EcoTarium raising millions to stay fresh for third century

Joe Cox President, EcoTarium

Write a Comment

When Joe Cox took over as president of the EcoTarium four years ago – having come from starting a children's museum in Naples, Fla. – the museum was wrapping up the first $8.1-million phase of its three-phase Third Century Campaign, an effort to keep the museum relevant after its 200th anniversary in 2025. Since that time, Cox has been working to raise money and develop the plans to preserve the EcoTarium for the next generation.

You went from starting a museum to leading one that was started 191 years ago.

In Naples, one of the things we talked about all the time was one day a woman is going to walk back through the museum and say, “I just graduated with my degree in engineering, and I fell in love with science here.” At the EcoTarium, that happens all the time, where people have all these stories where they were inspired to go to Africa because of our Africa exhibit or they became a doctor at UMass because they came to summer camp here.

The EcoTarium was founded in 1825. John Quincy Adams was president. Charles Darwin was six years away from setting sail to the Galapagos. The world was a very different place.

What is the Third Century Campaign?

The goal is to rejuvenate the campus and rejuvenate the museum by the start of its third century.

The campaign has three phases. We kicked off the first phase about 10 years ago, and that was an $8.1-million project. We raised the money and finished the project in my first year of being here.

What is the second phase?

In June of this year, we announced we were running the second phase. This is a $9.1-million campaign, which is going to do four major projects.

The first one – lots and lots of people have experienced already – we spent a year and a half renovating our train, the Explorer Express, rebuilding the entire thing. I never thought being a museum director would mean building a train, but we put down a mile-and-a-half worth of new track, 2,500 railroad ties, new ballast and we worked with the great kids over at Worcester Technical High School to rebuild the engine.

The second project – when the museum was built in the late 60s and early 70s, we didn't have a power source that was close enough, so we had our own cogeneration plant that was powering the museum.

Over the years, that once state-of-the-art power plant got more and more expensive to run and wasn't energy efficient. We decommissioned that, put in a new mechanical plant connected to the grid and are operating at about 97-percent efficiency.

What about the next two projects that haven't been completed yet?

The third big project opens in January, which is a brand new exhibit called “City Science: The Science You Live.” This is the biggest exhibit we've built inside the museum since we opened this building in 1971. It is a 2,500-square-foot exhibit that takes the concept of urban planning and using the city to tell science stories. Everything from how traffic lights work to how a sewer system works to teaching engineering skills – science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is a huge part of what we do – will be instilled with all these cool role-playing opportunities.

The last piece is “Wild Cat Station.” We are renovating a huge portion of our campus. People may remember Kenda, our polar bear who lived her 28 years and passed away five years ago. We are renovating that whole area of the campus for a new exhibit that focuses on native New England species, some of which are here and some of which were here in the past: mountain lions, bobcats, hawks, owls, ravens. Depending on the winter – my forecast is for a very mild, non-snowy winter – we are hoping to break ground in the spring.

How is the fundraising coming along for phase two?

We have raised $7.3 million toward our goal of $9.1 million, so there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in support the campaign.

I am hoping to finish the campaign by the time we break ground on “Wild Cat Station.” If someone is looking for a naming opportunity and wants to contact me, we can finish a lot sooner.

What about phase three?

Phase three needs to be complete by 2025, so we already are starting now fleshing out what might be in there. We haven't finalized anything yet.

Video

Ecotarium Shop Talk