Chicago Children's Museum news

From today's Crain's Chicago Business

More than kids behind proposed museum move
By Gregory Meyer
Sept. 24, 2007

"The Chicago Children's Museum, at the center of a political firestorm, stands to get more than $1 million a year in taxpayer money by moving to Grant Park.

As part of a move from Navy Pier, museum officials would apply for membership in Museums in the Park, the coalition of 10 city cultural institutions that annually share millions in operating aid from the Chicago Park District. The subsidy would be a significant boost to the 25-year-old Children's Museum, which had $8.8 million in revenue last year, and a clear motivation for relocating.

The museum's proposal to move touched off a rhetorical inferno last week after Alderman Brendan Reilly (42nd) came out against it. Mayor Richard M. Daley said Mr. Reilly was pandering to white residents near the park who want to keep out minority children who would visit the museum. Unmentioned was the annual subsidy paid to museums on Park District acreage — a property-tax assist the Children's Museum doesn't get at its Navy Pier location. The museums will share $33.8 million this year." ....

"The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority charges the museum $1 a year to rent 57,000 square feet on the west end of Navy Pier but does not subsidize operations.

Park District proceeds are largely allocated by museum attendance and budget and require institutions to be free at least 52 days a year (and free year-round for children on class trips). The Children's Museum draws 500,000 visitors a year. Mr. Law says he hopes the number visiting a Grant Park location will be greater.

As part of Museums in the Park, the largest institutions this year receive $6.7 million, while the smallest get around $1 million. The current funding levels are subject to budget cuts and have been reduced in recent years.

The tax levy is an important part of the financial support for the museums, providing smaller ones with a significant portion of their operating budgets, says Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a non-profit tax watchdog that has no position on the Children's Museum relocation.

The Children's Museum did not provide projections of what it would receive from the Park District.

Mr. Law says the chief reason for the Grant Park move is to imbue the museum with a "cultural identity" apart from Navy Pier in a larger, centrally located facility with easy parking. The museum would sit beside Daley Bicentennial Plaza, a location that Mr. Reilly, who didn't return a call for comment, has said should remain open space."

for the complete story and tables see:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=26461&seenIt=1
From the article you can link to a series of articles on the continuing saga of the move.