Article headed “Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum will fold” goes on to report:
“When the Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum opened in 2004, organizers expected between 35,000 and 55,000 people to come through the doors to see the famous Esprit Collection of Amish quilts…
“This year, only 8,500 have paid admission to the 37 N. Market St. museum.
“And it simply was not enough to keep operating.”
WATCHDOG: Sometimes the heart is allowed to take the place of good business practice. The same noble intention that was behind the Quilt & Textile Museum also was part of the misbegotten genesis of the Convention Center Project, later to be exploited by others. The idea was that ‘we just have to do something about the Watt & Shand building’ rather than ‘we have to do what will work to revitalize downtown.’ There never was a legitimate feasibility study for the Convention Center project until the Commissions authorized one too late in the game and we question if a hard nose study was done for the Quilt Museum.
In all fairness, we should also point out the Pennsylvania Academy of Music disaster might well have been averted had a feasibility study been made. (It seems ironic if not downright comical that the former PAM building is now named for the co-perpetrator of the PAM debacle.. after he, unlike others donors, got most if not all of his money back from the sale of the building at an inflated price to the state. Well what is government for if it isn’t to bail out the rich?)
When will the Lancaster establishment learn that it isn’t what is popular at cocktail parties but what makes hard business sense that matters.
3 wags of the tail………….this would make a GREAT letter to the Editor for the daily and Sunday papers; though. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it getting printed !!!!