Thursday, January 16, 2025 – LOST IN A TIMEWARP OF THE 1960’S

By admin

Governor Hochul’s Proposals
Include State Museum,

Albany Waterfront

THURSDAY JANUARY16, 2025

ISSUE #1370
NEW YORK ALMANACK

January 15, 2025 by John Warren 

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said she wants to spend $400 million to revitalize Albany, including committing $150 million to the State Museum and $35 million to move soon to be announced proposals to re-imagine some of Albany’s Hudson River waterfront into the design phase.

Hochul teased the history-related proposals in her State of the State address and in press materials on Tuesday. Plans for how that money would be spent will come when the Governor’s budget proposal is released later this month.

“If it all comes true, it will be the biggest damn Christmas present to Albany in decades,” State Senator Pat Fahy told the Albany Times Union. “It’s extraordinary.”

The $150 million the New York State Museum would receive comes years after unfulfilled promises of a $14 million Museum renovation, which was supposed to include new exhibits, a wall system for the exhibition space that would make it more versatile, and interactive technology and media displays.

This new investment will be used “to renovate the New York State Museum and upgrade the exhibits to be more inviting to visitors, including families,” according to the Governor’s office.

Hochul told the Times Union that her office would convene a panel of education and tourism experts. The panel “will focus on how to best preserve the museum’s cultural and educational heritage while modernizing the space to be more appealing,” she said.

Details of the State Museum proposals provided to the Times Union did not mention the involvement of the state Education Department, which oversees the Office of Cultural Education’s State Museum, Library and Archives.

“Instead, it suggests that the state ‘identify a new operating model for the museum, returning this world-class collection to its rightful place as a point of pride for all New Yorkers.’, the Times Union reported.

Education Department spokesperson JP O’Hare told the paper: “We look forward to reviewing the governor’s proposal and will provide our feedback once we have had the opportunity to assess the details thoroughly.”

Management has been at issue at the State Museum for at least a decade, and has recently gained support for structural change the Times Union reported.

“Last summer, past and current museum employees expressed frustration about what they saw as a lack of oversight from the education department, which they said contributed to stagnation and management problems at the museum,” according to the paper.

“At the time, Fahy discussed her 2023 proposal to create an advisory body — including those from the private sector — to oversee the museum as well as the other two entities under the Office of Cultural Education: the state archives and library.”

The Governor also supported plans to include Harriet Tubman as one of New York’s representatives in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall; more funding for community centers and playgrounds statewide; and more.

COMMENT

I have visited the Albany Cultural Education Building many times while in Albany.

The building contains the NYS Archives, where RIOC historic records were relocated a few years ago since RIOC was unable to safely preserve them.

The State Library has been used many times for historic research and is located in the building. These two institutions are a great resource for historians and everyone.

The problem is the NYS Museum, an enormous space on three floors of the structure. The exhibits are out of date, rarely changed, and the animals in the dusty dioramas are on death row. There are some areas, such as the 9/11 WTC exhibit, that are so realistic you can smell the smoke that still lingers in the vehicles exhibited. In general, the museum is sad and hopefully will finally be a shining exhibit of State history and not a dusty relic of the 1960s Rockefeller development of the Capitol.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Members of the Coler Auxiliary gathered together to celebrate 2024 and plan for 2025 projects to improve residents’ lives on Wednesday.
from  left to right: Jacqueline Kwedy, Theresa Chamberlain, Judith Berdy, Marie Marie, Glorias Swaby, Mary Coleman, Emilia Ciobanu, Emmanuella Chevalier. (not shown: Moriko Betz, Khady Sene, Alida Torres, Darlene Torres)

CREDITS

 NEW YORK ALMANACK
JUDITH BERDY

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