Center for Technology & Innovation, Inc., 321 Water Street, Binghamton, NY 13901,
Telephone: 607-723-8600 email: info@ctandi.org
Tech Works! museum has a home
TechWorks! Overview
The Center for Technology & Innovation, Inc. (CT&I) a 15 year old not-for-profit organization originally chartered to help inventors implement their ideas. Since September 2003, CT&I's corporate has been to document and present in context the inventions and industrial innovations of NY's Southern Tier. Tech Works! is the proposed museum of upstate NY inventions and industries, centered on the Greater Binghamton area, that will become CT&I's primary operating entity.
With each passing generation, prospective audiences become less and less familiar with the mechanics of technology and the insides of the little black boxes and processors that take ever increasing control of our day-to-day lives.
CT&I works to preserve a geographic slice of the American technology frontier, documenting the rich texture of an ethnically diverse community that evolved from a late 19th c. shoe manufacturing center to a pioneering nexus of high tech in the mid 20th c. to witness the late 20th c. globalization and job decline.
CT&I has made measured progress towards the TechWorks! museum in the last six years. In Spring 2005, CT&I Board concluded that a public presence was mandatory to gather a critical mass of enthusiasm around it's documentary mission. The Board developed a strategic plan for development of a museum of invention and local industry that would:
Celebrate creativity & entrepreneurial spirit in an historic industrial atmosphere,
Showcase local inventions & industries with dynamic displays of technology in action, and
Offer opportunities for problem solving & hands-on craftsmanship.
From more than 40 proposals, CT&I selected an acclaimed Museum Master Plan team that includes Tom Martin, economist specializing in cultural attractions and heritage tourism; Gerry Eisterhold and Associates, Ben Lawless, Smithsonian's retired Chief of Exhibitions; and Ward Bucher, RPI-trained, award-winning preservation architect. The 2007 Museum Master Plan articulated a vision for Tech Works! as a discovery center for adults and a place for life long learning, with an emphasis on long. The Tech Works! experience will be 45-90 minutes, with a dozen major exhibits, archives reading room, café and outdoor concession stand, and a gift shop. The Tech Works! spirit will be technically correct, with a dry sense of humor and the courage to make mistakes. Entering through the Garden of Ideas, visitors will make the transition from the real world to the Tech Works! world of the imagination. The Garden of Ideas, an outdoor plaza planted with sculptural decision trees and seating, at the entrance to Tech Works! will be a recreation destination on the Chenango River Trail.
The Museum Master Plan identified seven themes for TechWorks! exhibits:
Culture of invention & entrepreneurship
Tradition of precision manufacturing & craftsmanship
Trends towards miniaturization, eg. The Incredible Shrinking Circuit
Dynamics of visual perception & simulation
Logic, circuits, & decision making principles
Southern Tier & the Space Race, e.g, Out of this World Technology
Environmental legacy of 20th c. industry
The Master Plan outlined a three-phase growth sequence, toward TechWorks!:
2007 Museum sneak preview - short-term demonstration of concept
2008-12 Prototype Museum Workshop - 5 year test of innovative exhibits
2013-15 TechWorks!, full-scale museum & Garden of Ideas opens
The 2007 TechWorks! Sneak Preview featured a handful of dynamic exhibits - wire bending, blood cell washing, coin sorting, and paper coating; a film series and oral history listening posts. Four sessions in Winter 2007 were attended by 390 guests. In 2007-8, CT&I operated a smaller scale Blue Box Workshop, where visitors could follow the progress of restoring a WWII Link flight trainer. The Blue Box workshop moved to smaller quarters in 2008/9, a space was not suited to public access.
In Fall 2009, the 30,000 sf historic Binghamton Ice Cream Co. factory was donated by Edward and Karen Levene for development of TechWorks!. The Blue Box Workshop moved to 321 Water Street, where10,000 sf is in use as an artifact repair, collection management, and exhibit preparation facility. Since August 2010, the TechWorks! Prototype Workshop has hosted more than1,000 visitors at Come Fly with Us Open Houses and informal “behind the scenes” tours.
Life-safety upgrades are in progress that will allow CT&I to operate the TechWorks! Prototype Workshop as a public facility, with entrance fees and advertising. The exterior of the metal addition will be adorned with technology murals as the BU’s Pricewaterhouse Cooper Scholars’ 2011/12 project, in collaboration with the Haven After School Program, and CT&I’s museum design team.
When fully operational, Tech Works! will offer direct and indirect economic benefits to the community in the form of inspiring youth to become part of a technologically savvy workforce and helping local industries leverage their heritage to create value in 21st century markets. The projected audience, including 25,000 overnight guests and 23,000 day visitors, will inject more than $ 6 million per year into the local economy, plus $ 40,000 - $ 85,000 tax revenue to both local and state entities. About 97% of these revenues will come from visitors outside Broome and Tioga Counties and 90% will be spent outside Tech Works!.
To learn more, call 607 723-8600, email director@ctandi.org