Adler CEO hopes Chicagoans look up at eclipse — then to planetarium

Adler CEO:

Many people in Chicago will train their eyes on the sky during the solar eclipse on Monday. But astronomical events for President and Adler CEO Michel Larson of Atler Planetarium are particularly exciting, which hopes that eclipses look up enthusiasts in the sky – so look for Adler to know more.

Larson, an astrophysicist and science teacher, served as the Deputy Provost of Utah State University, who became the first female president of an institute in Chicago’s Museum Complex before joining Adler in 2013.

Since then, Larson has said that he is working to take the museum to a firm financial footprint, while visitors explore ways to come to a world where most of the museums present can also be found online.

The Adler Museum attracts small crowds in comparison to its neighboring countries, but in 2016, the museum started entering 1993 after hitting 568,814 visitors, attendance is increasing.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: When an incident like solar eclipse occurs, how do you take it and try to attract people?

A : One thing that is our focus, is to think about how we can bridge a border between scientific discovery and the public, and how do we present ourselves as a place where you find that Listening, you know that to know more come here

Our main sky show is called “Planet nine”. We have worked with the scientist to develop this show, which is going to emerge as the ninth planet, so we were able to release the show at the same time issued to that letter. We did the same with gravitational waves. About 18 months ago, the National Science Foundation had announced the first discovery of gravitational waves, and before we announce it had worked with the laser interfitter gravitational-wave observatory, so that the press release was issued, we had an exhibition so that Dive a little deeper you can come

2 : Question: Adler’s visitor numbers are increasing in the last few years. What do you do to Chalk?

A: There is a change in attitude and viewpoint in most of these approaches. Instead of saying, “Please come through the door, and we have to teach you something,” we have actually changed to say, “Hey, we are trying to understand something, want to help?” Rather than trying to educate the people we know, instead of trying to educate them, we have the idea of ​​trying to involve people to join us.

The second piece is that Chicago is a crowded market with great cultural organizations.

Question: Does it make it easy or difficult?

A: If you can understand what you can offer, you can scream at it. We have succeeded in a marketing campaign that announces our personality and we are accessible and fun. “Space is terrible horrible” indicates that we want to take our science seriously, but not ourselves.

Question: Was this a change in programming and what do you do or just have the substance to appear?

A: This is an option that you want to decide on the status of the museum. I think everyone agrees that the former team wanted to keep the museum in place where I could hear from our researchers and astronomers before reaching me. Were. I think the approach was very good when there was no way to get that information any other place, but now people do not have to come to us for the facts now, let’s go for the purpose to include them in the journey and understand science. To help, you should give yourself a place, rather than a list of facts, there is a journey.

Q: What do you think about the balance between programs with the aim of people with an informal interest to future scientists and people?

A: This is a spectrum in my mind and is probably affected by the fact that I did not decide that I want to become a scientist by the age of 24 or 25. And most of our viewers are using the museum socially. People come in groups or in the form of a family, we are trying very hard instead of dismissing the audience and instead disciplines themselves to create those experiences, wherever they are with that spectrum People touch because few people come alone and very few people come only with those people as they are.

Question: How are things going on economically?

A: We are now working in black. We have closed the deficit, which is a great place. The next step is to go to the flat to secure the resources, where we can make additional changes and investment.

Question: There have been several rounds of sorting in the last few years. What has it done now?

A: It was a part of trying to figure out which one we can concentrate on and we can do some things well rather than trying to do many things. But now we are looking very balanced and very interested in the things we have chosen to focus, we are through that medium