“We have to save our collection from being lost. The children and families here deserve a quality museum experience.”
Melissa Horton is the executive director for the Muskegon County Lakeshore Museum Center. She says the new millage is asking for an additional .31 mills over the course of 20 years to fund the construction of new exhibit space and expand its collection storage and archive.
“We also have to make sure that our that our history and science museum, which is currently our free museum, it needs to be accessible and it needs to be more accessible to those with disabilities and also for larger student groups and exhibitions.”
Horton says the museum is out of space and can no longer take new donations. The expansion to the History and Science Museum would cost $30 million and be funded through the millage as well as private donations and grants.
“We have a separate collections and archives and they’re both connected to restaurants currently at this time where we share walls, so we always have the threat of pests, insects, rodents, fire, it’s just not safe.”
The museum had 57,000 visitors in 2023, including 14,000 schoolchildren. Admission to the museum is free for Muskegon County residents and $5 for non-residents.
