The first of a three phase capital campaign was announced Feb. 18 during Sci-Port: Louisiana’s Science Center’s Annual Chairman’s Building Blocks Dinner. Capital Campaign Chairman Robert Stroud announced the plans to the dinner’s 100 plus attendees.
“We’re very excited about what’s going on in the campaign and preview,” Stroud said. “We have been meeting, and working diligently, and very frugally, for the three phase campaign.”
The first phase, Itty Bitty City, will be a children’s museum housed inside Sci-Port, expanding the Center’s exhibitory and programming for the youngest visitors. The space, costing around $2 million, will be geared toward younger children, providing an ageappropriate, informal educational experience.
Set to open late fall 2015, Itty Bitty City will be a “museum within a museum,” a business model science centers across the country are embracing for mission and education-related reasons, as well as financial reasons.
“We’re looking to expand our visitor base, and we found that guardians with smaller children come more often,” Sci-Port President/CEO Ann Fumarolo said. “We’ve had such great support, and when you say Sci-Port had a bad 2013, people take notice because we usually do really well. This will help with the facility and give people a new reason to come back to Sci- Port.”
In addition to a café, farm, medical center and other city entities within the Itty Bitty City, there will be a vet clinic sponsored by Southern Hills Animal Hospital and a bank sponsored by Chase Bank.
Following the Itty Bitty City phase of the Center’s capital campaign will be the Louisiana Gallery, with a projected funding of $4 million. This gallery will be a complete renovation on the Center’s current Red River Gallery; going beyond what’s found in “Sportsman’s Paradise,” this area will provide a glimpse of the diverse waterways from Shreveport through Louisiana and into the Gulf, showing and celebrating the uniqueness of each region. Northwest Louisiana’s local oil and gas roots, as well as its role in economic and workforce development for the future, will also be incorporated into the project.
Finally, phase three, “Technology Today,” will be completed using funds just shy of $3 million. The technological needs of the center will be addressed – from going digital with the state’s only IMAX Dome Theatre, to upgrading and improving many components of the Space Center. In addition, the back office systems and other operational elements, as well as some older exhibitory, will be revamped.
