The Journey Museum has changed, that was the message that Rapid City Council members heard from the annual report given at the regular meeting on Monday night. Now in its 21st year, Executive Director Troy Kilpatrick said reorganizing efforts the past few years has helped the Journey to find its purpose, which is education. He said that since the Learning Center title was added to the Journey Museum in 2015, as a part of a new a branding campaign, numbers have increased…
He said there was a 20 percent increase in paid attendance overall from 2014 to 2017..….
Kilpatrick said while they have grown attendance significantly, expense growth has remained modest, growing by only $13,769-dollars or 1.9 percent annually. Average growth he estimated was a little more than $31-thousand dollars or 4.75 percent.
The fly in the soup would be the HVAC system. The Council spent $40,000 from CIP for maintenance and upkeep, and The Journey also spent $49,000 to help fix the aging system. Kilpatrick said efforts to manage systems-related issues have been costly and for 2017 leaving the museum below the break even point.
Story By: KOTA’s Marnie Cook
