{"id":309982,"date":"2026-10-19T17:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/309982\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:52:11","slug":"supporters-rally-to-reopen-academy-of-natural-sciences-in-philadelphia-after-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/309982\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporters Rally to Reopen Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia After Closure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lunchtime Zoom rally drew more than 600 participants nationwide to discuss efforts to reopen Drexel University&#8217;s Academy of Natural Sciences (ANS) in <a href=\"https:\/\/957benfm.com\/tag\/Philadelphia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia<\/a>. The museum closed on Sept. 27 due to rising costs and an unsustainable financial model, the ANS board and Drexel administrators have stated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/metrophiladelphia.com\/stories\/academy-natural-sciences-supporters-rally-reopening,159417\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">According to a\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/metrophiladelphia.com\/stories\/academy-natural-sciences-supporters-rally-reopening,159417\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Metro Philadelphia<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/metrophiladelphia.com\/stories\/academy-natural-sciences-supporters-rally-reopening,159417\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">\u00a0report<\/a>, a group called Save the Academy organized the event last week in response to the closure. Members insist they will continue advocating until the museum doors reopen for Philadelphia&#8217;s students and the scientific community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe think that Drexel and some city leaders think that this will blow over,\u201d said Sarah McAnulty, founder of Skype a Scientist, in a statement shared with\u00a0Metro Philadelphia. \u201cWe&#8217;re not giving up until those museum doors are open again because kids in Philadelphia deserve a world-class natural history museum.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>City Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who participated in the meeting, is weighing a potential split between Drexel and the ANS.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmad told attendees she is pursuing alternative funding options, including contacting pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk to highlight the importance of the ANS. She argues that venom from the Gila monster, a lizard first classified by an ANS scientist,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/segments\/ozempic-how-gila-monster-venom-led-to-weight-loss-drugs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">is connected to Ozempic<\/a>, the company&#8217;s weight loss drug.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor&#8217;s office and the governor&#8217;s administration have also stepped into the discussion. Mayor Cherelle Parker has named deputy Trish Wellenbach as interim senior adviser to ANS, and Gov. Josh Shapiro has appointed David L. Cohen, former U.S. ambassador to Canada and Comcast executive, to facilitate talks between the university and ANS.<\/p>\n<p>During the rally on Thursday, Oct. 15, supporters underscored the museum&#8217;s significance to local and broader scientific communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lunchtime Zoom rally drew more than 600 participants nationwide to discuss efforts to reopen Drexel University&#8217;s Academy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-309982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309982","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=309982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}