Venerable Bell Museum to ask again for new home funds

When the Bell Museum of Natural History was built, film was noir, art was deco and museums were static.

Since then, museums have evolved. But the 1930s-era Bell Museum, where stuffed moose peer at you from behind thick glass, has not.

"The exhibits that we have are frozen in time," said Andrew Simons, a university professor and Bell Museum curator.

For years, the University of Minnesota has planned for a new Bell Museum on the St. Paul campus, where kids would touch things and researchers would test things and adults could get as excited as their children.

It had hoped to break ground this year. But after the Legislature approved $24 million for its construction in a bonding bill last session, Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the project as a part of his $200 million trim.

The university will try again. At its meeting Friday, the Board of Regents will discuss whether to request $26.3 million from the Legislature toward the $39.5 million cost of the project.

The museum has raised $11.1 million of the university's share through private donations and, to a lesser extent, federal funds -- a point staff members stress to those questioning whether the university should be putting up new buildings while planning to raise tuition.

"The university is spending millions of dollars on infrastructure," said Robert Downs, a sophomore who wrote a column in the student newspaper questioning the project's cost. "I'm not saying it's unnecessary. But at the same time, it's costing students a lot for things that may not directly affect them."

Abby Morrisette, one of the museum's 30 student tour guides, disagreed, pointing to the museum's research and national regard. "Students might not directly interact with the museum," she said, "but it's just as much an integral part of the university as classes."

Plans for the stone, glass and steel building include classrooms, a cafe and a 300-seat auditorium. The building wouldn't be much bigger than the one on Church Street, Museum Director Susan Weller said, but it's more flexible. The majority of the current building's space is fixed, dominated by the famous dioramas.

The museum has worked with and around the dioramas. On a recent morning, preschoolers spotted a soft, squishy mass on the floor in front of one and catapulted themselves onto it.

"See the ground in the diorama? Well, here's what it feels like," said Morrisette, 19, who was leading the morning tour. "It's called a bog."

After examining its uneven bounce, one boy turned and exclaimed, "You would like to sleep on a bog!"

The new building would display the best of the dioramas in a "period room," while other space would feature current science and rotating exhibits. Outside, visitors would witness research among acres of prairie and forest plantings.

"You can't imagine how frustrating it is to try to do environmental education when you're surrounded by concrete," Weller said.

As an academic museum, the Bell is responsible for research and education beyond its displays, which about 60,000 people visit each year.

The museum's education specialists travel to schools in Red Lake, Mankato, Duluth and the rest of the state, teaching classes and designing curriculum, said spokeswoman Nina Shepherd. More than 4 million animals and plant specimens are stored, largely unseen, on the St. Paul campus.

By moving to St. Paul, where most of its curators and professors work, the museum will regularly respond to and more easily incorporate their studies.

"People come back to the Bell and say, Oh, it's just like it was when I was a child, when I brought my children, when I brought my grandchildren," Weller said. "And there's a lovely comfort there. But the whole point is to have people come back more than three times in their life."

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168