The First Forty Years
1969-2009

1968     San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts is restored.  Frank Oppenheimer, the noted physicist and educator (brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb), proposes that the cavernous structure house a science museum, or rather an “exploratorium.”

1969     With no publicity or fanfare, the Exploratorium opens it doors with a handful of exhibits and a $50,000 grant from the San Francisco Foundation. In 1999 there are over 650 Exploratorium exhibits. In 2009, a tally indicates over 1000 exhibits have been created. (Not all on public view at the same time.)

1969     High School Explainer Program is formally launched with exactly one Explainer to explain the handful of exhibits.  Today there are over 100 Explainers each year and over 3500 Explainer alumni.  This program has been emulated internationally.

1971    August Coppola (father of actor Nicholas Cage), and Carl Day open the Tactile Gallery, later known as the Tactile Dome.

1972     School-in-the Exploratorium is founded.  Its purpose is to reach out to elementary level teachers and students to improve science education.

1974     Artist-in-Residence program begins commissioning the works of four to six artists annually.  Over 225 visual, performance and media artists have worked as artists-in-residence.

1975     The first in a series of “Cookbooks” is completed.  The cookbooks contain “recipes” for building Exploratorium exhibits, available to any museum around the world.

1975 Round classroom built

1976 Exploratorium Quarterly is first published. FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) starts.

1979     The Exploratorium begins hosting formal residencies for museums and educational organizations around the world. Kellogg Foundation’s funding for this program was its first ever gift to a museum, enabling staff and faculty to come to study the Exploratorium’s ground-breaking exhibit designs.

1979     By its tenth anniversary the Exploratorium is internationally acclaimed for its 425 exhibits.  It attracts a half million visitors a year.  Its shoestring budget has been only $7 million dollars for the entire 10 years.

1980 The Exploratorium completes its mezzanine level, providing more exhibit space, office space, classrooms and other improvements.

1981     The Exploratorium and Frank Oppenheimer receive a $1 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation, known for its “genius” awards.

1982    Frank Oppenheimer receives the American Association of Museums Award for Distinguished Service as “no one in recent years has had a greater impact upon museums.”

1982    PBS science series Nova produces Palace of Delights, a one hour episode about the Exploratorium.

1982 McBean Theater built

1983     The Exploratorium mounts the first Bubble Festival, which is reproduced by museums around the world.

1984    The Exploratorium is designated the first regional science resource center in the state of California.  The Teacher Institute is established as a professional development center for high school science and math teachers. (It will expand to include middle school teachers within a few years.)

1985     The Exploratorium gets a new roof.  The old roof dates from the temporary construction of the Exploratorium’s home, the Palace of Fine Arts, in 1915.  The roof is three acres.

1985     Frank Oppenheimer [August 1912-February 1985] dies of cancer at age 72, working six days a week until shortly before his death.

1985     The Exploratorium opens to rave reviews in New York at IBM’s Gallery of Science and Art on Madison Avenue.  The exhibits go on to form a core at the newly opened New York Hall of Science.

1987     The Osher Fellowship is established to bring a steady stream of scholars, artists and scientists into the museum.

1987    Teachers-in-Residence begin to spend year-long residencies at the museum.

1987     One hundred Exploratorium exhibits open in Paris at the French National Science Museum, La Villette.

1987 Bob White assumes directorship of the Exploratorium.

1988     A café opens inside the Exploratorium, replacing two hot dog and pretzel stands.

1988    Pi Day, an international celebration (and it’s also Einstein’s birthday), began at Exploratorium, March 14, 1988, by Larry Shaw

1989 The Exploratorium tours Japan in a 65 exhibit show, sponsored by Sony co-founder Masara Ibuka. Upon first visiting the Exploratorium, he said, “I was extremely impressed. I wished that Tokyo had a similar ‘hands-on museum.’” The tour opens in Tokyo to enthusiastic crowds.

1989     A severe earthquake strikes the San Francisco Bay area and particularly devastates the neighborhood surrounding the museum.  Exploratorium staff help rescue neighbors in the harrowing hours after the quake.  Shortly thereafter, the Exploratorium mounts an Earthquake Weekend to educate the public about the science of what they had just experienced.

1989    The Exhibit Services division is established to meet demand for duplication of Exploratorium exhibits for sale around the world.

1989 Bob White resigns.

1991    The Science “Snackbook” is published.  Developed by teachers, it instructs fellow teachers around the country on how to build inexpensive tabletop versions of Exploratorium exhibits for the nation’s classrooms.

1991    Dr. Goéry Delacôte, a French scientist and educator, is named director. He creates the Center for Public Exhibition, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Center for Media and Communication.  The latter, a wholly new division, moves the Exploratorium to the forefront of an international electronic network linking schools, home and science centers and dedicated to the improvement of the teaching of science.

1991    Explorabook is published with Klutz Press.  An Exploratorium science museum in a book, this best selling publication sells one million copies.

1992    The Exploratorium goes to the Smithsonian in a special exhibition at the Experimental Gallery.

1993    Exploratorium Web site goes live on December 15, 1993, the first independent museum on the World Wide Web.

1995    The National Science Foundation designates the Exploratorium as one of only four sites in the country (and the only museum) for the professional development of elementary science teachers. This includes a $5 million grant to launch the Institute of Inquiry, a national center for training teachers in inquiry-based teaching.

1996    Visitor learning research program begins

1997 – 1999 The Exploratorium receives the “Best Science Web site” honor for three consecutive years at the annual Webby Awards.  Other nominees in this competitive category are Scientific American, NASA, IBM and UC Berkeley.  The site also receives a five star rating from Yahoo, among other accolades.

1998    The Exploratorium completes $5.5 million in major technological and physical renovations to its home, the historic Palace of Fine Arts.  This includes a new Learning Center, a complete rewiring of the building with state-of-the-art communications capabilities, nine new classrooms, new visitor amenities, and expansion into the new Presidio National Park with facilities for one hundred staff.

1998    The Phyllis C. Wattis Webcast Studio is established, a broadcast facility that links visitors and millions of remote Internet users to the Exploratorium experience and to live science events around the world.

1998    A new logo and identity is introduced to represent the museum, developed by Landor Associates as a tribute to long-time Board member Walter Landor.

1998    More than $1 million is raised in a single night during the Exploratorium’s 21st Annual Awards Dinner honoring Intel’s Andy Grove.

1998    From the island of Aruba, an Exploratorium team presents the first-ever live Webcast of a total solar eclipse.

1999    More than $4 million is raised in a single night during the Exploratorium’s 22nd Annual Awards Dinner, honoring Jim Clark, founder of SGI, Netscape and Healtheon.

1999     Exploratorium launches innovative online and in-museum events. such as webcasting live to the world the last solar eclipse of the millennium on August 11, 1999, live from Amasya, Turkey.

1999    The Exploratorium’s exhibit collection begins a major reorganization

2000    San Francisco’s Exploratorium and the Sony Corporation join together in an educational partnership, located in the heart of the old and the new in Beijing: the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the equivalent of China’s new Madison Avenue.  Sony Explorascience is dedicated solely to education as a gift to the youth of China.

2000    Our 40,000th member joins the museums. (By 2009, we’ll have more than 80,000 members

2001    Exploratorium sends its own team to the highest, driest, coldest, windiest, and most empty place on Earth — Antarctica — to send back live, webcast reports.

2001    Exploratorium webcasts total solar eclipse from Zambia

2002    Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) launches with $10.8 million from the National Science Foundation.  CILS consists of the Exploratorium, King’s College London, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Its purpose is to integrate the best of “informal science learning” with the formal learning that takes place in schools.

2002    Exploratorium receives its 4th Webby award, this time in the field of education.

2002    The Exploratorium’s climate change website wins the prestigious Pirelli Award.

2002    Exploratorium expands and refurbishes its major exhibit collection on Seeing, and adds a new exhibit area on the Traits of Life.

2002    The Exploratorium becomes one of the first science centers ever to receive a grant from the National Science Foundation to award postdoctoral fellowships in public science education.

2003    The new Microscope Imaging Station opens.  It is the first ever to allow visitors to witness, in real time, the amazing development of live specimens and control the position and focus of a state-of-the-art, research-grade microscope.

2003    Exploratorium takes decision to begin investigating relocation, seeking a larger home with better public access.

2003    Exploratorium’s three Centers reorganize as the Center for Public Exhibition, the Center for Learning and Teaching (which includes all online and new media educational work), and the Center for Museum Partnerships, reflecting our collaborations with museums around the world.

2003    Exploratorium begins paying $326,000/year in rent to the city of San Francisco.

2003    $1.5 million in State funding to support the Exploratorium’s educational work is withdrawn due to State budget cuts.

2003    Ned Kahn, environmental artist and long time staff member at the Exploratorium (1983-1996), creator of Tornado and other popular artwork exhibits, wins MacArthur “genius” Award.

2004    The Coalition for Science After School launches.  It is a group of 50 national organizations committed to science programs for youth participating in afterschool programs.  Organized by the Exploratorium, the Lawrence Hall of Science, and TERC.

2004    Exploratorium receives its 5th Webby award, in the field of science.

2005    Stem cells go on display.  The Exploratorium joins with UCSF and Gladstone Embryonic Stem Cell Laboratory professor Bruce Conklin to develop this prototype exhibit for the public using live mouse stem cells that become cardiac myocytes, the cells that would form the heart.

2005    Exploratorium, the Museum of Science, Boston, and the Science Museum of Minnesota jointly lead a $20 million dollar effort to develop and distribute innovative approaches for engaging Americans in the developing field of nanoscale science and engineering, involving 100 partner science centers and science research facilities.

2005    A Trip Down Market Street 1905/2005, an Outdoor Centennial Celebration sponsored by the Exploratorium in collaboration with the San Francisco Arts Commission and USF, is a public screening to thousands at the foot of Market Street to trace the evolution of San Francisco’s vibrant main artery from before the 1906 quake to the present day.

2005    At the 4th Science Center World Congress in Rio, where science centers from five continents met, directors ranked the Exploratorium as the number one science center in the world.

2005    Dr. Goéry Delacôte, Executive Director of the Exploratorium since 1991, resigns his position due to family obligations, effective September 2005.

2005 Exploratorium identifies Piers 15/17 on the Embarcadero, on San Francisco’s Northern Waterfront, as a possible new home. San Francisco Port Commission unanimously approves entering Exclusive Negotiation Agreement and Term Sheet with the Exploratorium, beginning a long multi-year process of regulatory approvals and lease negotiation, with the goal of a development agreement.

2006    Dr. Dennis Bartels, a nationally known science education and policy expert, became the Exploratorium’s new Executive Director.

2006    Exploratopia is published.  This new book from the Exploratorium brings together 25 years’ worth of Exploratorium activities and knowledge.

2006    Listen: Making Sense of Sound, the Exploratorium’s new exhibit collection that focuses on how human beings listen, opens.

2006    Exploratorium webcasts the total solar eclipse to the world live from Side, Turkey on March  29, in conjunction with NASA. Exploratorium remains open all night.

2006    Exploratorium unofficially joins the online universe of Second Life  with ‘Splo, a protoype Exploratorium  with virtual exhibits. (See 2007 for official opening.) Exploratorium presents the total eclipse webcast to this virtual world.

2007    The New Orleans chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) gives its 2007 Award of to the new Science Education Center at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Louisiana, designed in collaboration with the Exploratorium..

2007    Exploratorium’s Total Solar Eclipse: Live from Turkey webcast wins People’s Voice Award in new “Best Events and Live Broadcast” Category for 11th Annual Webby Awards.

2007    Mind, a major new collection of over 40 new exhibits in cutting-edge neuroscience, opens.

2007    The Exploratorium Island officially opens as the first real-world science museum in Second Life, replete with many popular real-world interactive exhibits and some designed exclusively for Second Life.  The Exploratorium leads the way in a new format for cutting-edge informal science education rooted in experiential learning.

2007    The Exploratorium is selected as one of America’s best nonprofits by a survey of nearly 3,000 nonprofit CEO’s and 60 expert interviews conducted for the new book, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits.

2007    XTech, a new Exploratorium outreach program, offered in collaboration with San Francisco community programs AIM High and First Graduate, is a place where youth in San Francisco and Oakland are given an opportunity to experience the real world of science and technology first-hand.  It draws on the museum’s emphasis on scientific discovery.

2007    In celebration of the International Polar Year (2007-2008), the Exploratorium ventures to the Arctic and the Antarctic.

2008    The Exploratorium, in conjunction with NASA, presents the total solar eclipse from Xinjiang Province in Northwestern China on August 1

2008    The Exploratorium’s Exploratopia, by Pat Murphy, wins 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books

2008    Launch of a new Web Site reveals how science works – Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?

2008    A joint Inquiry Science and English Language Development pilot program of Exploratorium and Sonoma County Unified School District, is launched at El Verano elementary school

2008    John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation names Exploratorium multimedia artist Walter Kitundu as one of 25 MacArthur Fellows for 2008, the only Northern Californian to receive the “genius award” this year.

2008    Martin Chalfie, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was instrumental in the development of the Exploratorium exhibit Green Fluorescent Worm in 2002, in which a jellyfish gene is implanted into a round worm that consequently glows green when exposed to ultra-violet light.  Dr. Chalfie was the pioneer of the development of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP).

2009    Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funds a program, headquartered at the Exploratorium, to support elementary teachers through a professional development program

2009    An Exploratorium team brings playful invention and exploration integrating science, art and technology to the Dalai Lama’s Buddhist monks in Sarnath, India. The monks will use similar materials and methods in their own monasteries in the training of their fellow monks.

2009    A new Outdoor Exploratorium features a collection of 20 brand-new outdoor interactive exhibits harnessing the elements, for permanent view, free to the public. Outdoor Exploratorium opens at Fort Mason Center, and Upper Ft. Mason, along San Francisco’s Northern waterfront, on March 13, 2009.

2009    New extended Thursday evening hours for adults mix cocktails, conversation, and adult-oriented programming on science and the arts.

2009    The Extended Learning group begins offering new member-education programs, including workshops, excursions, day camps, and seminars for older adults, families, homeschoolers, young adults, and early learners.

2009    Archive Project — Media Archiving begins the restoration and digital transfer of hundreds of priceless video and audio tapes documenting more than 35 years of the Exploratorium’s history.

2009    In 2009, a tally indicates over 1000 exhibits have been created over forty years.

2009    NOAA and the Exploratorium announce a five-year partnership. The Exploratorium will bring real-time scientific exploration by NOAA scientists mapping the ocean floor, researching climate change and investigating the atmosphere. It will come to the public nationally through exhibits and live streaming on the web.

2009    A biography of Frank Oppenheimer, Something Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up, by noted science writer K.C. Cole, is published in Summer, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

2009    A tally indicates that more than 1,000 exhibits have been created during the past forty years.

2009  After an extensive search to find a new location with better public access and more space to house all of our educational programs and staff under one roof, the Exploratorium is working through the entitlement process for its proposed new home at Piers 15/17 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero.

Check out http://www.exploratorium.edu/40th/