Image by Grant Welker/Lowell Sun
05/09/2016
Lowell Sun
By Grant Welker
LOWELL -- The plan for a children's museum in Lowell gained steam, attracting more than $1 million in pledged donations. It was guided by an executive director and a board, which moved the project toward reality over a period of years.
But the Children's Museum Lowell never opened a single exhibit.
First, its space in Market Mills was deemed too small. The museum then negotiated with the American Textile History Museum to lease space on Dutton Street. In time, the entire project fizzled.
Now, the idea is being revived by a group of people looking into early-education options, who see an opportunity to pick up where the earlier version left off. A group of graduate business students at UMass Lowell is nearing completion on a feasibility study to see if once again Lowell might be able to make a go of it for a children's museum.
"There appears to be a huge opportunity here," said Scott Latham, the interim business dean who is leading the Masters in Business Administration class.
The class of five of the school's top MBA students has been studying other children's museums, including the nearest one in Acton. The students have looked at population numbers, discretionary spending and other data, and will soon reach a conclusion. There's also the question: Are people going to museums as much anymore?
The feasibility answer won't likely be as simple as yes or no.
Lowell may be able to support a children's museum again if the facility were able to attract a certain number of visitors, enroll at least so many members or draw the necessary corporate support.
Lowell may be in a "sweet spot" in size compared to other cities with children's museums, student Marcie Byrd said. It also finds itself in a geographic area between children's museums in Acton, Boston, Keene, N.H., and Portsmouth, N.H.
The study is about two-thirds done, and will be followed this summer by a business plan. The students know that Lowellians donated to the museum last time. Now it's also a matter of what the museum should or could look like.
"You want to open your eyes and know, 'I'm in the Lowell Children's Museum,' " Latham said.
The idea for the study came from a committee discussing options as part of a state-funded "Coordinated Family and Community Engagement" grant. The question came up: Why doesn't Lowell have a children's museum?
The idea for the museum has been an easy sell, said Darcie Coleman, a member of the committee and a school social worker in the Lowell Public Schools' early-education department.
Lowell has not had great success with museums in recent years.
The Revolving Museum arrived in 2002 from Boston with great fanfare. But unable to bring in enough funding, it closed its doors in 2012, and has since reopened in a different format in Fitchburg.
The American Textile History Museum indefinitely closed its exhibits to the public at the end of 2015 after running deficits for several years. Earlier this year, the Greater Lowell Music Theater said it was suspending operations, unable to make it financially without greater donor support.
Even the Lowell Memorial Auditorium has been criticized by some city councilors for not booking higher-profile acts such as Broadway shows. The Lowell Spinners remain a popular summertime draw for families, but the city's last minor-league hockey team left in 2010.
The Children's Museum Lowell got its start in 1998, just as the city was completing a ballpark for the Spinners and the Tsongas Arena for the then-Lowell Lock Monsters. It was first known as Discovery Place and soon after finalized plans to open in Market Mills, a mill building off Market Street.
The museum had an agreement with the National Park Service in which the park service would assist the museum with funding for collaborative interpretive projects, and assist with collaborative planning sessions. The Park Service would also waive fees for the museum to use conference rooms and event space.
That space of nearly 10,000 square feet was already deemed too small for the museum's ambitions, however. The museum began looking elsewhere.
A draft memorandum of understanding with the American Textile History Museum in 2003 would have given the children's museum only slightly larger space. By then, according to the draft, the children's museum had raised $280,000 in pledges and planned to raise another $4.7 million. The new space was planned to open in 2006.
The museum's vision was detailed: It estimated it would attract 100,000 visitors in its first year, and grow to 120,000 by its third year. It could have 1,400 members by its third year, and bring in about $80,000 in sales from its gift shop. It would also rely on special-events revenue, an annual fundraiser and contributions from corporations and individuals.
But the two museums could never finalize their agreement, and momentum was lost when the executive director, Nancy Stice, left. The city felt some fatigue for new projects in the years soon after it built a new ballpark and arena, and support from other museums in the city was tepid.
Suddenly, the board of directors was faced with attracting a new leader for a nonexistent museum. Instead, the plan fell apart.
"It was a missing piece in Lowell's cultural offerings," said Jim Cook, executive director of the Lowell Plan, who served on the museum's board.
Cook sees the potential rebirth of the museum as having an ability to reach reality unlike the first attempt. He's helped set up a nonprofit certification for the new museum just in case.
"I think it's a fantastic idea," he said. "I think it's long overdue."