The flap over replacing the popular Coyote Point Museum for Environmental Education with a center focused on global climate change may end up strengthening the embattled museum and giving it new momentum to reorganize and improve.
In the six weeks since they learned the museum’s site might be taken over by the secretive 11th Hour Project for a new climate center to educate the public on global warming, museum supporters say they have raised some $415,000 in pledges from more than 500 donors to cut the deficit and renovate the facility.
Meanwhile, on August 22, the 11th Hour Project withdrew its proposal to build the climate center on the knoll overlooking San Francisco Bay, now leased by the museum from San Mateo County for $1 a year.
In an announcement the Almanac received from the county, which received it from a reporter, Joe Sciortino of the 11th Hour Project said his group is considering “a variety of potential sites in the Bay Area for the climate center.”
Linda Lanier, who co-chairs the Campaign to Save Coyote Point Museum, said the community “has spoken loud and clear how they value the museum.”
The other co-chair is Linda Liebes of Atherton, who was the museum’s executive director from 1982 to 1996.
Museum supporters will gather at Coyote Point Park at 6 p.m. Thursday, August 31, to celebrate. “Bring your children and your grandchildren and a picnic,” said Ms. Lanier. “We’ll provide drinks and chips.”
The controversy erupted after the 11th Hour Project, fueled by Silicon Valley money, approached the county last spring, and persuaded the museum board to close the museum, which was losing money and needed major renovation.
Nothing came out in public until after the board announced to the museum staff in July that the museum would close in September, and they were to find homes for the animals housed there or euthanize them.
When that announcement leaked to the press, it caused what San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill called a firestorm, as supporters of the museum rallied to save it.
Ms. Lanier and Ms. Liebes have promised to present a proposal to the museum board on September 1 to put the museum on a sound financial basis and renovate its exhibits. The museum board plans to consider the committee’s proposal at its September 5 meeting.
Board President Rob Thomas promised to work with the committee. “We are very enthusiastic about the new energy that has emerged from the campaign’s efforts, and will do everything we can to make the proposal a success,” he said. “The museum’s mission is to inspire each of us to make a lifelong commitment and act responsibly in caring for the earth.”
