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Philadelphia City Council members and advocates for the Academy of Natural Sciences museum rallied at City Hall and introduced legislation today to protest the museum’s closure. It’s the oldest natural history museum in the U.S. and opened almost 200 years ago.
The museum announced it will close on Sept. 30, though the scientific research and public education programs will continue.
Councilmembers Nina Ahmad, Jeffery Young Jr. and Anthony Phillips all said they were surprised the museum never reached out to the city ahead of its public announcement that it would close.
“Their leadership did not approach Philadelphia City Council to say that they were in dire need of support. Not one time,” said Phillips. “That is irresponsible.”
Today, Councilmembers Ahmad and Young Jr. introduced a resolution to hold hearings on the museum’s upcoming closure.
Ahmad said the resolution to hold hearings will include subpoena power, so that they can compel people to testify.
She said she took a quick look at the publicly available financial statements from the Academy, but would also like to see other audit reports, as well as how management discussed the closure before announcing it to the public.
“We have to band together to think outside the box to see what solutions we have. But we weren’t even given that opportunity, and a decision was made,” she said. “So I do think that there is room for us to think creatively around this and to give this museum another 200 years of life.”
She said the city has rallied together on short notice to save cultural icons before, citing an example from 2006, when thousands of Philadelphians, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts rallied to raise $68 million in 45 days to hold onto an important painting of surgeon Samuel D. Gross, by Philadelphia native Thomas Eakins.
At the rally, Ahmad suggested a few ways the city could save the museum, including asking the Philadelphia Orphans’ Court to access the institution’s endowment; asking for emergency state funding; issuing bonds; or getting the building placed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places to access special tax credits.
Protesters, including 12-year-old Jack Erfer (left), call on the city to keep the Academy of Natural Sciences open. Drexel University announced plans to close the 214-year-old museum at the end of the month. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
The announcement that the museum would close shocked fans, including 12-year-old Jack Erfer, who spoke at the rally and said he would sometimes visit the museum twice a week.
“It is a disgrace to just close down a place that past generations of children have been able to enjoy. Future generations of children deserve the same experiences,” he said. “If university administrators can make seven-figure salaries, then surely they can be expected to have experienced fundraising to try to keep the museum open.”