Museum upgrade takes shape

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

Bishop Museum officials expect the $17 million first phase of its new science center to open within a year, as the centerpiece of the institution's long-range plans to upgrade its physical facility, museum president Bill Brown said yesterday.

Brown, who was addressing the Rotary Club of Honolulu, said about half the money is being spent on the building, now rising on the museum's Great Lawn, and half will be for the exhibits, including a model volcano that will replicate eruptions.

"We will have things going for adults and kids that are nowhere else, with environmental issues and earth and natural sciences as the focus," he said.

Museum education director Mike Shanahan said later that the timetable shows the museum moving into the new facility in a year, with a grand opening in November 2005. The precise opening date for the science center's "magnet school," with a full science curriculum for students, has not been set, he said.

Brown also said the museum received about $4 million in state money for the renovation of Hawaiian Hall, the original, century-old exhibition hall. Work aimed at restoring the historic property should begin about a year from now, he said.

"We're going to take her back in time, not forward," Brown said.

For example, he said, what is now the natural history exhibit in Hawaiian Hall will be dismantled, with the better exhibits moved to the new science center and the exhibition room restored to its function as a gallery, displaying historic paintings, drawings and photos.

Still unfunded are plans to repair termite damage and make other improvements to Bishop Hall, which originally housed the Kamehameha Schools' boys' school.

Brown also restated the museum's goal to conserve its historic collection within the bounds of the federal native burials and artifacts law.

"We will comply with the law, but the museum is a steward of objects of Hawaiian culture, and I believe most Hawaiians want us to be that."

Museum projects include:

• Digitizing archival resources, such as Hawaiian language newspapers and photos.

• Archaeological research on links between Native Hawaiians and ancient populations from southeast China and Taiwan.

• Adding to the museum's comprehensive catalog of multicellular species.

Brown also said he hopes the museum can create more satellite exhibits on the Neighbor Islands, displaying in particular objects derived from those islands.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.