Hall of Science adapts to realities of business life; Expansion, new emphasis on marketing.

Publication: Crain's New York Business

Publication Date: 29-JAN-01

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2001 Crain Communications, Inc.

Last month, the New York Hall of Science tried to auction off a specially designed manhole cover on eBay, which was donated by Con Edison.

The bids on eBay came in lower than the asking price of $5,000, so now the Hall of Science is shopping the manhole cover-designed for the new millennium and called ``Global Energy''-to the major auction houses in New York City.

``It's called creative fund-raising,'' says Alan J. Friedman, the museum's director since 1984. ``We need to learn how to be entrepreneurs.''

Hidden treasure

Since Mr. Friedman took the helm of the flailing science and technology center in Corona Park, Queens, originally built for the 1964-65 World's Fair, it has gained a leading reputation among science educators nationwide. But an out-of-the-way location and little attention to marketing have kept the Hall of Science out of the limelight enjoyed by...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.