MENASHA (NBC 26) — The Barlow Planetarium, Weis Earth Science Museum and the Communication Arts Center are at risk of closing after the UW Oshkosh Board of Trustees agreed to close the Fox Cities campus.
"It would be a tragedy to lose it," said Barlow Planetarium Director Dr. Teri Gee.
Dr. Gee says she was sad to hear they might be affected as the UWO Fox Cities campus shuts its doors in May, but she hopes it doesn't come to that.
Dr. Gee says nearly 27,000 people visited the planetarium last year—which is down from before the pandemic—but she says they're on track to attracting more visitors.
Gee says she has been overwhelmed with the community's support to keep the Barlow open.
She says she would even be willing to hold a fundraiser, because it's such a great resource, not only for the Neenah-Menasha area, but all surrounding neighborhoods.
"What I would like to see happens is that we continue operating as normal under the auspices of the counties instead of UWO. That would be my hope," said Gee. "We're in need of an upgrade for our system, because it's quite old, but as long as we can do a fundraiser we can raise the money to do that upgrade that we need to, and then just keep going and keep being that community resource we've been since we opened."
Gee adds that she's waiting to learn more details from the boards, but she wants to remind everyone that they are still open.
However, they will be closing for a couple weeks in September for annual maintenance.
