THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503050049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Former Norfolk resident Kim L. Maher will take the helm of the Virginia Air and Space Center on Monday, becoming the museum's third executive director in as many years.
Maher's predecessor, Richard H. Petersen, was forced to resign by the museum's board in January 1994 over differences in management philosophy.
Petersen's former deputy, Jeannette Petrolia, had been acting director since Petersen's departure. Petrolia had applied for the director's post but was passed over in favor of Maher.
``It turned out that the search committee felt that Kim was the person we needed to carry us to the next level,'' said Edwin C. Kilgore, chairman of the center's board of directors. ``I'm sure (Jeannette is) disappointed. We owe her a debt of gratitude.''
Maher, the daughter of a retired Navy admiral, lived in Norfolk as a first-grader and again as a high school senior and college freshman. After 13 years as director of the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Maher says she's delighted to be returning to Hampton Roads - especially to lead the Virginia Air and Space Center.
``I think it's a beautiful facility with a lot of potential,'' said Maher, 48. ``It's an amazing achievement that a community that size has been able to put together such a facility. I'm very impressed with what's being attempted with the revitalization of downtown Hampton.''
Richard Petersen succeeded the center's first director, Ralph T. Johnston, who left the area in 1992 for Seattle to raise a family and to open a museum consulting business.
Near the end of Petersen's tenure, museum attendance had fallen nearly 13 percent over first-year levels, and the center's board was confronting a $200,000 budget shortfall. Petersen refused to fire any of the center's professional staff, asserting that money difficulties were temporary and could be corrected over time.
The fiscal problems were solved, board chairman Kilgore said, because ``Jeanette (Petrolia) and the staff have pulled us out. . . . Financially, we're solvent and have markedly increased attendance.''
The solvency has come about in part because of personnel reductions. Maher inherits a salaried staff of 12, compared with the 20 overseen by Petersen. Although overall staff levels are 25 percent higher now than 15 months ago, the growth has come in lower-paid hourly and part-time workers.
The museum also has been working to boost revenues by increasing its IMAX theater attendance. Non-aerospace features such as films on the Titanic sinking, sharks and oil fires in Kuwait are being shown during expanded evening and weekend hours on the huge, multistory IMAX wrap-around screen that features surround-sound stereo.
Figures compiled by the center indicate that by the end of January, attendance was up 20 percent over the same fiscal-year period a year ago.
``Things have gone in the direction I was concerned about: more emphasis on IMAX and less on the museum,'' former director Petersen said. ``The center has a huge and terrific potential as a drawing card for Hampton, as a public education center for NASA (Langley Research Center) and as an education support center. I don't see that potential being utilized.''
Still, Petersen praised the selection of Maher.
``The new director seems very good,'' he said. ``I'm very, very glad they went out to get a professional director.''
The center's board apparently believes Maher will bring an entrepreneurial attitude and fund-raising savvy.
In 1992, the same year the Air and Space Center opened, Maher oversaw a $32 million expansion of the Fort Lauderdale facility, which rivals the slightly bigger Hampton museum in cost and exhibit mix but draws more than twice as many visitors.
Bringing in more tourists and money is a feat Maher's new board supervisors believe she'll repeat at the Air and Space Center.
``She's been very successful and innovative in what she's tried,'' board chairman Kilgore said. ``It's her ball now. We're looking to her for leadership and guidance.''
Maher said she will take no definitive action or make any substantial changes until she has had a chance to settle in.
``I want to look at the strengths and weaknesses and come up with a strategic plan,'' she said. ``Part of what we have to do in Virginia is create enough of a funding base so that staff and programs can expand. What you must not do is lose the focus of your educational mission. That's what distinguishes a science museum from just another theme park.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Kim L. Maher, 48, is the Virginia Air and Space Center's third
executive director in three years.
by CNB