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jerseycityfrankie t1_ivwd9x0 wrote

I’ve said before we should see if we can get a tiny museum to work FIRST. The Jersey City History Museum is two blocks from this location and is DEAD after it’s (re)opening was announced at the Apple Tree House last year, with no programming and no exhibits of any kind offered, and unfinished highly visible SIMPLE repairs evident on the tiny building’s exterior. It’s the picture of incompetence.

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VanWorst t1_ivwky6t wrote

A Jersey City history museum and a major art museum have very little in common. No one really cares about Jersey City history outside of Jersey City.

We have plenty of smaller art galleries and they seem to work fine. Pompidou will draw more art snobs to take the PATH to New Jersey.

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jerseycityfrankie t1_ivwnke4 wrote

There’s a proven track record of Museum failures in Jersey City is what I’m stating. If they can’t manage a tiny museum what skills do they bring to managing the rollout of a big one?

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JCwhatimsayin t1_ivy1vpe wrote

Liberty Science Center seems to be holding up pretty well.

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[deleted] t1_ivy6h2n wrote

I worked there for two weeks installing an exhibit. It's all school trips and pretty empty otherwise.

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FloatingWeight t1_ivyfthm wrote

Used to volunteer there in HS gets super crowded on weekends with families, of course during the week it’s school trips

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jerseycityfrankie t1_ivyg2ag wrote

To be fair this is a proven revenue stream for most museums, without education programming it’d be hard to have a museum remain open long.

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Brudesandwich t1_iw30hhj wrote

You mean during the week when everyone is working and schools have field trips?

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Mindless-Budget9019 t1_ivwrbp1 wrote

The BOE controls the school budget. Not the city. Ask them why they can’t use the 100m plus they got from the state that they weren’t expecting to fix the schools’ Hvac.

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objectimpermanence t1_ivyr9ly wrote

The difference is that none of those failed museums involved a partnership with a major institution like Pompidou, which actually knows a thing or two about running museums.

The Pompidou Centre in Paris will be completely closed for renovations until 2027. If they lend the JC museum artworks from their collection during that time, that could be a good way to jumpstart interest and attract visitors from around the metro area.

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FelixTaran t1_ivwtcog wrote

The Museum of Jersey City History isn’t dead. Its working on building exhibits and getting grants. It doesn’t have (one assumes) the funding that the Pompidou will have, so give it some time to get going.

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jerseycityfrankie t1_ivwdpwe wrote

....speaking of “a year ago”, the point raised when Pompadue was announced-and it’s cost to the city- was that the city was aparently happy to lavish money on the French museum but wont spend that same kind of dollar amount on getting old school buildings properly HVACed. What is a higher priority?

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objectimpermanence t1_ivys6y0 wrote

The Board of Education directly controls the schools budget, not the city council or the mayor’s office.

I think the question we should be asking is why the BOE can’t get basic capital projects done despite having the ability to independently raise the school tax levy.

I suspect the answer is that adding HVAC to all the old school buildings would be very expensive (probably way more than what the city will spend on this museum) and that raising school taxes to pay for it is not politically feasible, especially considering the blowback that the BOE has faced from its recent tax increases.

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