The rebound has begun at Explore & More – The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Museum.
A $250,000 grant arrived in May from KeyBank in partnership with the First Niagara Foundation, jumpstarting the museum's recovery from its pandemic woes.
The Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park and the Explore & More Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children's Museum are running out of money.
"It was a game-changer for us," said Michelle Urbanczyk, Explore & More's CEO.
The money allowed the museum to hire four educational staffers and fill four administrative positions.
The museum is also using the money to extend its days of operation to Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. And the museum is expected to open Tuesdays beginning July 12 for campers and other groups, with Sunday openings expected later in the summer.
Explore & More Children’s Museum is now $500,000 closer to meeting its fundraising goal for the new museum coming to Canalside. KeyBank and its partner, First Niagara Foundation, on Thursday announced the donation toward construction of the four-story museum. “It is through the generosity of KeyBank and many others that this community will see this remarkable facility completed this
In January, Urbanczyk warned that Explore & More could run out of money by March, saying, "we're desperate at this point." The pandemic prompted the museum to slash more than half of its staff, open the museum only three days a week and put in place Covid-19 safety protocols as attendance plummeted.
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But the museum, which raises 98% of its funds, kept its doors open with the help of the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program and local businesses.
To help families, the museum let them pay what they could afford in October, thanks to a grant from the Niagara Frontier Auto Dealers Association. Ticket prices were lowered during March, April and May of this year due to support from Delta Sonic.
"They didn't just shut down and stop. They worked very hard with a very limited-capacity staff to keep the doors open and keep the programming open," said Elizabeth Gurney, KeyBank's director of corporate philanthropy and executive director of the First Niagara Foundation.
In 2020, KeyBank, with the First Niagara Foundation, gave over $9 million to Western New York organizations, including $4 million for Covid-19 relief efforts.
KeyBank announced Thursday it will match the governor’s $1.2 million state challenge grant to construct a building for the vintage 1924
Gurney said Explore & More also did a great job of helping kids with disabilities.
The museum received a second grant for $64,000 from the Western New York Foundation to pay the salary of another employee for 18 months.
Staffing stands at around 30, below the 50 full-time equivalent positions filled when the museum averaged 800 to 1,200 people a day. Attendance is about half of what it was then.
The drastically lower Covid-19 infection rates in the region is an encouraging sign, Urbanczyk said. Protocols are also changing. While Explore & More's staff is 100% vaccinated, the museum recommends mask use for children, but no longer requires it.
Urbanczyk said things aren't going back to normal anytime soon.
"We are still losing our school market and rentals, so we know we have another year at least that is uncertain," she said.
Urbanczyk is also hopeful that companies that made 2020 pledges for a $3 million matching endowment grant from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation will be able to pay them this year or in 2022.