Explore Our New Backyard! Letter to Our Supporters CONNECTIONS SPECIAL EXPANSION EDITION 2019 Campaign Update
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The North Education Center expansion Special Expansion Edition at The Bishop is now open — 2019 Explore Our New Backyard! Letter to Our Supporters CONNECTIONS SPECIAL EXPANSION EDITION 2019 Campaign Update ON THE COVER The bark of the Ralph S. French Charitable Foundation Mighty Oak in the new Mosaic Backyard Universe was hand sculpted over a steel frame. The result is an oak so realistic you’ll wonder whether A Grand Students from Myakka Building the Best Backyard the tree grew inside City Elementary were the our new Backyard! first group of kids to try Celebration out the Mosaic Backyard Universe on Oct. 1. What a fantastic, exciting year this has been for the Museum! We launched The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature our new logo and name, The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, we celebrated the major expansion of the North celebrated the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with special events in Education Center and Mosaic Backyard Universe our revitalized Planetarium and, now, we’ve opened our new wing: the North with a special preview party on Sept. 24 and the Education Center with its cornerstone exhibition, the Mosaic Backyard Universe! grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 1. I couldn’t be more pleased to share this special issue of our newsletter, Connections, that is focused on our expansion. The renovation that we began planning in 2011 and undertook in earnest with the kickoff of our Connect Capital Campaign in 2015 has resulted in 1 new classrooms and the Backyard, a permanent exhibition that is a major new contribution to the educational landscape of the region. We now have 201 10th St. W., BOARD OF TRUSTEES Bradenton, FL 34205 a robust way to serve younger children and their families — the students Brian Carter who come as part of school or youth groups as well as the thousands of 941.746.4131 PRESIDENT families who visit from our surrounding communities and as tourists to our www.BishopScience.org Matthew J. Lapointe [email protected] VICE PRESIDENT region. In addition, our expansion will have big impacts on our community’s tourism and economic sectors. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. John V. Quinlan Tuesday-Saturday VICE PRESIDENT We couldn’t have done it without the donors who helped make it all Jennifer Turner Gans possible, especially The Mosaic Company Foundation, which encouraged Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday SECRETARY us to dream big when we began planning for the Museum’s future. Along Chris Perkins Closed on Mondays, the TREASURER the way, others joined in to support our success. We now have the Willis first Saturday in 2 Smith Construction Classroom Suite, which will allow us to expand our November, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and Elizabeth Baran programming, including field trips and homeschool classes. The Ralph S. New Year’s Day. Dr. Jennifer Bencie French Charitable Foundation supported the Mighty Oak and the Manatee Raymond Dweck Charles F. Elzer III River Garden Club supported our landscaping. CORPORATE PARTNERS Dr. LeMoyne Johnson But we’re not finished yet! Already we’re looking forward to the next Marti King 5 phase of our expansion: the outdoor components that will become a part of Blake Medical Center Raj Mathur BMO Harris Bank Michael C. Moore the Backyard. Thanks to the Founders Garden Club of Sarasota, we’ve already Bradenton Herald Cristina Najmy started and have installed raised planting beds, which marks the beginning Manatee Herald-Tribune Spurgeon Nisbett Mosaic of our next phase of progress. Christopher Peacock NetWeave Social Andrew Smith I hope you’ll join me in thanking all of our supporters — from the Networking Ryan Thomas Manatee County Board of County Commissioners, to the City of Bradenton, Northern Trust Gary Tibbetts SRQ Media Alisa Westberry the state of Florida and the many private foundations and individuals — WUSF Public Media Charles Zajaczkowski 4 who shared and supported our vision for the future of the Museum. (Please 3 see the full list on page 10.) What an incredible milestone this is for The Bishop and for the community. On behalf of our Board of Trustees and the many, many staff THE BISHOP MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND NATURE, INC. IS A members who helped bring this vision to life, I thank you! 1 From left to right, Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston; Kelly 2 Tom Breiter, Board President when the 4 Trustee John Quinlan, supporter Bob 501(C)(3) ORGANIZATION — FEDERAL TAX I.D. #59-0598726. Blalock, former Board President Bill CONTRIBUTIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE AS ALLOWED BY Strong, Vice President, Mosaic; Brynne Anne Besio, CEO, expansion was envisioned; Current Board LAW. A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION #CH199 The Bishop; Rep. Will Robinson (R-Bradenton); Brian Carter, President Brian Carter and Bill Blalock, Blalock, Trustee Raj Mathur and current AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM President, Board of Trustees, The Bishop; Tom Breiter, former Chairman of the Connect Capital Campaign President Brian Carter. THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL- President, Board of Trustees, The Bishop; Dave Sessions, that made the expansion possible. FREE 1.800.435.7352 WITHIN THE STATE AND AT WWW. President and CEO, Willis Smith Construction; Dave Otterness, 5 Former Museum Trustee Jackie FRESHFROMFLORIDA.COM. REGISTRATION DOES NOT Vice President, Willis Smith Construction; Bill Blalock, former CEO Brynne Anne Besio and Eleana Hall Barron, Public Affairs and Media IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION 3 Brynne Anne Besio BY THE STATE. THIS ORGANIZATION RETAINS 100% OF ALL President of the Board of Trustees and former Chair of the (center) with members of The Bishop’s Strategy Manager, Mosaic, with Mosaic Chief Executive Officer CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED. Connect Capital Campaign, The Bishop. Board of Trustees. Vice President of Minerals, Kelly Strong. Mosaic Backyard Universe SPECIAL EXPANSION EDITION 2019 CONNECTIONS 4 1 5 6 2 5. THE SCIENCE SHED 6. THE CARDBOARD 1. THE RALPH S. 2. THE DIG PIT 4. THE TREE HOUSE ROCKET FRENCH CHARITABLE PLATFORM Take discovery to the Explorers can dig in and FOUNDATION next level by using Remember that examine the Earth’s This discovery platform MIGHTY OAK scientific tools to refrigerator box you past in a search for nestled next to the explore the Backyard. used to make your This 30-foot-tall fossils. Mighty Oak’s canopy Inside, you can also own rocket ship when beautiful sculpted steel includes binoculars and check out Learning you were a kid? Ours tree is a masterpiece of a telescope perfect for Expeditions, backpacks takes that to the next mimicry with each bit of 3. THE POND viewing the realistic stocked with supplies level using immersive bark and each individual solar system in the and tools to help you media that allows you The freshwater Pond is leaf hand-crafted to Backyard’s ‘sky.’ The explore astronomy, to take off on virtual home to some real- imitate the live oaks Platform is accessible biology, engineering, adventures of your life Florida natives: found in Florida. so everyone can enjoy geology and own — from viewing Welcome freshwater plants the view. paleontology. the microscopic world and turtles — a pair of around us to the outer yellow-bellied sliders. 3 to our New reaches of the Universe! Backyard! The elements in the Mosaic Backyard Universe were reimagined from our favorite childhood memories. PHOTO BY SCOTT ODELL SPECIAL EXPANSION EDITION 2019 CONNECTIONS Mosaic Backyard Universe A Mighty Tree Grows in the Mosaic worked with Woodside and other Museum staff to learn Backyard Universe about their vision for the tree — its height, its girth, the size of its canopy — then went to work, first on an artist’s rendition and then on engineering plans that would bring their vision to life. The Mosaic Backyard Universe started with the kernel of an The Mighty Oak is a cantilevered design with a steel and idea: To create a welcoming space where kids could be free mesh structure fabricated into trunk, limbs and branches to explore, investigate and revel in the beauty of nature and built as a series of telescopically interlocking parts initially that would set the stage for future discoveries throughout built at the NatureMaker studios in California, then the Museum. disassembled, shipped and rebuilt on site. The tree bark is As staff envisioned this new space, they were rooted in a malleable, slow-curing sculpture medium developed by the idea that the first place young children are free to explore NatureMaker that was hand-applied to the structure. The on their own is often a backyard, neighborhood or park. So silk leaves — more than 100,000 of them — were also made they went to work creating the best backyard from their own and applied by hand. childhood imaginations: A Cardboard Rocket here, a Dig Pit The building process included a team of artists, engineers, there; a Science Shed on the other side and a Pond for good welders and sculptors. measure. “There were probably 20 people who helped create the Of course, they also remembered a foundational truth Oak,” Hanick said. “We don’t use molds and we have installers of childhood: The best backyards have massive trees with on site to finish the trees, to touch everything up and make custom-built tree houses. And so the centerpiece of The sure the sections blend naturally. We want to make sure that Bishop’s Backyard — the 30-foot-tall Ralph S. French every tree we design looks like it grew in place.” Charitable Foundation Mighty Oak — began to take shape. From trunk to branches, the Mighty Oak had more than “There are a lot of fabricated trees out there, but 250 sections — so many that it took two 53-foot tractor- we wanted something that was as realistic as possible; trailers to move it from the studio in California to the something that looked and felt like the live oak tree on the Museum in downtown Bradenton.