The Earth Centre in Doncaster closed its gates to the public last week for the second time in its short history - and there are fears that this time it may be permanent. Its closure highlights the precarious nature of some of the new, lottery-funded projects, particularly the more innovative science centres.
The £50m centre, which includes gardens, a country park, indoor and outdoor exhibitions and commercial spaces, is devoted to the environment and sustainable living. It began a phased opening in 1999, shutting to the public at the end of 1999 until mid-2001 while phase II was developed.
Since then, the centre has battled to attract enough visitors and commercial income to balance its £2m annual budget. Last month it gave up the struggle, despite some encouraging visitor figures in 2003 and the growth of educational visits, including residential stays, to more than 20,000.
The last visitors, on pre-booked tours, left the centre on 31 October, although the park and exhibition spaces were closed to general visitors in the middle of September. All 55 staff have been made redundant.
Now the trustees of the project and the Millennium Commission, which provided more than £35m of the project's funding, are waiting to see if Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council will be able to take over the project.
If it does, it will need to find ways of bridging a funding gap, estimated by Alan Sherriff, chairman of the Earth Centre's trustees, to approach £400,000 a year. The council is remaining tight-lipped, merely telling Museums Journal that it is in negotiations.
The problems of the Earth Centre are arguably not unique. Its business plan was initially based on attracting an enormous one million visitors, then reduced to 500,000: yet in 2003 - which the current management regarded as a good year - 143,000 came through the gates.
The centre opened with no revenue funding, and the unusual concept also appears to have been hard to sell to the public - though, according to the management, satisfaction was high once they had actually visited. It also helped regenerate a site marred by the remains of two collieries, and provided employment for local people, including ex-miners.
Mike O'Connor, the director of the Millennium Commission, denied that the Earth Centre's difficulties are symptomatic of a general malaise, pointing to the success of the Eden Project, Tate Modern and Magna.
'Of 215 projects, we have only had two failures: the Big Idea in Scotland and the Faith Centre in Bradford. We don't regard the Earth Centre as a failure: it will reopen in the future, and the council will be able to run it on a different economic model. In general, science centres are in a more robust state than ever before.'
Stephen Feber, a museum consultant and former director of Magna, warned that few science centres have enough revenue funding to feel secure. 'These businesses are capital intensive, but all the funding tends to go into creating the asset without leaving enough working capital to keep renewing things later,' he said. 'The business also tends to be rather inflexible, so it is difficult to significantly change the product if it turns out it isn't working,' he added.
Other Millennium Commission-funded projects include the Deep in Hull, the National Space Centre in Leicester, and At Bristol.
The £50m centre, which includes gardens, a country park, indoor and outdoor exhibitions and commercial spaces, is devoted to the environment and sustainable living. It began a phased opening in 1999, shutting to the public at the end of 1999 until mid-2001 while phase II was developed.
Since then, the centre has battled to attract enough visitors and commercial income to balance its £2m annual budget. Last month it gave up the struggle, despite some encouraging visitor figures in 2003 and the growth of educational visits, including residential stays, to more than 20,000.
The last visitors, on pre-booked tours, left the centre on 31 October, although the park and exhibition spaces were closed to general visitors in the middle of September. All 55 staff have been made redundant.
Now the trustees of the project and the Millennium Commission, which provided more than £35m of the project's funding, are waiting to see if Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council will be able to take over the project.
If it does, it will need to find ways of bridging a funding gap, estimated by Alan Sherriff, chairman of the Earth Centre's trustees, to approach £400,000 a year. The council is remaining tight-lipped, merely telling Museums Journal that it is in negotiations.
The problems of the Earth Centre are arguably not unique. Its business plan was initially based on attracting an enormous one million visitors, then reduced to 500,000: yet in 2003 - which the current management regarded as a good year - 143,000 came through the gates.
The centre opened with no revenue funding, and the unusual concept also appears to have been hard to sell to the public - though, according to the management, satisfaction was high once they had actually visited. It also helped regenerate a site marred by the remains of two collieries, and provided employment for local people, including ex-miners.
Mike O'Connor, the director of the Millennium Commission, denied that the Earth Centre's difficulties are symptomatic of a general malaise, pointing to the success of the Eden Project, Tate Modern and Magna.
'Of 215 projects, we have only had two failures: the Big Idea in Scotland and the Faith Centre in Bradford. We don't regard the Earth Centre as a failure: it will reopen in the future, and the council will be able to run it on a different economic model. In general, science centres are in a more robust state than ever before.'
Stephen Feber, a museum consultant and former director of Magna, warned that few science centres have enough revenue funding to feel secure. 'These businesses are capital intensive, but all the funding tends to go into creating the asset without leaving enough working capital to keep renewing things later,' he said. 'The business also tends to be rather inflexible, so it is difficult to significantly change the product if it turns out it isn't working,' he added.
Other Millennium Commission-funded projects include the Deep in Hull, the National Space Centre in Leicester, and At Bristol.
