{"id":276722,"date":"2026-09-01T19:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276722\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T19:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:36:07","slug":"philadelphias-academy-of-natural-sciences-museum-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276722\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia\u2019s Academy of Natural Sciences museum to close"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In its statement, Drexel said the museum was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, which undercut attendance. The museum never recovered from that reversal despite new programming and marketing.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose efforts produced important successes. But patterns of visitation and audience behavior changed in lasting ways,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIt became clear that these were not temporary pressures, but fundamental changes in the economics of the Academy\u2019s operational model.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>The Academy has a collection of 73,000 preserved plant and animal specimens and a library of over 75,000 pieces of scientific literature. It currently has on display the exhibition <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/american-botany-history-philadelphia-museums\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cBotany of Nations,\u201d<\/a> about the 1806 Lewis and Clark 1806 expedition into the United States\u2019 newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, most of whose findings are archived at the Academy.\n<\/p>\n<p>By shedding its museum, the Academy looks to better secure its scientific missions.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cContinuing to operate the museum in its current building and form would place increasing pressure on the resources required to safeguard the collections and sustain the research enterprise,\u201d the statement read. \u201cClosing the current Parkway museum is, therefore, a difficult decision taken to concentrate resources on the Academy\u2019s enduring scientific assets and research.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>The Academy\u2019s CEO, Scott Cooper, stepped down effective immediately. While dozens of employees will be impacted, the number of layoffs has not yet been determined. Drexel said in the statement that it is in talks with Gov. Josh Shapiro and Mayor Cherelle Parker about the Academy\u2019s long-term future.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In its statement, Drexel said the museum was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, which undercut attendance. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57966,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-276722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-academy-of-natural-sciences","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}