Science World Turns to Crowdfunding for New Exhibit

For the first time, the science and technology museum is turning to crowdfunding site Indiegogo to raise money for its proposed AMPed exhibition

Scrolling through the hordes of documentary filmmakers and garage bands hoping to turn around an album, you’ll now find a museum in the ranks of users hustling for cash on a crowdfunding site.

TELUS World of Science has turned to Indiegogo in hopes a crowdfunding campaign will bring in enough financial support to build a new music exhibit. Dubbed AMPED, the new exhibit will show off the science and technology behind the music business. At 4,800 square feet, the interactive exhibit is geared toward teens and will feature instrument stations, a chronology of tech innovations in pop music and in-depth explanations about how music affects the brain.

Jennifer Ingram, the vice president of development at Science World, says that after the museum went through its latest round of capital funding, finding cash in the budget to build a new exhibit just wasn’t possible.

But the developers believed in the project and since the museum hasn’t built an exhibit since 2000, they decided to get creative and made their first foray into the world of crowdfunding.

“We thought crowdfunding because it is music and a lot of bands have had success using Kickstarter and they’ve been able to do some great things,” she says.

After settling on Indiegogo for their campaign, they came up with a shoestring budget and set their goal amount for $15,000. While that may seem like a big number, Ingram says the average cost to build an exhibit from scratch is somewhere in the range of $150,000-200,000.

The funding campaign ends June 21, and as of press time, they had raised just under $10,000. But Ingram says even if they don’t make their $15,000 goal, they’ll figure out some “creative solutions” to make the exhibit come together.