Space Center Houston

Keeping history preserved is an expensive business and museums don't always have the funds to do it. Increasingly, they're turning to crowdfunding for additional support.

A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to renovate and protect the famous Houston mission control responsible for the Apollo moon landings. Announced to coincide with the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, the scheme is the latest in a series of campaigns launched by cultural organisations across the globe to help them preserve historical artifacts.


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The 30-day Kickstarter was launched by Space Center Houston, the visitor centre for Nasa's Johnson Space Center, and aims to raise $250,000 (£193,000) to restore the ageing site, which has faded following years of unlimited visitor access and maintenance budget cuts.

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"This project will restore and bring back to life one of the most important human achievements of the 20th century," says a statement on the campaign site. "We want to provide many people around the world the opportunity to be a part of this effort; Kickstarter is the best way to encourage your participation".

Space Center Houston


The Texas-based control room, which was instrumental in the moon landings and later reconfigured for the space shuttle programme, will be restored to feature Apollo-era technology as part of a huge campaign that aims to raise $5 million (£3.8m) in total. The city of Webster, where many of the Apollo control room engineers worked, has pledged to match public donations.

"This campaign will help preserve a vital part of our country's history," says former Nasa flight director Gene Kranz in a video on the Kickstarter site.

But Houston isn't the first to have a problem. In 2015, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. launched its very first crowdfunding campaign to 'Reboot the Suit'. The idea was to raise much-need funds to conserve and digitize Neil Armstrong's historic Apollo 11 spacesuit for future generations.

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"Federal appropriations cover approximately 64 cents of every dollar needed by the Smithsonian," explained the Smithsonian's Jenny Arena in a blog post announcing the Armstrong suit Kickstarter in 2015. "Private philanthropy, including this Kickstarter campaign, help to bridge the gap between the Federal resources the Smithsonian receives and what it needs to carry out innovative research, digitise its collections, open exhibitions, and expand educational outreach".


The following year, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History launched a similar campaign to raise $300,000 (£230,000) for the perservation of a pair of the famous ruby slippers, as worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. After gathering they funds, they later added a stretch goal to cover the conservation and display of the scarecrow costume from the same film.

WIRED

In the UK, London's Science Museum used Kickstarter to raise cash to rebuild Eric, the country's oldest robot, who first made his debut in the 1920s. The retro cyborg later featured in the museum's major Robots exhibition.

"Crowdfunding enabled us to reach new audiences with Eric’s story and engage more deeply with our 861 backers from across the globe, taking them behind the scenes of Eric’s recreation in the workshop and inviting many of them to be the first to see Eric on display," Pete Dickinson, head of comms for the Science Museum told WIRED. "The campaign received media interest from around the world and reaching 148 per cent of our original target enabled the museum to bring a second robot, Inhka, back to life".

Not only is crowdfunding a great way to garner publicity it also has the benefit of getting the public actively involved in preserving their own history, as well as giving museums relatively fast access to vital funds.


"With reduced government funding for the museum sector it is important that we explore innovative ways of inspiring people to support our work; crowdfunding enabled the museum to recreate the UK’s first robot which would not otherwise have been possible," Dickinson said.

The Science Museum Group hopes to explore crowdfunding for future projects across its various sites, including the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, but has no specific campaigns planned just yet.



Smaller institutions have also turned to grassroots funding to get things done. The Autry Museum of the American West in LA, ran a successful Indiegogo campaign to fund its Route 66 exhibition, while the National Museum of the Royal Navy is currently raising funds on Justgiving to preserve the HMS Trincomalee warship.

"We thought a crowdfunding campaign would be a great way to get the local community involved in Hartlepool and it has worked well for us in previous campaigns such as HMS M.33, the conservation of the Jack Cornwell drawing and also our recent campaign to save CMB 331, which hit its target thanks to the generous support we received,” Amy Sturman, the museum's Deputy Head of Fundraising told WIRED.