Creation Museum Evolving Currents
■ KEN HAM, the Australian-born creator of the Creation Museum, looks around the throng of about a thousand guests on a hot, August morning and notes that “for a Tuesday, this is not a bad crowd.” In fact, more than three years after it opened in Petersburg, Kentucky, the 70,000-square-foot “walk through the Bible”—consisting of animatronic displays, video features, theaters, and restaurants— has evolved into a thriving enterprise. “We have consistently surpassed our own forecasts for attendance,” said Mark Looy, a co-founder of the museum and spokesman for the center. In August, the Creation Muse- um counted more than 1.2 million guests since it opened in 2007, he said. While Ham and Looy expected atten- dance to be high for the first year because of the curiosity factor—there were about 500,000 guests in the museum’s first year—no one predicted the continuing growth in attendance.
Ham, who was instrumental in the start-up of the museum’s sponsoring
Ken Ham at the
Creation Museum
organization, Answers in Genesis, said that despite the economic recession, fami- lies, individuals, church groups, and even bus tours continue to pour into the Cre- ation Museum, often spending a couple of days in the region to sample other attractions in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky market. “The recession has not in any way affected us,” Ham said. “Many people who were going to come here were going to make this their destination anyway. Add to that the people who decided instead of taking an expensive vacation in Florida, they wanted to either stay in this area or make the trip here. Either way, the muse- um has really helped the local economy more than people may realize.” Tom Caradonio, president of the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visi- tors Bureau, said that one of the Creation Museum’s greatest strengths is the inter- est and support it has garnered from Evangelicals. “When Answers in Genesis did their demographic studies for the
museum, they obviously knew that they had a group of people who would be high- ly motivated to visit,” Caradonio said. Pastor Brad Bigney of nearby Grace Fel- lowship Church in Florence, Kentucky, said another reason for the museum’s steady flow of guests is Ham’s frenetic schedule, which puts him on the road up to 250 times a year. “He’s a great spokesman for the museum, and he plants the seed for individuals and groups to make the trip to northern Kentucky,” Bigney said. Four years ago, the museum was beset by feuds over zoning issues as well as oppo- sition from many corners of the scientific community. That sideshow has not gone away, Ham said. Anti-creationist bloggers continue to pan the facility, and some critics have taken shots at the museum’s concept and staff. The pinnacle of ridicule came in the form of cable television star Bill Maher, who snuck into Ham’s office one day to do a taping for his movie Religulous. But the biggest doubt over Answers in Genesis’ project was questions about whether organizers could raise the $27 million it would need to launch the proj- ect, Caradonio said.
“If you go back to the issue of private funding—there was no government money involved in this project—you will see that about $5 million came from big donors, but by and large the other con- tributions came from individuals who were giving $25 or $50 from all over the country,” Caradonio said. “With that many people invested in the project, you have built a huge audience that says, ‘Hey, I’ve put some money into this, and now I want to see the place.’ That became a tre- mendous incentive for people to visit.” Ham and co-founder Looy said that the museum’s success has allowed them to plan for expansion, including transforming warehouse space into additional room for a theater, and a new hall for visiting exhibits. Ham noted that museum staffers already are planning for 20,000 guests to visit for this year’s live Nativity exhibit, a substantial increase from last year’s atten- dance, which was about 15,000. “We are growing,” Ham said, “and we don’t see that stopping any time soon.” —Dennis O’Connor (RNS)
8 EVANGEL | November 2010
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