July 04, 2008

Let's build the Wisconsin Idea Science Center

Tom Zinnen UW-Madison/Extension

The Quick Pitch for a Public Science Venue

The heart of Madison is in the final stages of a remarkable decade of new buildings and expanded institutions:

(Click on word for link; camera for picture)

Looking on the cultural fabric of the community, we have fabulous venues:
Overture for performing arts Elvehjem Museum for fine arts Camp Randall for football Kohl Center for basketball and hockey Monona Terrace for conventions
The Memorial Union Terrace for lakeside gatherings. The Capitol Square for the Farmers Market and Concerts on the Square The Veterans Museum The State Historical Museum A growing Olbrich Botanical Gardens The Arboretum for research and recreation. The Children's Museum The Vilas Zoo free for the enjoyment of all ages.

But There is A Big Hole in Our Culture: where is our science center for informing, involving and engaging the public in the innovations, insights and controversies of the scientific enterprise?

The impulse to fund and build a science center has been fermenting for a long time. In 1997 a group suggested turning the Orpheum Theater into a science museum and IMAX theater. In 1998 several colleagues and I proposed to renovate the historic UW Dairy Barn into a Museum of Living Sciences, a project that would give a vigorous future to a venerable building--a building that is arguably one of the cradles of discovery of vitamins, and an icon of our agricultural heritage. (See the 1998 website and see Wis State Journal, November 22, 1998, page 1C.)

But these proposals stalled.

The Big Hole is also a Big Opportunity: No city the size of Madison and no university of the caliber of UW-Madison have jointly built a science center on campus that could leverage the research and extension traditions of the university and the creative impulse of the community, to welcome all the people of a state.

Imagine a place to welcome people of all ages to campus every day, in an organized way, to experience science as exploring the unknown — within a community of researchers!

One should not underestimate the cost, the years, the sweat and the frustration that will be borne to build and to keep such a place financially solvent and intellectually vibrant for generations to come. But are we not up to the task?

Let's build the Wisconsin Idea Science Center, and with the extra "W" we can better enjoy The Big Whole of Our Culture.

Links on the Wisconsin Idea

Last updated January 28, 2005

Contact: Tom Zinnen Dave Nelson webmaster