Discovery Museum plans for bright new future

As they anticipate moving to a larger, higher-profile location in Libertyville, officials with the Lake County Discovery Museum have a new vision to guide them for years to come.

Increasing the public's awareness and support of the museum - operated by the Lake County Forest Preserve District since 1976 - is one of the key goals. Officials also want to improve the public's perception of the museum and maximize the educational impact of the facility, among other strategies.

It's the third such mission statement for the museum, which has been located in a former farmhouse inside the Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda since it was founded. Previous long-range plans were enacted in 1995 and 2003.

The step is a key part of a process that will maintain the Discovery Museum's accreditation by the American Association of Museums. Only 23 museums in the state - and only about 1 percent of those in the nation - have that honor, said Katherine Hamilton-Smith, the forest district's director of cultural resources.

"Accreditation is important," Hamilton-Smith said. "It's a widely recognized seal of approval."

But the mission statement is more than an item on an accreditation checklist. It was recently adopted by the forest board as the museum sits on the threshold of what could be the biggest development in its 34-year history.

It's had some high-profile exhibits - including a 2004 showing of the late Linda McCartney's rock 'n' roll photography and a 2008-09 exhibit about the American soldier through history - and is home to the world-renowned Curt Teich postcard collection.

Even so, many Lake County residents are unaware it exists.

"It's very frustrating," said Diana Dretske, the museum's collections coordinator. "We have world-class collections here... some collections that connect Lake County with the nation."

Dretske and other officials hope the upcoming move to Libertyville will shine a spotlight on the museum and boost attendance. The museum now attracts about 45,000 visitors a year.

Plans call for it to relocate in 2012 to a former office building on Winchester Road near Technology Way in Libertyville. The new facility is bigger than the current museum, which has about 25,000 square feet of space for exhibitions, storage, offices and other uses. Current plans will give the district's cultural resources department, which includes the museum, about 50,000 square feet of space in Libertyville, Hamilton-Smith said.

The new site isn't nearly as secluded as the existing museum, either.

"The (new) location is great," Dretske said. "The location in central Lake County, close to the train line, is going to allow people from out of the state and out of the country to access the collections much easier."

The museum's move is part of a larger proposal that will see the forest district's administrative offices consolidate at the building, too.

The new vision plan - subtitled "The Road Ahead" - sets out six goals and a variety of strategies officials hope will help them accomplish those goals.

The goals are:

•Clarify the perception of the museum.

•Increase public awareness and support of the museum.

•Integrate the museum's mission into all activities.

•Improve accessibility to museum resources.

•Operate in a fiscally responsible manner.

•Operate in a socially responsible manner.

Hamilton-Smith cited the goal about increasing public awareness as among the most important.

"The museum preserves the heritage of the area and makes it accessible and interprets it for generations to come," she said.

Employees will be tasked each year with assignments to meet those goals, Hamilton-Smith said. The goals apply to the museum no matter where it's located, she said.

"A good plan is distilled down into what the key challenges are in your organization," Hamilton-Smith said. "That's really what this is."