Museum plans collide

In a burst of scientific enthusiasm, two different groups have been raising funds for two big science museums in Sacramento, each with its own planetarium and each set to open in 2010.

While organizers of both drives say they hope to thrive by complementing each other, museum specialists say that would be very difficult.

"Planetariums are expensive to run," said John Jacobsen, president of White Oak Associates Inc., a Massachusetts company that specializes in museum planning and production.

"Finding the ongoing support for two planetariums is possible but challenging," because admissions don't fully fund their costs, he said.

It's not unusual for competing groups in the same region to start out with separate museum plans, Jacobsen said, but in the end they often combine efforts, bowing to pressure from donors or government officials.

In Sacramento, both California State University, Sacramento, and the Discovery Museum Science Center, now based on Auburn Boulevard, have visions of new science museums.

The science center, which its staff likes to call "small but mighty," has plans to blossom into a three building, riverfront facility in downtown Sacramento, anchored by a historic PG&E building on Jibboom Street.

With exhibits spanning everything from biotech to ecology, the new center would feature daytime tutorials for schoolchildren, evening lectures for adults, and outdoor programs capitalizing on the nearby water intake building and bicycle trail.

"This region is ready for a science explosion," said Evangeline Higginbotham, executive director of the Discovery Museum, which includes a downtown Gold Rush history center as well as the current small, suburban science center.

It remains to be seen, though, whether anyone is ready to pay for that explosion, at a cost likely to rise well beyond $30 million for two museums.

"Two capital campaigns for two competing science centers doesn't seem to make sense on the face of it," said Jacobsen.

While two museums could flourish if they specialized in different age ranges or subjects, one focusing on technology, for example, and the other on natural history, the dual planetarium proposals would make such specialization difficult, he said.

At this point, both Sacramento State and the Discovery Museum want to feature science, space and hands-on experiences for children and adults.

The campus museum would also be used by astronomy students and those in teacher training, said Jill Trainer, dean of the college of natural sciences and mathematics.

"I'm not worried about having two planetariums or two science museums," Trainer said. "I think the more the better."

In the quest for donor dollars, each proposal has its own version of a head start.

Sacramento State has gotten nearly $2 million from federal grants and professors' estates.

It has a Foucault pendulum, which illustrates the earth's rotation, tucked away in a basement, and its planetarium equipment is on order.

The Discovery Museum has gotten just $200,000 in expansion funds from Sacramento County, said Higginbotham, but it has exclusive rights to negotiate with the city of Sacramento to build on a city-owned site.

It also boasts a long record of working closely with schools, running summer science camps and classroom enrichment programs. If local teachers want a hissing cockroach or a walking stick, along with instructions for its classroom care, they can get both from the little science center.

Rose Lester, president of the Lester Consulting Group, which works with nonprofits, said Higginbotham "has done a great job. She's very well respected in the community. She has a strong vision and great leadership."

Still, Higginbotham "needs more corporate leaders" to successfully raise funds for such an ambitious museum, Lester said.

By comparison, she said, even though Sacramento State has strength as an institution, "what's working against them right now is all the negative publicity" about university President Alexander Gonzalez.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, (916) 321-1086.