Thinking Big

The biggest change atop Museum Hill in west-central Davenport has been the opening of the Putnam Museum's new 270-seat IMAX theatre, with its contemporary glass-dominated architecture dwarfing the adjacent history-and-natural-science museum and the Davenport Museum of Art.

The IMAX film Journey into Amazing Caves has been the focus of public attention since it opened last month, and for obvious reasons: The adventure following the exploits of a pair of cave explorers is projected onto a five-story-by-seven-story screen and uses extremely active surround sound to plunge viewers into the action.

Yet plenty of other changes accompanied the theatre's opening on March 16. The flow and layout of the Putnam have been changed, in large part because of the facility's new entrance. Parts of the museum - such as the store and the Discovery Room - have been moved, and a "connections gallery" now greets visitors to show them what to expect on the museum side.

But those are largely cosmetic changes that have resulted from the 39,000-square-foot addition of the IMAX Theatre to the 76,000-square-foot museum. Putnam management expects that what visitors have seen in the past month is just the first part of a larger process that they hope will transform Museum Hill.

"The IMAX is really the first step in a long-range plan," said Christopher J. Reich, director and CEO of the Putnam Museum & IMAX Theatre. Reich calls the IMAX Theatre the "catalyst" that will help turn Museum Hill into a "family-based destination" that features not only the Putnam but the Fejervary Zoo and aquatic park.

The plan includes the modernization of Putnam exhibits and an expansion into the current Davenport Museum of Art facility, which is owned by the City of Davenport. (The Davenport Museum of Art will open the Figge Arts Center facility downtown in 2005.) In the long run, Reich said, the Putnam hopes to use its lower level for storage of its collection, while moving the Asian/Egyptian gallery to the Davenport Museum of Art Building and possibly opening a Bix Beiderbecke exhibit there, as well. Ken Hershberger, the Putnam's director of development and marketing, said the museum wants to add "more and more interactive exhibits."

The plan is ambitious, and it's predicated on the success of the IMAX.

The IMAX Impact

But the IMAX is more important to the Putnam - and the community - than just paving the way for museum expansion. The Putnam's continued viability, to a large extent, hinges on whether the IMAX draws new people to the museum. "The success of the IMAX is critical to the success of the Putnam," Reich said.

In that way, Reich said, the $14.2 million addition of the IMAX was a calculated gamble. (The museum has raised all but $2 million of the IMAX cost.) "Any venture is risky," he said. "It would [have] be[en] riskier for us to do nothing."

In an e-mail message, Reich added: "We have made a strategic decision to take this risk because our board and staff felt it would be a greater risk to continue on the same path given all the dynamic things going on throughout the Quad Cities."

In other words, the Putnam might not have been able to survive financially in the long run by continuing the status quo.

Operations of the Putnam are supported by both the Putnam Estate, which Reich calls the museum's "endowment fund," and the Putnam Memorial Fund. Reich declined to discuss the endowment's contributions to the Putnam but said part of the reason the museum decided to pursue an IMAX theatre was to "reduce our dependence on our endowment fund." The IMAX is a revenue source to underwrite the costs of educational and preservation programs, Reich said.

The Putnam Memorial Fund has contributed just less than $1 million from 1998 through 2000 to "further the museum's scientific and educational exhibits," according to federal tax records. In 2000, the most recent year available, the Putnam Memorial Fund contributed $400,000 to the Putnam Museum. During the year, the fund's assets dropped from $2.58 million to $2.21 million. Reich said the $400,000 contribution from the Putnam Memorial Fund included $200,000 to underwrite operational expenses and $200,000 toward the IMAX theatre.

It's not surprising that the Putnam relies on outside funding for support. The Davenport Museum of Art and the Family Museum of Arts & Science, after all, are run by the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf, respectively. "The Putnam is not a governmental agency and does not receive any kind of annual operational support from tax dollars," Reich said in an e-mail.

According to Reich, the addition of the IMAX theatre will balloon the Putnam's operation budget from approximately $1.3 million in fiscal year 2000-1 to $2.0 million during the current fiscal year (which ends April 30) to an expected $3.5 million in 2002-3. The museum's staff has doubled in the course of just a few weeks, from approximately 30 to the current 60, which includes 49 full-time and 11 part-time employees. "We've had to add people to the exhibit side," Reich said. "It's not just the theatre."

In addition to providing a boost to the Putnam's bottom line, the IMAX theatre could also help the economy of the entire community. Charlotte Doehler-Morrison, vice president of marketing and communications for the Quad Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the IMAX is one of seven new Quad Cities attractions - including the expanded airport and the new John Deere Collectors Center - that are being touted in the organization's literature.

She said the bureau will probably have a sense of the impact of the IMAX on the area's convention and visitors trade in a year, but it will surely draw more people to the area. "The more we have to boast about in our area, the better the package" that can be presented to potential visitors and conventions, she said. Because of its focus on local history, she said, the Putnam "has always been one of the major attractions for visitors to the area."

The IMAX, in conjunction with other amenities, could also be a draw for businesses looking to locate in the area. "I do think it will make a difference," said Thom Hart, president of the Quad City Development Group.

Exceeding Projections

In its first 19 days, the Putnam's IMAX theatre had 19,611 visitors, "significantly above" projections, Reich said.

That's an understatement. The theatre was supposed to open March 1 and was expected to draw approximately 16,900 people during the month. Instead, it opened in the middle of the month and still beat projections, hosting 17,437 people through March 31.

In its first year, the Putnam projects that the IMAX theatre will draw 247,500 visitors. After three years, the number of patrons is expected to settle at 212,000 a year.

With an average ticket price of $6.50, admissions to the IMAX alone should bring the Putnam at least $1.3 million a year in additional revenue, without even bringing concessions into the picture.

Reich said the Putnam's goal is to draw a quarter of IMAX visitors to the museum side of the building - bringing at least 50,000 new visits to exhibits each year. According to Hershberger, the Putnam drew approximately 70,000 visitors in fiscal year 2000-1. Reich said the Putnam has averaged about 60,000 visitors a year over the past five years.

If the museum does draw a quarter of IMAX patrons to Putnam exhibits, the museum portion of the joint-admission tickets would add at least $125,000 a year to museum coffers.

But just as the IMAX has exceeded expectations, a much greater percentage of patrons are checking out the museum side of the Putnam when they see Journey into Amazing Caves. Although exact figures aren't available, Hershberger estimated that 60 to 70 percent of IMAX attendees have bought joint-admission tickets. "We're sure we exceeded our goal," he said.

Reich said the Putnam hopes that many IMAX patrons will re-acquaint themselves with the museum, and perhaps change their perceptions of it. The museum's permanent exhibits include an extensive collection of Asian and Egyptian artifacts, a history of the Quad Cities, and interactive exhibits about the area's ecosystems.

"We saw it [the IMAX theatre] as an opportunity to reinvent the image of the museum," Reich said. "There are so many people who haven't been here in 10 years."

The IMAX is part of a larger effort - including a new colorful, more whimsical logo - to change perceptions of the museum. "The word we use in the plan is 'fun,'" Reich said. The Putnam is also fighting its very name, he added, saying, "Somehow the word ['museum'] itself is a barrier" that keeps people away.

But is that something the IMAX itself can do?

"Joint admission" tickets to one IMAX screening and the museum's exhibits add $2.50 to the cost of an IMAX - a half-price admission to the Putnam for adults, essentially, but only a 50-cent discount for children.

That could be intentional. Reich said the Putnam typically does a good job drawing families with young children and attracting senior citizens. The people the museum has been missing have been teenagers and young adults without children. And Reich sees some encouraging signs with early IMAX attendance; junior- and senior-high-school groups have been attending screenings. "That's another bonus for us," Reich said.

So far, all signs are positive that the Putnam will be able to follow through with its expansion plans, some of which are already progressing. The museum got a $9,300 National Endowment for the Humanities grant to explore the concept of a permanent Bix Beiderbecke exhibit that could be housed in the current Davenport Museum of Art. The Putnam should hear this summer whether it will receive a planning grant for the exhibit.

The Putnam also hopes to move exhibits on its lower level into other spaces, perhaps the Davenport Museum of Art site. In that scenario, the Putnam's lower floor would be turned into a "collection-management facility." The shift would also improve the layout of the Putnam, Reich said. "The traffic flow here is both confusing and fun," he said charitably.

For the time being, though, the Putnam is basking in the early success of the IMAX.

"The question we asked was: 'If we build it, will they come?'" Hershberger said. "And boy, have they."

Click here for a review of Journey Into Amazing Caves.

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