COSI Columbus - History

History

COSI opened on March 29, 1964, as a venture of the Franklin County Historical Society. COSI is a founding member of the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative (SMEC) and a long-standing member of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). COSI was originally housed in Memorial Hall, a Columbus landmark that had served as a major performing arts hall since its dedication in 1906. COSI closed its doors at the 280 East Broad Street location and re-opened on November 6, 1999 at a new location on the Scioto riverfront in downtown Columbus. The building was designed by internationally-renowned architect Arata Isozaki using the former Central High School along with new construction on the site of the school's football field.

Generous donations by local philanthropists allowed the museum to continue operating, but eventually the red ink began to catch up with COSI. The museum spearheaded an effort to assess a property tax levy, chaired by former NASA astronaut John Glenn. Ultimately the effort failed and caused the museum to lay off large numbers of its staff, some of them longtime employees. An entire wing of the museum was closed and the planetarium was shut down.

In 2003, COSI's basketball-playing rats, Doris and Edelia appeared on an episode of the Animal Planet series Pet Star, accompanied by two of their trainers, Christy Varner and Nathan Bellomy., (Video) The museum's rats had also previously appeared on the show Real People in 1984.

During the spring and summer of 2005, COSI hosted the blockbuster traveling exhibition "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" and saw record attendance. Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, returned to COSI in 2010. In the summer 2006, COSI hosted another large exhibit: "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination", produced by the Museum of Science, Boston, attracting visitors from 42 of the 50 States as well as Canada. Various members from the 501st and Rebel Legion visited COSI to not only view the exhibit but to entertain other guests with their professional Star Wars costumes.

Since then, COSI has hosted a number of traveling exhibits including Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science (2009). Lost Egypt was produced by COSI in cooperation with the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative, and was built by the Science Museum of Minnesota. Lost Egypt now travels the nation to other museums. COSI has also hosted EINSTEIN, An Exhibition on the Man and his Science (2007), Animation featuring Cartoon Network (2007), Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics (2007), Bob the Builder: Project Build It (2007), Goosebumps! The Science of Fear (2008), CSI: The Experience (2008), Adventures with Clifford the Big Red Dog (2010), Geckos: From Tail to Toepads (2011), Dinosaurs: Explore. Escape. Survive. (2011) and Dora and Diego - Let's Explore! (2011).

In April 2006 Dr. David Chesebrough, former president and CEO of the Buffalo Museum of Science, became COSI's new president and CEO, replacing former NASA astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, who transitioned to a new role as COSI science advisor, on a volunteer basis, while in her new role as the Director for Ohio State University's Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy.

On September 29, 2006 the WOSU@COSI partnership began. The exhibit includes an interactive chroma key set where guests can either stand in front of the green screen or control the background image as well as video effects and digital effects. The rest of the WOSU space hosts offices and studios. The studios have many windows so guests can view the production of radio shows and the editing and broadcasting of television shows.