Roberson Museum and Science Center expanding its exhibits, attracting new visitors

The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin featured a recent article on the Roberson Museum and recent efforts there:

The Roberson has an unrivaled collection, inspired exhibits and a long pedigree as a museum.

Still, Roberson Museum and Science Center leaders say all that means nothing without one crucial element: visitors.

"The greatest measure of success is through-the-door traffic," said Terry McDonald, Roberson's executive director. "It's a measure of whether we're doing what we need to do for the community."

The museum staff and its board must be doing something right. Countering years of stagnating attendance and decreased funding, museum attendance is up 23 percent from last year

This year, 6,069 patrons have visited the 30 Front St. landmark, compared to 4,919 last year, said Jason Fiume, the museum's marking manager.

The 2010 attendance number doesn't include the more than 4,000 people who came to the museum's newly resurrected two-day arts and crafts festival in September, Fiume said.

Nor does it include the number of students who pass through the museum on group visits. That number is also up, museum officials said. During the 2009-2010 school year, 7,753 students visited. The previous school year, 7,730 students came.
Numbers are also up for school outreach initiatives, from 9,775 in 2008-2009 to 12,450 in 2009-2010.

"This is a significant increase from the previous year," Fiume said.
But there's more work to be done.

Tradition, innovation
Museum leaders must essentially serve two masters: tradition and innovation.

Friday, the museum's venerable Home for the Holidays exhibit formally opens. As it has for decades, the exhibit features holiday trees decorated in the traditions of other countries, along with trees decorated by local nonprofits and other organizations.

The Roberson mansion part of the museum is lushly decorated for Christmas -- and visited every year through Jan. 2 -- in what has become a Binghamton tradition for local families. The museum's planetarium will offer its decades-old shows featuring the Christmas star on equipment dating from the 1960s.

Updating the planetarium is one of three initiatives planned for next year.
Read more here.