Monday marks one year since Mid-America Science Museum reopened following a multimillion dollar renovation, and attendance is rivaling its best years.
"We've had a 35-percent increase over the average of the last three years, so that is really good, and our best decade was in the 1980s and we're rivaling that. It's really wonderful to have that kind of attendance," Diane LaFollette, executive director, said Friday.
"We're having a lot more school groups, and we're really targeting them. We've had school groups come in months when we've historically hardly had any at all, so we're seeing schools come and a lot of families are coming out as well," she said.
The museum received a $7.8 million capital grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation in November 2011 to renovate its buildings and exhibits, and had to raise $1.6 million in matching funds. The facility closed to the public in August 2014 as construction began.
Jim Miller, director of marketing, said December was a record month for attendance, and the museum has been getting excellent feedback.
"Individuals that have not been to the museum in years have come back for the first time since we reopened and they have experienced all the new exhibits. They are just blown away by how state-of-the-art everything is now and the advancements we've made in the museum and the (Bob Wheeler Science) Skywalk," he said.
"They are impressed by the overall layout of the new museum, but they also get nostalgic because we still have a lot of the original exhibits that we've always had on the floor."
In addition to the old, familiar exhibits, visitors can interact with many new exhibits, Miller said.
"A lot of them are bringing their kids for the first time, even though they grew up coming here. So it's really nostalgic and they get a warm feeling when they return to the museum and they see that it's doing well. I think it's good for the community to see us doing well and people appreciate coming back to Hot Springs," he said.
LaFollette said many museum visitors put their comments on http://www.Tripadvisor.com, a travel website company that provides reviews of travel-related content, and the reviews "have been great."
"People from New York have commented that there is nothing like this in New York, and it's really amazing. We've had some high praise, so the renovation has really been well-received. The things we're doing because of the renovation are a lot more pertinent today," she said.
During March, Miller said the museum staff wants to incorporate things that might appeal to locals and visitors that haven't visited the museum since its grand reopening.
"We will have food trucks here on March 12, 19, and 26, and we've also got our new Oaklawn Foundation Digital Dome Theater shows that we're doing. We've got 'Intergalactic, a Space Odyssey,' which is a program that our education department created where you go on a flyby tour of the entire solar system and that is really interesting.
"We'll also have 'Flying Monsters,' narrated by David Attenborough and produced by National Geographic, which is about the pterosaur, a flying dinosaur, and it's an excellent precursor to our upcoming traveling exhibit, 'Dinosaurs Revealed.' That will open Memorial Day weekend and is the first temporary exhibit since we reopened and we're excited about that," Miller said.
LaFollette said instead of having the dinosaur exhibit in just one area, it will be spread throughout the museum.
"We're acting like the entire museum is a traveling gallery. We'll have them outside in front, outside in back, and throughout the entire museum. We'll have animatronic dinosaurs, dinosaur digs, bones, the dome show, and the entire thing is going to be about dinosaurs. We'll probably even have dinosaur ice cream," she said.
In addition, current museum members can renew or purchase a new family membership for $75, which is a $10 savings, and receive two special bring-a-friend passes and a $10 museum store gift card only available during March.
The museum will also provide a special discount for Museum of Discovery members. All MoD members who show their membership card to the museum's guest services department will pay $5 for general admission.
LaFollette said the museum has secured overflow parking this year at National Park College and at the former National Guard Armory, both just a short walk from the museum.
Miller and LaFollette both said the top attractions since reopening have been the Rain and Terrain 3D graphical mapping table, which is unique to the museum and in limited numbers across the country, the water sculpture exhibit and the skywalk.
Local on 03/06/2016