Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Even after a massive wave of love and a crescendo of protests over the weekend<\/a>, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University<\/a> museum won\u2019t be getting an immediate reprieve. <\/p>\n Philadelphia\u2019s beloved gateway to the natural world will remain shuttered after Drexel University released a statement Monday in response to an offer from the William Penn Foundation<\/a> to temporarily underwrite operating costs and keep the doors open.<\/p>\n Drexel\u2019s statement neither accepts nor rejects William Penn\u2019s offer. Rather, it suggests that the university is open to talking.<\/p>\n Drexel says that while it appreciates the William Penn Foundation\u2019s \u201cpublic suggestion that it assist in temporarily keeping the Academy\u2019s museum open,\u201d they have \u201cnot received a formal proposal with a defined level of financial support.\u201d<\/p>\n With that in mind, Drexel linked the William Penn offer with keeping both the museum and collections<\/a> in the current building and what it says is a substantial amount of money that would be needed to bring the building at 19th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway up to snuff.<\/p>\n Drexel said Monday that it looked forward to \u201ccontinuing to explore the possibility of Foundation support \u2014 alongside the considerable commitment Drexel has already made to preserving the research and education missions of the Academy \u2014 as we consider the substantial financial and operational challenges, including significant deferred maintenance needs associated with keeping the Academy of Natural Sciences\u2019 collections at their current location.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that we are all working toward the same goal, which is to ensure that the treasures of the Academy remain accessible here in Philadelphia over the long-term,\u201d said William Penn executive director Shawn McCaney in a statement Monday. \u201cThere are many considerations to determine the best path forward, and our offer of support is intended to help keep the museum open while a plan is developed.\u201d<\/p>\n No meetings between Drexel and the Foundation were scheduled, a Drexel spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cDrexel intends to continue conversations with the William Penn Foundation to better understand and evaluate its offer,\u201d said a Drexel source familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.<\/p>\n The nearly two-century-old natural history museum closed to the public<\/a> at 5 p.m. Sunday, and while the Academy\u2018s research and collections remain operational, leaders have said they intend to sell the building and move the collections at some point to an as-yet undetermined location. A public-facing museum experience of some kind is being envisioned elsewhere, but no details are set.<\/p>\n Academy board chairperson Suzanne Biemiller on Monday did not immediately offer a comment.<\/p>\n Citing a challenging financial picture and attendance trends, the Drexel and Academy boards on Sept. 1 abruptly announced<\/a> the museum\u2019s closure in 30 days without first coming forward with a public appeal for funds to help keep it open. Public demonstrations attracted hundreds at first, and in recent days online petitions topped 100,000 signatures.<\/p>\n With the closure date fast approaching, William Penn last week extended a hand<\/a>, offering to cover the cost of the operating subsidy Drexel has been providing to keep the museum open for at least another year, \u201cso that the full range of options for the future of the museum could be properly explored, and to provide time to test the interest of other funders and supporters who have not been engaged so far,\u201d said McCaney in a statement.<\/p>\n The William Penn offer was intended to help float the Academy\u2019s museum operations while due diligence was done on answering a number of questions about the Academy\u2019s viability. Among them are determining the costs of addressing deferred maintenance in the building and gauging the level of philanthropic support that could be counted on to fund the museum on an ongoing basis.<\/p>\n Biemiller said last week that the Academy was supportive of the idea.<\/p>\n A Drexel spokesperson said that the Academy board and leadership team undertook an \u201cextensive planning process\u201d throughout much of 2024 and 2025 to identify a path toward long-term financial stability. The effort included an assessment of the Academy\u2019s business model and explored options for a more sustainable financial and operational model, including the level of ongoing support required from Drexel. <\/p>\n Although the university did not publicly reject the William Penn money last week, it said that \u201cno proposal has been presented that would provide a permanent, sustainable path forward for the Academy\u2019s museum.\u201d <\/p>\n Pressure intensified over the past few days, with politicians and activists asking why, if the hurdle was financial, Drexel would turn down such an offer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe urge Drexel and the Academy to jointly agree to accept the William Penn Foundation\u2019s gracious offer and keep the Academy of Natural Sciences open for the public to continue to enjoy,\u201d wrote City Councilmembers Nina Ahmad<\/a> and Jeffery Young Jr. in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cAnything else is a clear abdication of their public duty, and a demonstration of their contempt for this priceless cultural resource.\u201d<\/p>\n Drexel says it has contributed $49 million toward the Academy\u2019s budget since the two formed an affiliation announced in 2011. Yet, the institute has still struggled.<\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody came in today and said, \u2018here\u2019s all the money you need to do all of the deferred maintenance, to do what needs to be done to the building to make sure that you can care for all of the collections and all of the research,\u2019 and it\u2019s feasible to do it there from an economic perspective, which would be wonderful, then I think we would be very open to it,\u201d said the Drexel source. \u201cBut we probably still would have to keep the museum closed for a bit, just to be realistic because what needs to be done may not necessarily be able to be done while the museum\u2019s open.\u201d<\/p>\n In the weeks since the impending closure was announced, attendance has soared, and revenue along with it. Estimated ticket revenue for September 2026 alone nearly matched the total ticket revenue for all of 2025, a Drexel spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The Drexel and the Academy boards are in the process of renegotiating their affiliation agreement<\/a>, brokered in part by David L. Cohen \u2014 the onetime Comcast executive and U.S. ambassador to Canada \u2014 at the behest of Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a> and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat agreement includes a process for evaluating the future of the collections and the museum,\u201d said Monday\u2019s statement from Drexel. \u201cUntil that agreement is fully executed and approved by both boards, we do not intend to alter the plans that the Academy\u2019s board and Drexel have agreed to.\u201d<\/p>\n The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance on Monday lauded the William Penn Foundation\u2019s \u201cgenerous offer\u201d and said it deserved consideration, but added that responding to one crisis won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n \u201cPhiladelphia must make a stronger, sustained commitment to the cultural institutions that are fundamental to our civic life,\u201d said the GPCA statement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Even after a massive wave of love and a crescendo of protests over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[122422,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-296064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-academy-of-natural-sciences-drexel-university-closing","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296064","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=296064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}