Making the Case

In its first 13 years, The Wild Center, an outdoor science and experiential learning center in Adirondack Park in upstate New York, explored new ways to strengthen its relationship with the local community as well as the region. In this period of experimentation and exploration, our service role in the community evolved in ways that exceeded our initial conceptions.

For the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River exhibition, the newest permanent exhibition at the Museum of Science, Boston, the museum partnered with the local division of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition to serving as a content advisor, EPA has deployed a water quality monitoring buoy in the Charles River, located just outside of the museum’s windows. It provides near real-time water quality data directly to a display in the exhibition.

A museum aspires to impact its community, audiences, and supporters. In turn, the community, audiences, and supporters receive benefits from the museum. Impacts are the effects desired by the museum; benefits are what matter to the beneficiaries. The distinction is important. Both are end results, or outcomes, of the museum’s activities. Both should be intentional and both should be measured.

Traveling exhibitions play an essential role in the science museum ecosystem. When designed effectively, traveling exhibitions increase the capacities of the hosting and touring museums by enabling them to simultaneously attract new audiences, generate revenue, and deepen impact. Although it is relatively commonplace for science museums to track revenue and visitation increases associated with a traveling exhibition, measuring the mission impact through a summative evaluation takes place less often unless it is required by a funder.