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This past summer, I embarked on a museum odyssey.
During a three-week period, I visited 49 museums across 19 states speaking with trustees, CEOs, staff and volunteers about their organizations and the future of the industry.
I saw science centers that were attractions, focusing their spaces on drawing in visitors. At other museums, staff spoke of themselves as a part of the education system with their efforts concentrated on school groups, curriculum and educators. And others focused their mission on science communication, presenting the outcomes of research to the public.
In addition to bringing back new ideas and contacts, I returned with a tremendous sense of pride because the Fleet Science Center is all of these things and so much more. Yes, the Fleet is an attraction with more than 386,000 visitors each year. We also are part of the education system, serving 57,177 students from 291 schools in the 2022–23 school year. And we connect scientists to the public in innovative ways like with Two Scientists Walk into a Bar®.
But where the Fleet is leading the field is in community engagement, connecting people to science where they live, work and play. Our effort to establish neighborhood networks and co-create programs with communities based on their needs is unique.
To help tell the story of the Fleet Science Center’s work and the scale of its effect on our community, the Fleet has published our first Impact Report with data from our 2022–23 fiscal year. This report shows the breadth and depth of the Fleet’s work to connect everyone in San Diego to the power of science, and I am delighted to share it with you.
You may read the 2023 Impact Report here. Please know we are grateful for your support of the Fleet, which is celebrating and elevating science in our community.
Thank you,
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