posted September 09, 2011 11:48 AM               

New Space Exploration Museum Opens in Marin County

The W Foundation (TWF) will be opening a new space exploration museum in the San Francisco Bay Area. The emphasis will be on the history of space exploration, and how discoveries in science and technology allowed the U.S. to be the leader in space travel.

The Space Station will be located in the Pacheco Plaza, a shopping center located in the upscale Ignacio neighborhood of Marin County. This unique museum will give the public a rare opportunity to touch space-flown artifacts from TWF's extensive collection of U.S., Russian and Soviet items used in space exploration.

The decision to open this new education center is based on the tremendous success of the temporary exhibit put on this July by TWF and Walter Kieckhefer Company (WKC) displayed in one of WKC's vacant retail spots. The two-day exhibit attracted over 600 visitors.

"This is a 'win, win' for The W Foundation, Walter Kieckhefer Company (WKC) and our community, because a vacant retail space is filled and the public gains a new education venue in their neighborhood," says Ken Winans, co-president of The W Foundation.

A ribbon cutting is planned for October 7th at 6 p.m. with legendary astronauts Rick Searfoss, John Herrington and Dick Gordon in attendance. During their six missions, they have collectively traveled in space 66 days, performed 23 hours of space walks and journeyed to the moon.

The museum will open to the public in November.

The W Foundation is a volunteer staffed and privately funded 501c3 non-profit corporation founded in 2002. It owns one of the largest private collections of U.S., Russian and Soviet space exploration artifacts, and it sponsors the "Navy in Space" exhibit during Fleet Week.

The organization has attracted legendary figures such as Apollo 12 Astronaut Dick Gordon, award-winning actor Bill Pullman and video game designer Will Wright to its Board of Advisors.

posted November 14, 2011 12:50 PM               

The museum's regular hours are Saturdays and Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time zone. Private tours and school groups are available on the other days of the week.

Come and view artifacts that have made the long journey to the moon and back, and photographs inscribed by the astronauts that tell about their adventures in space exploration.

posted March 19, 2012 01:13 PM               

Tucked into a small storefront between a nail salon and a Subway, it would be easy for a shopper to miss the museum entirely, except for the lifesized model of a spacesuited astronaut standing outside the door—their way of letting the public know the museum is open.

Inside the small space is a basic set of displays of artifacts, photos, and other items. The museum has a hodgepodge of both American and Russian items, ranging from a Space Shuttle hold-down bolt and a Lunar Module engine bell to a Soviet-era cosmonaut flight suit and a hatch from the Buran shuttle. The theme of the current exhibit is “Space Stations and Space Shuttles” (exhibits are changed every several months), although to many visitors that theme may be too subtle, who instead simply see a collection of flight hardware and other items representing spaceflight.

posted May 12, 2012 09:49 AM               

The Space Station: Launching a whole new kind of museum!

When people think of museums, they often think of the California Academy of Sciences, or the new San Francisco Exploratorium with its huge price tag of approximately $220 million dollars.

A new type of museum opened last October in the San Francisco suburb of Novato: The Space Station offers a quality experience for local residents and tourists alike without the high construction costs and government subsidies required for the on-going operations of most museums.

President and Founder of the investment management firm, Winans Investments, and philanthropist Ken Winans has served as a trustee to several large, Smithsonian affiliated museums, and felt there had to be a more efficient and effective way to offer the public a quality museum experience during this time of fiscal austerity.

With an entrepreneurial spirit, Winans contacted the owners of an upscale shopping center in Novato's Ignacio neighborhood with a unique idea:

The W Foundation, founded in 2002 by Mr. Winans and his wife Debbie Wreyford, would set up and operate a small space exploration museum using rare items from their extensive collection of space artifacts in one of the strip mall's vacant retail space for $1 per month.

The neighborhood and local schools would gain a unique, educational venue free of charge, and the Pacheco Plaza Shopping Center will get increased traffic and new customers for its existing commercial tenants. When the retail space gets rented in the future, no problem, the museum can move to a different location - a nomadic space museum!

The Walter Kieckhefer Company agreed, and after a ribbon cutting ceremony last October with legendary astronauts Rick Searfoss, John Herrington and Dick Gordon in attendance, The Space Station museum opened to the public last November.

With an emphasis on space exploration, and how its discoveries in science and technology have benefited all of mankind, this museum was designed to be truly different:

First, Admission is free and 100% privately funded through donations from local businesses such as Winans Investments Capital Management & Research and Jeremy Forcier of First Cal Mortgage, in-kind support from local businesses such as The Walter Kieckhefer Company, and individual donations. Second, in order to keep costs contained, the museum is 100% volunteer staffed and is open three days a week or by appointment. Third, exhibits are changed four times a year by the volunteer staff to help encourage visitors to frequently return. And last, but not least, the public is given a unique, tactile experience as they are allowed to touch some of the space-flown artifacts.

The Space Station museum is a tremendous success! Since its opening six months ago, the museum has averaged 642 visitors per month while only being open three days per week. Total attendance from all Space Station events in the Pacheco Plaza Shopping Center over the past ten months has exceeded 4,952 visitors. This figure equals 10% of Novato's entire population! Visitors have come from all parts of the Bay Area and as far away Las Vegas, NV. Remarkably, marketing has been limited to word-of mouth, internet blogs and social networks.

Since the opening of The Space Station, The W Foundation's volunteer base has increased from 18 to 36 with another 23 individuals who have stopped by the museum signed up to volunteer in the future. The donations have largely covered operational expenses.

The nimble Space Station museum is moving to a new location in the Pacheco Plaza Shopping Center in June and is planning an outdoor event called Space Fest on July 14th.