"It's a whole new chapter for the museum."
Kevin Krantz, the exhibits curator at the Lafayette Science Museum for the last three years, has taken over the operation as the new administrator. Krantz had served as interim administrator since the April resignation of his predecessor, Mary Henderson.
"It's a whole new chapter for the museum," says Krantz. "We're pursuing directions that haven't yet been pursued."
Known for decades as the Lafayette Natural History Museum, the venue changed its name and its focus a couple of years ago. The museum is gearing up for a busy fall that will include the October opening of "Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries." The museum's annual fright-filled fundraiser, the Museum of Fear, also opens in October along with the return of Bach Lunch, the concert series in adjacent Parc Sans Souci that helps underwrite museum operations.
Krantz's ascension to the leadership post at the museum was announced Thursday by Lafayette Consolidated Government's Community Development Department.
""I've gotten the chance to watch Kevin in action over the last few months, and I think he is the perfect person to help lead our Science Museum to the next level," says Ben Berthelot, director of Community Development. "His experience as an exhibits curator, combined with his marketing background, will serve him well in this new role."
The planetarium at the museum is undergoing a digital upgrade, and, Krantz says, 2012 will welcome an ambitious exhibit on Winchester rifles and rare weapons, along with a focus on coordinating activities with other cultural agencies in the Lafayette area. "What we're seeing is that there will be cooperative play between us and the other community organizations to work together to do some things that have never been done," Krantz says.