Fundraising to renovate the Russell C. Davis Planetarium in downtown Jackson, which has been closed since 2018 due to a roof leak and interior damage, continues.
“We have secured over half of the funding,” said David Lewis, deputy director of cultural services for the city of Jackson. “The total of the project is $16 million, and we have raised $8.3 million.”
Potential private donors are being contacted, he said, with the hope of closing out fundraising for the project, which has been ongoing for three and half years, in the fall.
“The faster we can get people to commit to supporting the project, the faster we can get this project off the ground,” he said.
City of Jackson leaders had hoped to secure $2 million from the state this year for the project but Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed spending passed by lawmakers for upgrades to the planetarium, LeFleur’s Bluff State Park and several other earmarks lawmakers made in a massive capital projects bill.
At the time of his veto, Reeves said the planetarium, which is located at 201 E. Pascagoula St., was closed and questioned whether providing an additional $2 million would sustain the project.
Lewis said the city has been engaging in “an open dialogue” with the Legislature and governor’s office to ensure they understand the importance of the project. Plans are to ask the Legislature for funding during the 2023 session, he said.
Tourism will benefit from having a renovated planetarium, which would provide another attraction for people to visit in Jackson and give a reason to extend a stay, he said. Students will also benefit from educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering he added.
“As they get closer to going to college, students will be reminded of the cool place in Jackson that sparked their imaginations,” he said.
Downtown Jackson would benefit from the investment in the planetarium, which could possibly spur further investment, he said. The planetarium adjoins the Mississippi Arts Center on East Pascagoula Street and is a short walk from Thalia Mara Hall and the Mississippi Museum of Art.
Hopkins Construction has completed demolition of the interior of the planetarium, which allowed for remediation of mold that grew after the roof leak.
The project calls for installing new exhibitions around the outside of the planetarium theater, Lewis said. The projector and screen in the theater are in good shape.
In the plans, the second floor, which has been used as office space, will be gutted and turned into an adaptive learning space with an open floor plan and equipped with furniture that can be moved according to its use.
An exhibit about Mississippi’s space program would be located on the second floor.
Astronaut Ronald McNair, who died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986, spent two years at the Davis Planetarium learning what he needed to know to become the first orbital cinematographer.
A new atrium that will connect with the Mississippi Arts Center and provide a new entrance off East Pascagoula Street will give the planetarium higher visibility. “This will be a more celebrated entrance,” Lewis said.
“All that’s left to do are construction documents and one design phase of the exhibition,” Lewis said.
Cooke Douglass Farr Lemons Architects + Engineers is providing architectural design services and Falcon’s Treehouse LLC, which specializes in themed entertainment design, is handling exhibit design.
Falcon’s Treehouse has provided services for institutions such as the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at Cape Canaveral and the Singapore Science Center.
Lewis and Mike Williams, managing director of the planetarium, have visited Falcon’s Treehouse. Falcon’s Treehouse, which provides design work for theme parks as well as museums, has the ability “to merge education and storytelling to flip that experience on its head,” Lewis said.
Lewis said he and Williams experienced that when they visited Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
“We saw the exhibit they had designed called “Heroes and Legends,” sponsored by Boeing,” he said. “It was a project where they renovated a very dated exhibition hall and reimaged it into an immersive storytelling exhibit about what it takes to be an astronaut.
“They also did a project that caught our eye with the National Geographic Museum about Dr. Jane Goodall. They invented a technology with augmented reality glasses that allows guests to watch as Jane Goodall and chimpanzees come to life in the space she inhabits. They won a lot of awards for that.”
Lewis and Williams have also visited Hayden Planetarium, which is part of the American Museum of Natural Science in New York City, and Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, which includes the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium that at its opening in 2017 was the largest planetarium in the western hemisphere.
“What we learned from a lot of those facilities is that they’re remarkably well funded facilities,” Lewis said. “We have a chance since we’re starting fresh to look continually into the future and use technology with projection, screen-based technology, as well as virtual and augmented reality to be constantly updating information as we learn more about space science. As science progresses, we can update quickly and maintain relevance.”
Built in 1979, the Davis Planetarium is one of the largest in the region, Lewis said. The planetarium has offered a theater experience with a variety of content with programs ranging from stargazing to “travel” to various planets.
Roof damage that resulted from hail forced the closure of the planetarium in April 2018. “We made the decision not to reopen but to take the time to do a full and proper renovation,” Lewis said.
Lewis said he looks forward to when the Davis Planetarium will welcome adults who enjoyed the attraction during their childhood, and he hopes the children of those adults will find it just as attractive as their parents once did. “We want to make sure we do it impeccably well,” he said.
