visitors a year. By tailoring our creative capital, expertise,
programs, and exhibits to the needs of each partner, our
Global Studios efforts, both locally and globally, are directly
addressing our goal of changing the way the world learns.
New exhibits about human interaction in our Osher West
Gallery, as well as new environments onsite and along the
Embarcadero, Market Street, and the Mission District, are
investigating this very public face of our new home.
Like our exhibits, our educational programs focus on
needs both in our own backyard and on the world stage.
We know, for instance, that besides the participants who
come from all over the world to attend our Institute for
Inquiry (IFI) programs, many more have downloaded
IFI workshop materials, available free-of-charge on our
website. Educators from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Poland,
Qatar, Romania, Bangladesh—the list goes on and on—are
bringing our vision to educators in search of innovative
resources and information.
Our backyard, on the other hand, is populated by
some very different types of life forms—the varied and
fascinating microbial creatures of San Francisco Bay. With
cutting-edge facilities supporting our research, easy access
to the bay, and growing partnerships, we’ve begun strands
of work that promise amazing insights and opportunities.
Just in the past few months, for example, we’ve worked
with the Port of San Francisco and the Coast Guard to host
the Bell M. Shimada, NOAA’s deep-ocean research vessel;
the ARC Gloria, spectacular flagship of the Columbian
Navy; Rainbow Warrior, the celebrated Greenpeace ship;
and Falkor, the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remarkable
research vessel.
We’re also addressing this need by developing innovative
online learning programs and free apps such as Sound
Uncovered and Color Uncovered, now downloaded more
than 1.5 million times. Our award-winning website offers
resources to the public, no matter where they are.
Closer to home, our Teacher Institute now delivers more
hours of training for middle- and high-school science
teachers than any other institution in the Bay Area.
Incredibly, 90 percent of new teachers trained here have
stayed in the profession five years or longer, compared to
the national average of less than 60 percent: a very telling
statistic.
Of course, these are the teachers we get to work with
one-on-one. Just as important are the educators who
bring students here on field trips. This year, thanks to
the generosity of PG&E, Exploratorium access is free to
Title I schools, and our friends at Genentech have made
free access available to all California public school
teachers as well.
And that brings us back to home base—the incredible
public learning laboratory and campus we’ve created
here and the spectacular environment in which we find
ourselves.
As much as we see ourselves affecting the world, the
world has a profound effect on us, as well. Here at Pier 15,
there’s an exciting urban environment at our front door.
We love to say that the Exploratorium will never be
“done.” In this extraordinary year, this credo has never
been more visible. In a campus and environment devoted
to experimentation, and a location and community that
teaches us something new every day, we are an ongoing
experiment—one that yields exciting discoveries and new
questions by the minute.
Your support of our new home was essential to our move,
and your ongoing gifts are essential to our success. We
could not do this important work without you. I look
forward to working with you as we face the future together.
Sincerely,
Dennis M. Bartels, PhD