Discovery Space Reaches Out to Centre Region Municipalities for Funds

Representatives of Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania tried to sell their vision for the interactive educational facility to members of the Centre Region Council of Governments General Forum on Monday. Their asking price was $20,000 for each of the next three years.

Executive Director Art Heim, board member Patricia Best and project architect Alan Popovich addressed elected officials from the six municipalities that make up the Centre Region COG – State College Borough and the townships of College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton.

While most of the museum’s budget will be met through private and corporate donations, Discovery Space is seeking municipal funding, as well, and asked the COG for $60,000 over the three-year period.

Popovich, of APArchitects, likened the museum to the recently reopened William L. Welch Community Swimming Pool and the Millbrook Marsh Regional Nature Center – projects his firm has worked on that, he said, help create a vibrant and culturally rich environment in the Centre Region.

Best, former State College Area School District superintendent, outlined activities, exhibits and programming – including what she called ‘a healthy dose of fun and play’ – that will capitalize on young children’s natural curiosity for their surroundings at the locally focused museum.

And Heim emphasized the sustainability of the project, with donations and grant money already secured – State College Borough Council earlier agreed to provide $50,000 with the possibility of more money later depending on the museum’s success and need – and much of the work being done by volunteers.

The new children’s museum is scheduled to open July 13 – Children’s Day – during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, in 4,000 square feet on the first floor at 112 W. Foster Ave. While starting out small – Heim said someone mentioned that Discovery Space will be the smallest science center in the country – museum officials hope to outgrow their space within three years and either expand to the building’s second floor or move elsewhere.

But, Heim emphasized, the plan is manageable and sustainable – what he called ‘a strategy for realistic functionality and growth.’ And public funding, he said, would represent an economic-development investment in that the museum will attract many visitors to the area.

‘This is a very special and very unique opportunity for our young people in the Centre Region,’ Best told the general forum members, adding that the museum will be ‘accessible, affordable and regional – there is no similar resource in an 80-mile radius.’

The COG executive committee invited Discovery Space representatives to address Monday’s general forum meeting, as explained on the agenda, ‘to update the group with the expectation that some of the individual municipalities, not through the COG, may wish to contribute to the project.’

‘The sense of the (executive) committee was that some members believed the COG should consider the request and other members believed it was not a project appropriate to COG,’ the agenda stated.

No action was taken on the request Monday.

Earlier coverage

• State College Borough Council Tentatively OKs Reduced Discovery Space Funding (June 6, 2011)