An art museum and a children's museum have opened within the past several years in Northwest Arkansas. Could a planetarium and science center become the region's next big attraction?
Supporting STEM and Space, a group organized in 2014 by Katherine Auld, wants one. The group's vision is a facility featuring a 200-seat planetarium, an IMAX theater and a wide range of hands-on science exhibits, said Auld, an adjunct faculty member at Northwest Arkansas Community College.
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To learn more about Supporting STEM and Space, visit nwa.space.
She also mentioned the goal of including a robotics lab, a 3-D printing lab and space dedicated to certain scientific subjects making headlines.
A timeline for the project, listed on the Supporting STEM and Space website, targets 2019 as the year of the science center's grand opening. Auld acknowledged the timeline is very optimistic, given the project she envisions would cost about $30 million, according to her estimate.
"But the idea is, if we don't push and dream, then we're just going to stand still," she said.
The nonprofit organization has raised only a couple of thousand dollars so far but hasn't launched any kind of formal fundraising campaign.
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Auld, who has a doctorate in space and planetary sciences, said she has talked about the need for a planetarium in Northwest Arkansas for about six years.
"About two years ago, I said to myself, if I don't do something, then we're never going to have a planetarium locally," she said.
That's when she launched Supporting STEM and Space. The organization earned nonprofit status in May. It consists of a board of directors of 12 people. Auld is board chairwoman.
The board's members include University of Arkansas faculty members, Wal-Mart employees and teachers from local public schools.
Larry Cooper, a science teacher at Springdale High School, is a board member. He compared the potential impact of a science center to the impact Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has had on Northwest Arkansas.
"Everybody has seen the benefit to the area of Crystal Bridges. Having Crystal Bridges has improved the area tremendously," Cooper said. "Our idea is, just like families in Northwest Arkansas deserve a first-class art museum, they also deserve a first-class science center."
Supporting STEM and Space has been working on other initiatives. The group just finished a fundraiser to provide telescopes to a few local libraries. Members also set up telescopes on Dickson Street in Fayetteville about once a month and invite passers-by to take a close look at planets or the moon. They visit schools and appear at events such as First Friday in Bentonville.
"We have a long way to go to build a building, but we figured the best way to do that is to start doing our mission, which is to support education in Northwest Arkansas," Auld said.
The planetarium closest to Northwest Arkansas is in Tulsa, Okla. The University of Central Arkansas in Conway and Henderson State University in Arkadelphia have the only functional planetariums in the state.
The University of Arkansas used to have one, according to Claud Lacy, physics professor and chairman of the university's astronomy program.
State Rep. Stephen Meeks, a Republican from Greenbrier, raised enough money last summer to buy a Starlab portable planetarium, which he intends to take to schools and community events around the state. The portable planetarium projects images of stars, planets and constellations throughout a domed room, which is inflatable.
"It is an analog system, so I'm currently working in my spare time to raise the money to upgrade it to a digital system. About $3,000 is what I need for a basic digital," Meeks wrote in an email.
There is evidence of interest in astronomy among Northwest Arkansas residents. The Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area hosts evening astronomy programs for the public several times per year in partnership with the Sugar Creek Astronomical Society. An average of about 100 people have turned out for each program over the past seven years.
That's despite the fact some of those nights have been overcast and people must drive a hilly, winding Arkansas 12 for miles to reach the park, according to Steve Chyrchel, interpretive naturalist at Hobbs.
Mike Harvey, interim president of the Northwest Arkansas Council, said an attraction such as a science center supports the council's mission of attracting and retaining more talent for businesses in the region.
Harvey said the millennial generation -- typically defined as those born between 1980 and 2000 -- is more likely to let quality of life in a particular place steer their job choices rather than the actual job opportunities, he said.
What the region does in terms of building a set of amenities is "more important than it's ever been," he said.
Auld said she takes inspiration from those involved in starting the Scott Family Amazeum, a children's museum that opened in Bentonville in 2015. Community leaders began conversations about building a children's museum in the area nearly a decade before that.
"We've had several conversations with people from the Amazeum about, what do I do next," Auld said. "The only way we're going to raise the kind of money we need to raise is if the community says, 'Oh, we need that.'"
NW News on 01/23/2017