BY DUSTIN TRACY Northwest Arkansas Times
Within three weeks a site selection team could make an announcement about the future home of the Northwest Arkansas Science Museum.
Brent Robinson, acting executive director for the museum foundation, said that the selection committee carefully reviewed around 15 possible sites in Benton and Washington counties and narrowed it down to five finalists.
“We’ve zeroed in on a couple of those sites,” Robinson said.
The selection process started shortly after the May 16 request for proposal deadline. Robinson said the committee spent the past three months checking the sites and picking them out based on the qualifications laid out in the foundations request for proposals.
The whole idea for the museum was driven by the late John Lewis, former president of the Northwest Arkansas Museum Foundation. Lewis said he wanted to create a world-class science center that would inspire children in the sciences, enable adults to navigate the 21st century, and See SITE, page A7 do it all through the lens of the Ozarks, the people, the culture and the innovations. In 2004, Lewis started working toward getting a science museum in Northwest Arkansas.
The museum foundation’s Web site claims the museum will include traveling exhibits, learning and research centers, Web programs, themed galleries and learning pods for young children and toddlers to enjoy their first experience with science.
It said visitors will be immersed in cutting-edge scientific discovery through live science forums and citizen science projects. Delta Exhibits, or exhibits designed to evolve over time, will entice visitors to be active participants in the scientific community, working with real scientists and research students in countless fields to perform real and meaningful experiments. The people, cultures, history and innovations of the Ozarks will be an integral component of the museum.
Robinson said the selection committee hopes to streamline a few things before it announces the future home of the museum. He said a Web site for the actual museum would hopefully be set up on the day of the announcement so people wishing to know more about the location could visit the site and have some of their questions answered.
“It’s kind of a day-by-day thing,” Robinson said.
Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times; Date:Sep 6, 2008
