standards. (http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19)
Don’t know of any other developments in Peoria doing this.
Question now – what are the trends in museums in smaller cities around the country? Are multi-subject museums, like the proposed ExploroSphere (I find this one kinda exciting myself) teh recommended route? Are other small cities building this kind of thing? CJ – are you up for this research? Anyone else?
Seriously, think about museums you had to visit as a kid. Single theme, history type museums were dull as freakin’ dirt. And I visited museums in NYC, Philly and DC as a child. There might be something to be said for a more generalized Central Illinois review. Central Illinios as a whole is not the most exciting place (and I like it tremendously). At least not exciting enough to attract the droves they want showing up downtown.
Maybe it would be wise to let museums dedicated solely to Central IL history, art or rivers be developed on a smaller scale. With much lower expectations.
I’ve always been the Pollyanna in my groups, and I’m rather proud of my sunny, optimistic nature – so deal with it. I like to go for the bright side of things, even if I agree with your negative take in many instances.
(I’m doing shorter posts now, as I feel like my long posts are a pain to read)
Martha, I have actual experience with “large screen movie theatres” coming to small cities. I lived in Tallahassee, FL (smaller than Peoria) when they built an IMAX type theatre in a science type museum (http://www.challengertlh.com/), right next to their multi-subject museum of art and science (http://www.thebrogan.org/)
It does work, to bring people downtown. And they didn’t play boring anything! They got all the major IMAX moves, from NASA and science type stuff to The Matrix Reloaded and whatever major pictures were released in IMAX format too.
(This kinda offers a bit of research too, as I mentioned earlier).
CGISELLE,
Your optimism is, well………………………
Anyway, your idea about small towns kicking in a few bucks for reg museum, Peoria will have as much luck getting money out of them for museum as they did for PACVB. Why? First, each of these small towns has their own historical society, museum, historic houses, etc. For example: Chillicothe has a butt-kicking hist society that puts Peoria’s to shame. Metamora’s courthouse is a superb example of what a museum should be. I could go on. The funding for Met courthouse comes from donations. If I were from Metamora or Woodford County, I would rather eat shit than donate one cent to a Regional Museum [which has nothing to do whatsoever with the region].
As far as your question, “Are other small cities building this kind of thing…” If you ask Jim Richerson [of Lakeview] he will say NO! This was supposed to be one of the big selling features of the museum. Collaboration! Synergy! Legacy! Whatever? The reason it is not done, and C.J. has touched upon this several times, is because it is idiotic. This touted museum is going to project more of a ‘Disney Land’ experience than the Lincoln Museum. What ever it may or may not have as a museum…it is still a $65 million project. No museum is capable of supporting itself, just how the hell is Peoria going to maintain and support this creature?
SC
I am sure an IMAX is very cool and very snappy, especially with a price tag of $65 million!
SC
At the bottom of the namethemuseum site, there is a link to “Peoria Regional Museum.” What is wrong with that name? Can I vote for none of the above? Where is the write-in option?
It doesn’t matter which one of those lame names ultimately wins, everyone will call it the Peoria museum or the Downtown Peoria museum (see also, the Bloomington airport — not Central Illinois Regional Airport or whatever its real name is).
For my money, AMAZeum and Museum on the Square tie as the ‘most inane’. How about LAME-azeum?
I think “The Midwest Ambiguous Museum of Miscellany” sums it up quite nicely (;
New York’s got the MOMA, Peoria could have the MAMOM.
I think this is all a clever ruse to get the public to select the name the bigwigs at Lakeview really want. They determined that if they gave the public three ludicrous names to choose from and then one half-way decent one that the public would choose the half-way decent one….aka as Lakeview’s first choice. So on the outside it appears that this is democracy in action when it was all carefully crafted to turn out just the way Lakeview wants it to. Having said that my guess is that Lakeview really wants Museum on the Square. The Museum Square theme figures prominently on the Lakeview website and other literature.
Interestingly enough, during the first hour of Markley & Luciano today, someone from the Lakeview board of directors called in to explain the process and try to put it into a better light. He said that the names were created by a “marketing firm” who began with 550 names 6 months ago. This firm asked lots of people in a 200-mile radius and gauged their reactions to names and key buzzwords (“Peoria,” “River,” Museum,” etc.) to come up with the final list. According to the board member, “Peoria” scored very poorly, and outside of Peoria “River” scored very highly.
Long story short, it was a 20-minute phone call basically saying they looked at every possibility that wasn’t already taken, didn’t spell out something obscene in the abbreviation, and would have a broad-based appeal. With all that in mind, how in the world did AMAZeum make the final cut?
Another thing that was interesting about this call: the board member said that, in addition to all of the stuff we knew was supposed to be in the museum, it’s also supposed to be an African-American Hall of Fame. SO…. it’s another exhibit (what does this make, 6? 7?) in a finite space, and each of these will be so small that the subject matter will barely be covered.
cgiselle: I’ve also been to IMAX, in both Chicago and St Louis. And I must have just hit them at the wrong time, because I’ve never seen a major movie release. (My brother, on the other hand, schedules visits to IMAX theaters every time he goes on vacation, but that’s another story.) One of the releases I did see in Chicago was “Into the Deep,” a documentary about deep-sea aquatic life that made the case that fish don’t eat other fish unless they’re already dead. It was actually a very peaceful life existence….
ITS A RECTANGLE, not a square. Museum on the Square is not only inaccurate, it is pretentious, like “The Shoppes at Grand Prairie,” which I keep calling “The New Mall.” Rule out the Museum of Geography, I guess.
I propose the “Peoria Regional Museum formerly known as the Sears block” or the “Museum on the Quadrangle” or the “Washington Street Museum.” Would this be the first museum in the U.S. with a WalMart view?
I gotta admit, MAMOM is pretty cool.
And I don’t disagree, the effort for this museum is pretty misguided, disorganized and definitely questionable. But it would seem we are getting it anyway…
You gotta give, though, at least the LEED certification (or whatever) is an awfully cool thing. A green building, in Peoria? Woo hoo!
I suspect the reason that the word Peoria is not in any of the four proposed names is for the exact point that has been stressed to the Museum planners. That is that they need to work diligently to attempt to secure funding from the entire Central Illinois area, not just the Peoria City Council and the citizens of Peoria. No one should object to that approach, it benefits eveyone.
By last estimate there were over 17,000 Museums of some sort in the United States, according to the web site of the American Association of Museums. Understanding that one objective of the Museum Groups naming committee was to identify potential names that would be original and unique to this facility, puts their challenge into perspective.
This is the same group who, sometime ago tried to secure ‘funding’ from the Peoria County Board…remember? Later, Lakeview discovered that they could not do so legally. Other counties will never go for funding PEORIA museum because they have their own museums and historical societies to fund. Theirs, by-the-way work!
The County Board included $100,000 in funding for the new msuem in their latest budget. Furthermore, the county board has the ability to levy a special “Museum Tax” at a rate which would generate an estimated $50,000 annually for the the Museum. There was never anything illegal discovered, it was simply a misplaced decimal point, originally that $50,000 figure was believed to be $500,000. Yes, I visit the museums in Woodford and Tazwell Countys on a regular basis and agree that they are very disserving of local support.
Kat,
Yes, you are right about legallity, etc [a matter of pennies]. I should have made my point clearer. My beef was the way Lakeview approached the Peo Count Board; behind closed doors. Before anyone starts defending Lakeview’s actions, Dist 150, Peo Park Dist, etc. have all come under the gun for this exact same ‘offense.’
Katmandu, I doubt that leaving “Peoria” out of the name of the museum is going to make a bit of difference when soliciting funds from the area. The museum sits in the “crown jewel” block of downtown Peoria and is admittedly going to focus on Peoria history (vaudeville, whiskey barons, etc.). I don’t think East Peoria and other surrounding communities are going to be fooled by calling it the “AMAZEum.” Call me pessimistic.
Good discussion. Yes, the members of the Peoria County Board were originally briefed about the Museum Square project in small “non-official” meetings. The intent was to provide a forum in which the Board Members could ask any and all questions they’d like in order to understand the details of the development as thoroughly as possible, and therefore be much better prepared to discuss the issues at a future Board meeting. The process worked well, and the $0.02 vs. $0.002 issue was uncovered as a result of these meetings.
No arguement with your point C.J. The only legit defense of why this was done has to be that leaving out the word Peoria in the name of the new museum will simply eliminate another objection that folks outside the city could have used to avoid making a financial commitment to the project.