In announcing a major renovation and expansion of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the institution embarks on their first significant fundraising campaign in their 90-year history, planning to raise $125 million by 2017-2020.
The transformation will include a complete renovation of their laboratories, formerly housed in the basement and out of sight of the public, which will become integrated with their galleries and accessible to visitors.
Cool Cleveland was fortunate enough to have access to their basement labs, and had created a number of video interviews with CMNH scientists:
* Archeology in Action with Dr. Brian Redmond, the curator of Archaeology displaying 2000 year-old artifacts discovered at the Hopewell culture in Southern Ohio. View the video here.
* Go Birding in Northeast Ohio with Dr. Andy Jones, Ph.D., Curator of Ornithology, showing off some of CMNH’s collection of over 30,000 bird specimens. View the video here.
* Dr. Evalyn Gates, soon after she became Executive Director and CEO of CMNH, discussing her her new book, “Einstein’s Telescope,” her background at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and her goals for the renovation and expansion of CMNH. View the video here.
The museum’s new design will also enhance how they display and showcase the 5000+ acres of natural land it stewards as part of its conservation mission. Their Thelma and Kent H. Smith Environmental Courtyard will expand and more actively engage visitors, with educational classrooms right off the courtyard.
Directing the fundraising effort will be A. Chace Anderson, the Museum’s board president and a partner of CM Wealth Advisors, and Museum trustee James L. Hambrick, chairman, president and CEO of The Lubrizol Corp., along with honorary chairs Scott R. Inkley, M.D., of Chagrin Falls, a pulmonologist who became chief of staff and later CEO of University Hospitals of Cleveland; Bobbie Brown, Ph.D., of Chardon, president of The Louise H. and David S. Ingalls Foundation, who studied biological anthropology and taught anatomy at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (Northeast Ohio Medical University); and Harvey Webster of Kirtland, a biologist and wildlife conservationist, a longtime staff member of the Museum who heads its Wildlife Resources Division, all of whom credit their careers in science to their early experiences at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.