Science Museum Oklahoma

[OkieBerto]

Some of their newest stores do not have the logo with the yellow backing. Also, at Love's Field, they left out a lot of the yellow and went with White lettering. They are moving to change many things, but in this case, they needed the yellow for us to see the Love's lettering. Brand standards are brand standards. The more consistent you are, the better it is for your brand. I do not mind Love's sticking with their brand.

[David]

According to their website, the new planetarium will open 9/20. Photo credit warreng88:

Some of their newest stores do not have the logo with the yellow backing. Also, at Love's Field, they left out a lot of the yellow and went with White lettering. They are moving to change many things, but in this case, they needed the yellow for us to see the Love's lettering. Brand standards are brand standards. The more consistent you are, the better it is for your brand. I do not mind Love's sticking with their brand.

Imagine that same size and placement but with the nice wooden background from this store sign, we'd be having a different conversation.

[jn1780]

Some of their newest stores do not have the logo with the yellow backing. Also, at Love's Field, they left out a lot of the yellow and went with White lettering. They are moving to change many things, but in this case, they needed the yellow for us to see the Love's lettering. Brand standards are brand standards. The more consistent you are, the better it is for your brand. I do not mind Love's sticking with their brand.

They do have a yellow font Loves sign on newer stores and a design with white font that goes on black employee uniforms that would have worked perfectly.

I doubt any thought went into it. Wouldn't be surprised if this is just what Loves emailed over to the Science Museum people.

[OkieBerto]

I was just told by a source close to Love's that they had to negotiate with OU and had to change the logo only for OU and the Field.

[OkieBerto]

They do have a yellow font Loves sign on newer stores and a design with white font that goes on black employee uniforms that would have worked perfectly.

I doubt any thought went into it. Wouldn't be surprised if this is just what Loves emailed over to the Science Museum people.

This is the case when asked what logo to use for the planetary. They most likely gave them their brand standard logo.

[scottk]

The whole wall wrap looks like it was designed last minute in PowerPoint. At least the OmniDome had a semi-decent logo during its existence, this literally is Word Art with a made up planet and out of place branding for a logo. Doesn't seem world class for the millions spent on it.

If you have visited other science museums, you quickly realize that the only thing SMO really has going for itself is square footage, which I think hurts them in keeping everything working and relevant on limited budgets. There are also large areas of just empty space at SMO.

Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, Exploration Place in Wichita are much smaller, but seem to be much more modern and interactive. The Perot Museum is laid out on four or five floors in Dallas, but each floor seems packed with working exhibits, and meaningful traveling exhibitions.

[Laramie]

We need to be Thankful for the corporations that step up to the plate for Oklahoma City and Oklahoma. ONLY BIG LEAUE MAJOR PROFESIONAL FRANCHISE IN OKLAHOMA.

The Love's patch on the Thunder uniforms is another example of 'some' on this forum who should focus more on Love's support for the team and city. We don't have the abundance of corporations like Dallas. Houston and San Antonio who support their NBA franchises.

Love's, Devon, Paycom, OG&E, Chesapeake, Continental Resources, Sonic, Sandridge and others who contribute to the sports and entertainment 'quality of life' aspects our city helps highlight--WE THANK YOU.

[Zorba]

I guess when an organization doesn't want obnoxious branding its the Love Family doing the donating and not the company?Attachment 18985

Anyway, It is what is when you don't have any other sources of funding. Doesn't seem like philanthropy if your doing it under your company brand. I wonder what the number two donor thinks?

Ask all the students at OSU that paid (and are still paying for) the Boone Pickens Stadium improvements, second biggest "donors" and no naming rights or gratitude.

[bombermwc]

The whole wall wrap looks like it was designed last minute in PowerPoint. At least the OmniDome had a semi-decent logo during its existence, this literally is Word Art with a made up planet and out of place branding for a logo. Doesn't seem world class for the millions spent on it.

If you have visited other science museums, you quickly realize that the only thing SMO really has going for itself is square footage, which I think hurts them in keeping everything working and relevant on limited budgets. There are also large areas of just empty space at SMO.

Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, Exploration Place in Wichita are much smaller, but seem to be much more modern and interactive. The Perot Museum is laid out on four or five floors in Dallas, but each floor seems packed with working exhibits, and meaningful traveling exhibitions.

I dont think that's an entirely fair evaluation. There are some areas that are open, but I actually like having that open space with the breathing room. It's also expansion room for one day in the future. Yes, there are areas that seriously need to be updated (that whole dental and earthquake zone) and yes a lot of displays seem to be broken. But I do see that around the country at other places as well. But you can see where MASSIVE effort (and funding) was put in for areas like the Curiocity area. That was a major game changer for SMO in terms of interactions and exhibits. But they were able to do that without really having to take much out because they have that space.

I'd really like to see the air and space area expanded myself and some of the more modern concepts added like AI or more computer focused exhibits since that's relevant now. Why not talk about radio/cell and how those work. There are a LOT of areas of science that could be expanded on, but like you said, they also have a limited budget to do these things without a big donor...hence Loves. Unless you're willing to give them a couple million dollars, then your entrance ticket isn't going to fit the bill. Even if they have weird really old areas like the bikes that just hang there, or weird art that doesn't make sense to me at a science museum....but it's still tons better than most anything like it around the country.

[jn1780]

The whole wall wrap looks like it was designed last minute in PowerPoint. At least the OmniDome had a semi-decent logo during its existence, this literally is Word Art with a made up planet and out of place branding for a logo. Doesn't seem world class for the millions spent on it.

If you have visited other science museums, you quickly realize that the only thing SMO really has going for itself is square footage, which I think hurts them in keeping everything working and relevant on limited budgets. There are also large areas of just empty space at SMO.

Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, Exploration Place in Wichita are much smaller, but seem to be much more modern and interactive. The Perot Museum is laid out on four or five floors in Dallas, but each floor seems packed with working exhibits, and meaningful traveling exhibitions.

The main exhibit hall could use a remodel which maybe that's the next thing to be done since the old planetarium is going to be vacant. Half of the second floor should be closed off when they are not using it. That big open space is only necessary for the traveling exhibits. I think part of the main reason for the new planetarium is to create a new astronomy space and reactivate that half of the building. I don't really think its that much bigger.

[mugofbeer]

The whole wall wrap looks like it was designed last minute in PowerPoint. At least the OmniDome had a semi-decent logo during its existence, this literally is Word Art with a made up planet and out of place branding for a logo. Doesn't seem world class for the millions spent on it.

If you have visited other science museums, you quickly realize that the only thing SMO really has going for itself is square footage, which I think hurts them in keeping everything working and relevant on limited budgets. There are also large areas of just empty space at SMO.

Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, Exploration Place in Wichita are much smaller, but seem to be much more modern and interactive. The Perot Museum is laid out on four or five floors in Dallas, but each floor seems packed with working exhibits, and meaningful traveling exhibitions.

A little empty space now means room for additional exhibits and those "meaningful traveling exhibits" ypu just mentioned.

[scottk]

A little empty space now means room for additional exhibits and those "meaningful traveling exhibits" ypu just mentioned.

I get that in regards to the open space upstairs. However, the last one I remember was the Sherlock Holmes exhibit in 2021. Has there been a traveling exhibit upstairs since? We have been SMO members for the past 6-7 years. When CurioCity first opened it was great. All of the exhibits worked. Our last few visits, CurioCity was in bad shape. Burned out projectors, no sound on exhibits, things not lighting up, or accessories missing, and some areas completely abandoned. Given how much space SMO has, it seems they can't keep up with the overall wear and tear of the facility. The same went with the original planetarium when it received the new projectors in 2019-2020, in the past few trips the projectors are dimmer, mis-aligned, etc. In this case I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as I am sure maintenance was differed towards the new planetarium. The weather exhibit near the mirror maze downstairs is a shame that there hasn't been a stronger partnership with someone like Griffin, Hearst, or Nexstar in re-branding this area and really showcasing Oklahoma weather. It appears the last update to this area was about 1996 with the dated skyline and old KFOR branding.

Over the past two years we have used our SMO Membership more in Dallas and Wichita with the ASTC Passport program than we do at SMO. For whatever reasons, Dallas and Wichita seem to get many more of the traveling exhibits, and while Wichita's Exploration Place is smaller, our experience there has been better as the exhibits are much more interactive and better kept. The best example of this would be how the airplane and Exploration Space at SMO is primarily static exhibits, while Wichita has much more hands-on exhibits, simulators, etc. I feel like Wichita is a fair comparison on the amount of corporate dollars available to a museum like this.

Dallas has the Perot name behind it, so I imagine his estate has some form of an endowment to facilitate care of the facility. However the traveling exhibit space at Perot seems to be on-par with what's available at SMO square footage wise.

[Zorba]

I get that in regards to the open space upstairs. However, the last one I remember was the Sherlock Holmes exhibit in 2021. Has there been a traveling exhibit upstairs since? We have been SMO members for the past 6-7 years. When CurioCity first opened it was great. All of the exhibits worked. Our last few visits, CurioCity was in bad shape. Burned out projectors, no sound on exhibits, things not lighting up, or accessories missing, and some areas completely abandoned. Given how much space SMO has, it seems they can't keep up with the overall wear and tear of the facility. The same went with the original planetarium when it received the new projectors in 2019-2020, in the past few trips the projectors are dimmer, mis-aligned, etc. In this case I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as I am sure maintenance was differed towards the new planetarium. The weather exhibit near the mirror maze downstairs is a shame that there hasn't been a stronger partnership with someone like Griffin, Hearst, or Nexstar in re-branding this area and really showcasing Oklahoma weather. It appears the last update to this area was about 1996 with the dated skyline and old KFOR branding.

Over the past two years we have used our SMO Membership more in Dallas and Wichita with the ASTC Passport program than we do at SMO. For whatever reasons, Dallas and Wichita seem to get many more of the traveling exhibits, and while Wichita's Exploration Place is smaller, our experience there has been better as the exhibits are much more interactive and better kept. The best example of this would be how the airplane and Exploration Space at SMO is primarily static exhibits, while Wichita has much more hands-on exhibits, simulators, etc. I feel like Wichita is a fair comparison on the amount of corporate dollars available to a museum like this.

Dallas has the Perot name behind it, so I imagine his estate has some form of an endowment to facilitate care of the facility. However the traveling exhibit space at Perot seems to be on-par with what's available at SMO square footage wise.

There is always some sort of traveling exhibit upstairs, some of them better or more interesting than others. Last time I was there there was some NFT exhibit.

[jn1780]

I get that in regards to the open space upstairs. However, the last one I remember was the Sherlock Holmes exhibit in 2021. Has there been a traveling exhibit upstairs since? We have been SMO members for the past 6-7 years. When CurioCity first opened it was great. All of the exhibits worked. Our last few visits, CurioCity was in bad shape. Burned out projectors, no sound on exhibits, things not lighting up, or accessories missing, and some areas completely abandoned. Given how much space SMO has, it seems they can't keep up with the overall wear and tear of the facility. The same went with the original planetarium when it received the new projectors in 2019-2020, in the past few trips the projectors are dimmer, mis-aligned, etc. In this case I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as I am sure maintenance was differed towards the new planetarium. The weather exhibit near the mirror maze downstairs is a shame that there hasn't been a stronger partnership with someone like Griffin, Hearst, or Nexstar in re-branding this area and really showcasing Oklahoma weather. It appears the last update to this area was about 1996 with the dated skyline and old KFOR branding.

Over the past two years we have used our SMO Membership more in Dallas and Wichita with the ASTC Passport program than we do at SMO. For whatever reasons, Dallas and Wichita seem to get many more of the traveling exhibits, and while Wichita's Exploration Place is smaller, our experience there has been better as the exhibits are much more interactive and better kept. The best example of this would be how the airplane and Exploration Space at SMO is primarily static exhibits, while Wichita has much more hands-on exhibits, simulators, etc. I feel like Wichita is a fair comparison on the amount of corporate dollars available to a museum like this.

Dallas has the Perot name behind it, so I imagine his estate has some form of an endowment to facilitate care of the facility. However the traveling exhibit space at Perot seems to be on-par with what's available at SMO square footage wise.

Like I mentioned above, the easy solution to that would be to wall the area up and close it off when not in use. CurioCity is starting to show its age. The science museum gets donations, but its operating budget isn't enough to properly maintain them.

[Rover]

Like I mentioned above, the easy solution to that would be to wall the area up and close it off when not in use. CurioCity is starting to show its age. The science museum gets donations, but its operating budget isn't enough to properly maintain them.

Is their budget publicly available?+

[scottk]

Is their budget publicly available?+

Financial Audit from two years ago: https://www.sciencemuseumok.org/site...22%20audit.pdf

Also: https://projects.propublica.org/nonp...ions/730682415

It appears they operate somewhere in the 9-10 million dollar range on expenses versus revenue.

"In 2023, SMO broke attendance records with over 600,000 visitors"

[warreng88]

To many points on here, small improvements need to be made to areas in SMO. My daughter loves the weather area where you can act like a weather reporter. The first thing I noticed was the skyline didn't have the Devon Tower. That means the imaging is at least 15 years old. The teeth exhibit has stuff falling apart. To someone else's point, curiosity has a lot of broken items there. I noticed the bowling ball that uses pressure in the climbing area was taken out entirely. I hope with the new planetarium coming online, they can focus on redoing some areas to make them less broken and maybe update some areas.

[jn1780]

Sounds like they need a Mr. Handyman sponsorship. That's a sponsorship I can get behind. "This exhibit has been fixed by Mr. Handyman"

I think the issue is that some of these exhibits were built as one-offs and there isn't any replacement parts available.

[bombermwc]

I have a cousin that worked there with the events crew. They setup the traveling shows, took them down, did repairs, etc. He is very good with technical work like is required for things like this. One of the issues is that the folks that do the repairs, don't always understand how the science behind every single thing works. They can of course fix wiring on buttons, worn gaskets, lights, etc. But as someone else said, there are also a lot of very specialized parts needed. The SMO does not have an entire shop of specialized equipment capable of manufacturing parts. For example, if the Van de Graff generator went down, what is the local team going to do about that? Honestly, not much. They can fix the button you push, but repairing something so incredibly specialized is just not in their wheelhouse. That means that it's expensive to repair. And who knows if the company that originally made it, is even still in business. Some of the media related elements are absolutely in that camp.

I do not think that SMO gets any funding from city tax like the zoo does it? It operates as a non-profit, but i think its independent with its own board and relies on gate money and donations/sponsorships. I would bet that a lot of our museums in OKC fall into this same camp. I wonder if there would ever be an appetite to tax for a museum fund to share among all of the museums in OKC. A board could help govern who gets how much. Set some aside each year to fun "grant" type special projects. Creating that stable funding base would help build up a lot of these museums (and not just SMO). Art, Fire, Science, Rail, Softball, History, Cowboys, Bones, Banjos, Military, Natives, i mean we have a LOT of museums in OKC. They all fight for the same donor base. They're also all very important parts of OKC....and I think are sometimes a little underappreciated.

[scottk]

I

I do not think that SMO gets any funding from city tax like the zoo does it? It operates as a non-profit, but i think its independent with its own board and relies on gate money and donations/sponsorships. I would bet that a lot of our museums in OKC fall into this same camp. I wonder if there would ever be an appetite to tax for a museum fund to share among all of the museums in OKC. A board could help govern who gets how much. Set some aside each year to fun "grant" type special projects. Creating that stable funding base would help build up a lot of these museums (and not just SMO). Art, Fire, Science, Rail, Softball, History, Cowboys, Bones, Banjos, Military, Natives, i mean we have a LOT of museums in OKC. They all fight for the same donor base. They're also all very important parts of OKC....and I think are sometimes a little underappreciated.

You bring up a good point with the zoo, I believe the 1/8th penny sales tax started around 1990. The Zoo operates completely different than it's neighbor at SMO with all of the variables of animal needs, specialized diets and healthcare, and a much bigger footprint of buildings and outdoor landscaping. The OKC Zoo's operating budget is somewhere in the neighborhood of 85 million, compared to the 9-10 million that SMO operates off of.

Some of the OKC Zoo's best areas were funded through the sales tax including Great Escape, Oklahoma Trails, and the Lion Habitat and Cat forest area. I am guessing some of the recent tax revenue went to Expedition Asia?

While I hate another tax, a 1/8 sales tax for the arts and culture museums would be wonderful to continue general upkeep, and I really wouldn't notice 1/8 of another penny. However, receiving public dollars while the City of OKC is not the owner could be an issue? The Zoo Trust operates the OKC Zoo, while the City of OKC is the beneficiary/owner of the facility? Same goes for all MAPS funded facilities and projects?

All the museums you mentioned are all setup with different funding and board models of ownership.

[bombermwc]

So go with me here......

What it that tax money were put into a city fund, sort of like a foundation. It's purpose is to fund the arts. Then the various groups "request" funding from it each year. Maybe submit what your upcoming year's needs looks like by a certain date, and the funds are distributed to the various groups based on the requests submitted and the funding collected. Would need an oversight board to approve that process. So really, it could go to all kinds of things, but i think the stipulation is that they have to be non-profits. So can't be used for commercial ventures like Tower Theater or something like that.

I'm not 100% on how the current OKC Arts Council is organized to know if that could serve as a model, or this could potentially replace it or just augment it. I thought it had a pretty narrow focus of what it did. And I wouldn't want the fact that taxes are helping now, to kill off the donations that are made to that group.

[scottk]

Love’s Planetarium at Science Museum Oklahoma will be opening on September 20, 2024.

From SMO:
"...the Love’s Planetarium will feature some of the most advanced equipment in the world. This new space provides an exciting and engaging approach to space education, and a creative platform to explore subjects like physics, chemistry, art, history, and math. The possibilities are endless as we showcase Oklahoma’s rich history in space exploration through programming and artifacts. Be a part of history with us as we take one giant leap, bringing the universe into the hands of hundreds of thousands of people every year!"

[Plutonic Panda]

I spoke with a lady at the airport who is in some kind of management position at the science place. I can’t remember what she did, but she was very knowledgeable and did say this is a huge deal and will be one of the most advanced planetarium in the world competing with the one that was just built in Shanghai.

https://www.ennead.com/work/shanghai-astronomy-museum

Although this one won’t be quite as marvelous as that one It will be one of the best in the world. I’m pretty excited about this. I was also told once a month they have an adult night where you can have drinks and walk around which I had no clue about that seems cool. I will definitely be making a trip up to see this place when it opens.

[warreng88]

I received an email today about the opening on 9/20 and I don't think I realized that attending the planetarium has no additional cost. I guess I thought it would cost extra to go in there, but I am glad I was wrong.

[bombermwc]

Is that no extra charge thing a permanent thing? That had been my gripe all along was that there was an impression they were going to start charging like other museums do (which always pisses me off). I would be very happy if they continued to not charge extra for it!!!!