San Fernando Valley : Museum Asks City to Help Fund Mall Branch

The cash-strapped Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has offered to keep open its struggling satellite branch at the Media City Center mall in Burbank, but only if the city is willing to contribute $300,000 each year.

City Councilwoman Susan Spanos said committing city funds to the museum will be “a very difficult decision.”

“I think we have a tremendous interest in trying to keep the museum alive, because it is a great educational resource,” Spanos said. “But the problem is that it would not be a one-time cost, and we do not have a $300,000 surplus lying around every year.”

Since it opened with much fanfare on May 1, 1993, the two-story, $2-million museum-in-a-mall has been frequented mainly by local students and senior citizens, but county officials say it has failed to draw enough public support to justify keeping it open.

Last year, about 61,000 tickets were sold--enough to cover only half the museum’s operating budget of about $325,000, and officials had given notice of their intention to close the facility and vacate the building by Jan. 21.

Still, county officials said they hope the museum can be saved.

“Our hope is to find a way both to keep it open and to get more people to come,” said James R. Gilman, vice president of the County Natural History Museum Foundation, the museum’s fund-raising arm.