Gail Borden to launch new space exhibit

Courier News
April 25, 2007
BY Charity Bonner Staff Writer

ELGIN -- Sometimes big ideas come from tiny people. A second-grader who came to the "GIANTS: African Dinosaurs" exhibit inspired organizers at Gail Borden Public Library when he told organizers they should do an exhibit on space.

This experience birthed the idea for "SPACE: Dare to Dream," which will open at the library on June 2. The exhibit will highlight space exploration from ancient civilizations to the time of Galileo to modern times.

SPACE will feature a multimedia presentation stretching through the rotundas on the first floor, and lacing through the youth, adult and reference sections upstairs. The exhibit escorts visitors through history from the Ancient Cosmology section, which shows how early civilizations viewed space, through the modern space age. Galileo's Studio will combine scientific displays with historic characters, when a costumed Galileo guides people through the exhibit, giving them a look through a replica of Galileo's telescope.

Presentations will be educational as well as interactive. "Mission: Read" summer reading program will open simultaneously with the exhibit to encourage literacy, and the Saturn V space shuttle will offer a pulsating rumble in a pre-launch rocket meant to simulate the view from hundreds of feet above ground.

Primary funding for the exhibit came from a $150,000 grant from the Grand Victoria Foundation, but NASA and local organizations contributed as well. NASA's contributions include large models of a lunar lander, an early computer game where the goal was to correctly land a lunar module on the surface of the moon, a Gemini rocket and a moon rock. NASA also is donating the transportation costs associated with the exhibit. Additional partnership is coming from Sci-Tech, Adler Planetarium, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the Planetary Foundation, Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art, and Orbit Elgin cultural institutions.

Evergreen Exhibits, one of the world's premier providers of traveling museum exhibits, created the exhibit. "SPACE" debuted at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle in 2003 and has been shown in places such as the Cincinnati Museum Center. This will be the seventh time the exhibit has been shown.

Community impact
Gail Borden organizers of the exhibit hope it will spur growth and more visitation to Elgin's downtown area as the "GIANTS" exhibit did in 2005 with the Elgin Area Dig It, a program where Gail Borden partnered with area businesses to encourage visitors to GIANTS to eat and shop in downtown. The exhibit attracted more than 300,000 visitors. Orbit Elgin is the new equivalent to Dig It. Visitors to the exhibit who patronize other area organizations or museums will be able to enter a raffle and win a prize. The prize for the Dig It raffle was an iPod donated by Steve and Ruth Munson.

"We intend for this exhibit to have the same spirit as 'GIANTS.' We want it to economically impact the businesses in downtown Elgin. We want everyone to share in the limelight ... This is a really nice gift, and we view it as a gift to the community, not just the library," said Denise Raleigh, Gail Borden's public information officer.

Toya Randall, the Grand Victoria Foundation's director of Elgin programs, sees the partnership as beneficial to Elgin's downtown.

"This can be the entry point which enables people to find out what else is happening in Elgin," Randall said.

Gail Borden Public Library Press Release (pdf)