The Museum of World Treasures in Old Town began signaling last year that it might leave Wichita, after butting heads with city officials over the issues of rent and grant funding. Now it’s being mentioned as part of a proposed 100-acre Olathe project, making the risk that Wichita might lose this crowd-pleasing attraction suddenly more real and serious. City Council members are right to step up efforts to keep the museum — if not in Old Town, where it draws thousands of people each year, at least in its hometown.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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40 Comments
Just part of the continuing exodus of business from midtown Wichita to get out of the way of construction of the proposed downtown white elephant ice hockey arena.
Its obvious holdover county commissioners, David Unruh, Tom Winters and Tim Norton PLUS the city council are more interested in providing citizens of Sedgwick County and Wichita with the ice hockey recreational venue over all other intellectual, historic and sporting activities.
And what ever happened to county commissioners and city councilmen who were interested in improving parkways and streets, storm sewers, bridges, and other regular local government infrastructure?
Looks like ice hockey facilties at $300,000,000.33 definitely TRUMPS all other normal local government activities in Wichita.
Shame on our local elected officials.
I always thought Old Town was not a very good location for the museum; it would be nice to see a good facility perhaps near Exploration Place. However, looks like this one will follow the Wranglers and the Bowling Tournament.
Congratulations City/County leaders (sic)!
I suspect there is more here than meets the eyes. I heard rumors that the museum wanted to move out of Wichita anyway.
The city may have provided them justification, that’s all.
I’m sure the curator has in his bag of tricks to reduce cost, the threatening to move plan if rent goes up. That’s trick number 22 isn’t it?
The Museum is constantly agitating in this way in hopes that the city will support it.
But the city is not going to support MWT until it becomes an accredited instittuion. As it stands now, it is a collection of unsubstantiated, unvalidated, random stuff.
I could do this myself out of my own “stuff”, but I would have to go through particular procedures to be able to call its public display a “museum” with any real credibility.
This is the city’s issue with MWT–there are guidelines of certification, preservation, and mission that verify that those things are actually what MWT says they are.
But MWT prefers to leverage its popular support by threatening to move. Rather than simply recognizing and fixing the concerns the city has,it tries to drum up popular support by constantly complaining to anyone who will listen that the city won’t fund it.
Meanwhile, they mislabel dinosaurs because they have no actual expertise on staff. Is this Wichita’s version of intellectual stimulation and culture? Pseudo-artifacts that, for all we know, were purchased from Ebay?
MWT may be working on its issues–it says it is. But every few months, like clockwork, one of its spokesman comes up with a reason to complain to the media that the city is unfair and should just fork over the dough, no questions asked.
There isnt an “accredited museum”in the country that does not have at least some exhibits that came from someone’s private collection.The snobs of the museum world want MWT to do things THEIR way, which means they are envious that Dr. Kardatsky is a better collecter, better marketer, better promoter and better negotiator than ANY of them.Some of you do not think that these business skills are important.The idea that museums dont need tourists is what has hurt most of our other “attractions.”
It is time to quit looking down our noses at the MWT.
If you think MWT needs help with certification and presentation and documentation:
Volunteer your TIME and MONEY or shut up!
Agreed Paul. I know both the older and younger Dr Kardatsky’s professionally and personally. While it is undoubtedly true that the MWT has some deficiencies it is a tremendous place. And you are absolutely correct that e need some ’showmanship’ in this business.
I wish the City and the ‘Museum group” would woth with MWT to both upgrade the collections and to find a better location. IMO Old Town just isn’t really all that family friendly.
Gee, isn’t there some vacant land south of the Hyatt? Even an empty building?
They are not going to move.
They are however running out of space and their lease is up in 2008 and they really want to get into a larger building.
The Olathe developers will only give the MOWT an extra 10,000 square feet from the building in Old Town. From the MOWT stand point, it’s not big enough.
To be quite honest. They really don’t have anywhere to go at the moment. Can any of you think of a building anywhere downtown they can move into by 2009?
If the city were to build them a building they have best be starting know on it. Actually! I wouldn’t mind the city kicking out Gander Mountain and renovating that building for the MOWT. But I bet that would cost a pretty penny to kick Gander out. Maybe not though.
Oh, for Christsakes!!!!
Did you see the article just a couple of weeks ago that the dinosaur they have was mislabeled? And they had to call in a expert from outside to point out that it was an “obvious” error? Most of would not have been able to tell the difference. That’s why museums refine their collections, so as to be able to demonstrate expertise–like telling a Picasso from a Dali. If your collection is too broad, you cannot truly verify what you have because no one is an expert on everything.
Is FACTUALITY a concern to you, Econ???? Should we be able to believe the museum?
Why should people be expected to volunteer their expertise, Econ? Doesn’t that go against market principles?
“They are not going to move.”
What makes you so sure?
How large is the Boathouse? Probably not large enough, especially since the City made the decision to demolish its ‘annex’.
Also…First and foremost, “museums” are in the NON-PROFIT business of presenting articfacts for public education. Like using steroids to hit home runs, all credibility is lost if the museum doesn’t have the ability to verify its “artifacts.”
Often museums have to be publicly supported, at least in part, because they are NOT attempting to market to a “customer” the same way a business would. While there is nothing wrong with marketing, it CAN corrupt the process: for example, many art museums MUST have Monet and Van Gogh exhibits, instead of other just-as-worthy artists, because Monet and Van Gogh are popular.
It should be no surprise that dinosaurs and mummies are more popular than African masks and biological specimens. But if museums are only about selling and prmotion, than all we will see are disnosaurs and mummies. Fake ones, too, even.
And yeah Ben! When they demolished that annex, all the utilities for that building went with it.
Not even the Boathouse pad site isn’t large enough. The downtown library though, is. But that’s a stretch.
The old Spaghetti Works building could be large enough.
The reason why I don’t think they will move, because Dr. Kardatsky is a firm believer in Wichita and is dedicated to this city. But I don’t blame him asking for a little help from the public and the city to help with the museum.
We have exchanged e-mails in the past and there is a few things he is disappointed with. Mayans wasn’t pushing anything their way or giving any help. Like even all those directional signs spread out through downtown that gives you directions to the various attractions and city hall, well the MOWT asked to have a few signs point their way. The city did do that, but they charged the MOWT for it, but everybody else got it for free. Granted, it’s not a government or sponsored attraction, but at least hook them up when they need it.
This will be a test for Brewer to see if he can really provide the solution for MOWT. The MOWT has options now and they must look at them seriously. All cards on the table kind of thing. But we need to step up.
..and of course, the Kardatzkes are medical doctors. Not doctors of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, biology, paleontology, or any other relevant scholarly field.
Which means they are as qualified to run a museum as any of the rest of us who did not actually learn about the science and method in the field.
delsolYou exhibit the type of snobery I was trying to expose.Thank you for playing along!
delsolAmerica is the most charitable nation on Earth. America gives more, as a percentage of GDP, to charities, than any other country. America gives more, per capita, to charity than any other country.Americans give far more TIME to charity than any other country.
Capitalism PROVIDES the funds for charitable work.
Capitalism also PROVIDES the funds for government to operate.
By the way, most large “accredited” museums have endowments and trusts which support them.
Those endowments are INVESTED IN THE STOCK MARKET!
Why must you be such a Marxist in everything you post?
Econ, you may call it snobbery, but I bet in your field, too, there are standards and measures that are taken to ensure the quality and legitimacy of the “product.”
Is it snobbery to have to get certified to be a teacher?
Is it snobbery to have to pass a bar exam to practice law?
Why is it snobbery to expect a museum to be truthful and accurate?
Econ – this is scary – we are agreeing. Carnegie was a steel mogul but he endowed a lot of things. Same with the Dr’s Kardatsky. They have never pretended to be ‘PhD types’ (we have joked about that); the elder Dr has had collecting as a hobby. He then hires staff to do the rest.
Joe – I suggest you contact your friends at WDDC and get them on this. I would think they would like to see MWT stay downtown. And maybe someone should ask why the annexes and accompanying infrastructure were destroyed. Might the Boathouse WITH ANNEX have been large enough?
You are right, Ben,about Carnegie, and Econ is right about endowments.
Histroically, all museums started with a private collection. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But as museums have evolved, they have developed standards of practice to ensure, again, they what they are presenting are legitimate things rather than fakes. Also, they have increasingly specialized; as inherently educational institutions they have refined their collections to be able to present things in context, which allows deeper understanding. This has necessitated staffing that are experts in the field.
Again, if you can name a world-class institution that is not accredited…let’s compare it to MWT.
And I would like to see MWT evolve and develop further. With WSU nearby that might be a resource to use as well. However, I suspect it will follow the Wranglers and the Bowling Tournament and leave. Oh well, maybe they can get another over-priced bar to go in the building.
OkI agree that standards are a good idea, in any line of work.However, as long as MWT does not CLAIM to be accredited, I do not think they are doing anything wrong.I would like him to get his exhibits up to the standards everyone wants, but that takes time.The MWT exhibits are an honest attempt by a good man to share his life and collection with Wichita.Will we enjoy those exhibits any more or any less due to some piece of paper that says he is “accredited”??
But they keep trying to intimidate the city into funding them.
Well, yes, Econ, because a trained staff will have a more knowledge on what to buy, what to sell, and how to present it to the community through presentations. Better education, essentially.
And…the rest of the world will not view it with interest and respect rather than scepticism.
whoops…the rest of the world WILL view it with interest and respect rather than scepticism.
An interesting ‘arithmetic’ question: How much does the City spend on that sports hall of fame that very few people visit? Then calculate a ‘per-visit’ amount and compare to the close to 100,000 visitors the MWT gets.
SPEAKING OF WICHITA’S BOATHOUSE AND IT’S OLD ANNEX on Lewis Street in the current Water Walk project … the annex buildiing extended east from the Boathouse perhaps 100 feet. In the past year or so, the City unfortunately demolished the annex before history buffs could examine it. That site is now part of the Boathouse and/or Gander Mountain parking lot.
The ANNEX building was most likely the historic old Marland gasoline service station built there in 1927 in the “cottage style” along with the present Boathouse building for Marland Oil Company’s Wichita headquarters. In those days, the architectural style for gasoline service stations was the “cottage style,” designed to blend into the 1920’s and 1930’s neighborhoods where they were often built.
Thinking back, Conoco (Continental Oil Company’s marketing arm) used this style. Also Frank Phillips used the “cottage style” for his Phillips 66 stations. An early one stood just northeast of downtown Wichita. And my parents bought a Phillips 66 station in 1935 in Satanta, Kansas from Frank Phillips. The old Skelly Oil stations were also designed in the “cottage style” and probably others I have forgotten.
Speaking of Phillips Oil Company and also Trans-World Airlines (TWA) … with some major salesmanship from Wichita, I believe both of these companies would have put their headquarters in Wichita.
Anyway, later as the Great Depression got underway in about 1929-30, the then fledgling Continental Oil Company guided by Wall Street interests wrestled control of the Marland oil properties from the then vastly oil wealthy, E.W. Marland of Ponca City. You can still visit his first mansion and his later castle-like mansion in Ponca City. Mr. Marland later went on to become Governor of Oklahoma in WW II days. Some say, the ghost of his niece and wife, Lydia, still walks in those mansions hallways.
My photo from the EAGLE’s archives, taken sometime in the 1930’s, shows the old Conoco Oil service station in front of the old Continental Oil Building, today’s Boathouse building. Of course, today’s Boathouse verandas and architectural gingerbread were added much later in the mid-1990’s. The gingerbread was added to mimic the old Wichita Boathouse further north near Waco and Murdoch by the Little Arkansas River.
My old 1930’s photo also shows a large Conoco/Continental Oil Company gasoline tanker truck and the tops of several of those white globe gas pumps marked with the Conoco insignia in front of the Conoco station. This station building most likely was converted into the Boathouse Annex.
Interestingly the Conoco insignia portrayed the word “Conoco” imprinted over an inverted triangle … the same as the old Marland Oil Company insignia with the word “Conoco” simply replacing theword, “Marland.”
As I wrote in a letter to the EAGLE editor a year or so ago, the original Wichita Koch patriarch, Fred C. Koch officed on the west side of the second floor of this Continental Oil Company building, now the Boathouse, from about 1930 to 1945. It is said, he watched the Arkansas River flow by from his desk as he managed his burgeoning oil pipeline business.
On a letter-head from the Boathouse address of 335 W. Lewis, in about 1936 in mid-depression, Fred C. Koch wrote his young sons a letter to be read when they became adults saying he hoped they would use their family wealth wisely.
From the business history point of view, the Boathouse Building is the birthplace of America’s largest privately-owned corporation. IMHO, it should be used for a museum dedicated to Wichita’s old entrepreneurial spirit.
This old Wichita spirit is now quietly dying as evidenced in part by the treatment of the great and privately inspired “Museum of World Treasures.”
Do you agree?
Why don’t they put it in Union Station when Cox moves out?
Kieth: Not a bad idea if Dr. K would agree. And put the Fred Harvey restaurant back in the same spot it was before about 1/2 way into the station. Don’t know where the kitchen was though.
Actually another good use for the railroad station would be for …. a railroad station …. if a north-south passenger rail line could be re-started through Wichita, from Texas to Newton’s east-west AMTRAK (sp?) depot. AMTRAK’s east-west bound trains pass each other at about 3 AM so I have been told.
If a problem develops with America’s airlines (fuel to expensive, etc.), restarting the railroads might become HIGH PRIORITY.
Of course, I believe the railroad museum is still on the north side of Douglas. Haven’t visited it for years though.
The RR museum on the north side of Douglas is there but kind of lame. Lots of potential…
I went to MWT when it first arrived at the Garvey Center and had a different name. Mrs. Kardatzke admitted to me that a couple items, a Roman sword and shield that she invited me to pick up, were modern-made facsimiles, when I asked her if they were such. (I knew that museums did not allow authentic ancient weapons to be handled by visitors.) These may conceivably have been purchased from a made-in-the-USA Hollywood studio prop-warehouse sale.
Part of what makes the MWT collection’s authenticty questionable, is this: serious amateur collectors who are not superwealthy, including occasional doctors, usually focus on specific genres, such as Impressionist paintings or Pre-Columbian statuary, or even individual artists’ work like Marc Chagall’s. This is because they take enjoyment from cultivating subject-expertise, as well as owning artifacts. You can’t become an expert collecting a vast range of articles ranging from Eygptian sarcophagi to Southeast Asian statuary to WWII weapons to baseball memorabilia. This is impossible.
To develop museum collections, ensuring both authenticity and legal ownership (of artifacts from other countries), you need expert curators. The broader your collection, the more curators you need to employ.
For example, KC Star publisher W.R. Nelson was not a major art collector, but stipulated in his will that he wanted a large part of his fortune to be used for the creation of an art museum to benefit Kansas Citians. So an effort was led by Mary Atkins, who also made a sizable donation, to hire several art-expert curators to identify outstanding available works. Mrs. Atkins managed the budget and authorized purchases of the curators’ recommendations to the degree that could be afforded.
Nelson-Atkins thus became one of America’s finest art (and ancient artifact) museums, and anyone of you reading this who hasn’t been there, but wants to see magnificent examples of mankind’s imaginative expression, should really see it. If you want to see a multi-expert-chosen ecletic collection including Renaissance Masters, Impressionists, Modernists, Indian Terra Cotta and Egyptian stone sculptures, as well as thirteen Henry Moore monumental bronzess, plus his personal studio maquettes, you won’t be disappointed. It’s only a 3-hour drive each way. Leave early on a Saturday morning and you can be back before sunset.
In Tulsa, a very wealthy Indian oilman named Thomas Gilcrease hired expert advisors and amassed the foremost collection of Western American art, and opened his collection to Tulsans to see. After his death, his collection was managed and expanded by expert curators. This is an extremely worthwhile museum to visit(admission is free), for interested Wichitans, which can be taken in on a Saturday trip–or spend the night there, and go to the Philbrook Museum on Sunday, which is also expert-curated.
If you want to see expositions of Western American history, the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka is very good, while the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City is magnificent. Both of these can be seen in a one-day trip from Wichita.
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis is a wonderful American history museum. Spend a weekend, ride to the top of the arch, then go to Forest Park, which has a world-class zoo and a superb science/technology museum. Admission to these St. Louis museums is free.
All of these preceding museums are accredited by the American Association of Museums. Which is to say that experts have site-visited and verified their displays’ authenticity, for works and artifacts that are claimed to be authentic, although “this is what it life was like” recreations, such as dioramas, and even Disney-inspired animatrons are allowed.
Is MWT’s Papal Bull excommunicating Queen Elizabeth I original, or a reproduction? Why would Great Britain let such a key document go? Moreover, the ink is dark. If you go to Washington and examine the Declaration of Independence it is barely readable, due to severe ink fading, and this is a much younger document than the Papal Bull on display at MWT. Expert authenticators could inspect the Papal Bull in conduction of an accreditation site-visit, to verify the document’s authenticity, or simply contact the British Museum, but neither of these options appears to have occurred.
Much, if not most, of the MWT’s collection is or was originally owned by a Southern California real estate multimillionaire named David Karpeles. Mr. Karpeles was originally, if not still, the Kardatzke’s partner in MWT, supplying much, most, or all of MWT’s original exhibits.
Mr. Karpelis has created five other historical-manuscript museums in Santa Barbara (his hometown), Tacoma, Buffalo and Newburgh, New York and Jacksonville. None of Karpeles’ museums is accredited by the American Association of Museums. He has a .000 batting average for attaining accreditation. If he has applied but struck out every time that would be instructive. If he’s chosen to never step up to the plate that would be suggestive.
Is MWT’s collection mostly authentic or mostly reproductions? No outsider can tell, because the MWT has not been accredited.
Nevertheless, it has value in exposing Wichita kids, and adults, to ideas they would not otherwise encounter in an isolated hinterland town. Even if the putative “Egyptian” sarcophagus were made in Hollywood for a Cecil B. DeMille epic fifty years ago, which I am not saying is the case, because I’m not an archaeologist, this would still have educational value, if the reproduction adhered to the original, sufficient to be deemed a well-crafted facsimile.
Dinosaur skeletal exhibts can be fun to see, whether they are ancient fossils, or modern casts, and an occcasionally incorrect identification by amateur exhibitors can be forgiven.
Would it be appropriate for MTW to be moved to Olathe for JoCo residents’ edutainment? Why not? Wichitans have had some five years to see it. It is not like people living here who want to see it haven’t had a reasonable opportunity to do so. So it may be a good time to move the show elsewhere, to give other people a chance to see it and learn some things.
Thank you, MPS, for your insight on the matter.
Keith
Union station isn’t big enough… they need a space larger than gander mountian… something the size of a walmart.
MPS: Your comparison of authentic museums to fun museums reminded me of two piano playing neighbors I once had. One, a lady, had a PhD in piano and expertly played classical music as well as church and fun music from printed music sheets. The other, a fellow in this case, couldn’t read a note but could play endlessly the old sing-a-long songs to his audiences in local Kansas City bars. I think they were both jealous of the other. But which was the most entertaining? I will leave that for others to answer.
W.R. Nelson, of course, was WILLIAM ROCKHILL NELSON, the owner and publisher of the afternoon Kansas City STAR and of themorning Kansas City TIMES. After Nelson’s death in about 1915 (I should look up the exact date), the Nelson-Atkins Museum was built on the site of his home and actually incorporated a room of his house in the museum as I recall.
Also after Nelson’s death, his daughter and her husband, a “Count” she met in Europe, took over the management of both papers for a number of years. After her death, the “Count” arranged for the sale of both papers to the newspapers’ employees. The Count also sold his and Nelson’s daughter’s family home for the Rockhill Country Clubhouse on Rockhill Road.
Finally about 1970 or so, the Star Times owner employees sold out to the _______ company that, in turn, recently sold to McClatchey Company. Also about 1970, the K.C. Times banner was retired.
Somewhat similar story to the Wichita EAGLE and Wichita BEACON newspapers here in Wichita.
I probably should check dates better but a little rushed for time.
Speaking of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, as a Shawnee Indian history buff, I once visited there to view George Catlin’s painting of Tenskwatawa, brother of Tecumseh. Even though two paintings of Tenskwatwa exist, supposedly by different artists, no real artist drawn portraits exist of Tecumseh … a major vacuum in Shawnee Indian history.
And some writers write without attempting to footnote their work, notably newspaper writers and of course TV reporters. But academic writers virtually footnote every breath they take.
But I found your rather thorough comments to be enlightening.
The Star was sold by its employee owners to Capital Cities in 1977, and then sold again to the Knight Ridder chain in 1997.
It irritated me several years ago to discover you couldn’t subscribe to or buy from newstands the KC Star here on weekdays because Tony Ridder and company out in San Jose, California didn’t want to see WE revenues “cannabilized”. The Star, despite its Missouri location, had extensive coverage of events in Topeka because the Star was the single largest-selling newspaper in northeast Kansas. The WE lacked the Star’s coverage of events in our capital, despite being a sister paper with free access to Star stories.
Why should a California corporation have been empowered to decide what news residents of Kansas’s largest city were privileged to read, particularly about events in their own legislature?
With web publication of the Star that’s water under the bridge, but it exemplified Wichita’s information isolation, enforced by “deciders” who didn’t even live here.
I wish some wealthy entrepreneur in the U.S. (please not the world’s richest man from Mexico)would purchase the Wichita EAGLE newspaper from the McClatchey Corporation and operate it as an independent stand-alone newspaper.
There might be other productive associations such as with the Kansas City STAR (K.C. and JoCo news) or the Topeka CAPITAL newspaper (for political news) or with the Hutchinson _____ newspaper for outstate Kansas news.
I suppose this kind of talk makes people nervous. Perhaps the EAGLE’s opinion editors should sponsor a public forum requesting ideas for changes that would increase readership in this age of competition from web pages, computers, TV, radio, neighborhood publications and even school papers. TV 5’s new weekly CITY PAPER is running very interesting articles and provides a forum for opposing views.
The inability of an independent newspaper to thrive here is really disconcerting, such as the recent demise of the City Paper (and F5 before it). Often those papers really drive progressive political change and activism as well as focus on cultural news and happenings.
Resubmitted: even the name “Museum of World Treasures” is a false premise, one that surely is part of the Kardatzkes’ strategy.
“Collection of Replicas of World Treasures” would be more appropriate. I refuse to be nice about this, because I believe that they are intentionally misleading the public.
The city is right not to support MWT until it is honest about what it is and what it has.
The museum does not work on city or county money like other museums in town. It is Also doing better then most so they must be doing it right.
Not defending MWT, but a lot of museums display reconstructions or remodeled artifacts. One reason the article is too valuable to be displayed, another reason is that the artifact was only found in parts and not the whole.
This applies especially to dinosaur bones.
Lot of the older museums did massive taxidermy work and creative modifications on existing wildlife displays. “They also got it wrong” a lot on dinosaur displays.
Just recently, the T.Rex walking mode was found to be incorrect. Does this mean that it will be reconstructed in every museum?- Probably not.
I agree, Republican, that’s true about dinosaurs. Honesty should be the rule, though, not something MPS had to ask the owner about directly.
Delsol: I have always enjoyed the variety of offerings at the Museum of World Treasures. I guess I wasn’t particularly concerned that I was or wasn’t viewing originals. And on one trip there, Dr. K himself escorted us past the displays and explained them.
On the other hand, lets talk about Exploration Place. During the first four or five years, I purchased an annual membership in Exploration Place. Even so, several incidents changed my opinion of the place from positive to negative.
Early on, I made some suggestion to the director or assistant director. Their response was, “We are funded by private donations by individuals not by taxes or taxpayers … so we don’t have to listen to the public’s opinions.”
I also noticed there were few adult resource people available to discuss anything with. Perhaps the quasi-funeral atmosphere was purposely designed into the experience.
Another time, questions were raised about the atmosphere of Mars. One of the questions was how much oxygen is contained in Mars’ atmosphere and could a human being lying very still survive on that oxygen? Remember the Earth’s atmosphere contains about 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen and 1% “other.” We requested to talk with the solar system expert who was on the paid staff of Exploration Place. As we stood there, we noticed staff peeking out the cracked door, nervous staffers going in and out, and so forth. Finally the word was returned, “No, the expert is busy on other projects.” Never did get the answer.
Also at the beginning I liked to visit the minature Kansas village which contained a small town, railroad tracks, a carnival, a road exiting the village up over a hill on the horizon, etc. It was a neat display.
But look more closely there and elsewhere in Exploration Place. Most of the explanation signs were mis-spelled and sentences mis-structured. And this was a place that was supposed to be a bastion of culture and intelligence. Sorry, wrong again.
Several public meetings were held at Exploration Place to observe some kind of space event. Season ticket holders were supposedly given first choice in seating in the theaters. However, City staff, friends and hangers-on were allowed in first, filling the theater seating. Season ticket holders were relegated to temporary seating in the first floor hallway. I walked out.
That’s when I gave up my annual season ticket and haven’t returned since.
And consider the weather-resistant signage at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium which depicts successes and successful players at L-D stadium over the years. The public buys tickets to get into the stadium to watch games. The City staff, admittedly by lottery, gets to attend free, sitting in the skyboxes of L-D stadium. When I asked a city councilman or was it the city manager, I was told, “Of course, because the CITY owns the stadium.” I responded, “No the taxpayers do” but don’t think he heard me as he raced upstairs.
Points taken, JWink.I have issue with the way many things are done at city venues too…I am not very fond of WAM, for example (you may have read recently about Stephen Gleissner, the curator, devloping a big collection of Steuben glass? THere’s a reason nobody’s interested in Steuben glass: it’s second rate stuff and aesthetically marginal at best).
But I know their artifacts are the real deal, so at least there’s that.