Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2009 > April > 12
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Austin Planetarium Party at The Belmont
A certain city built on high tech hosts no major technology museum or teaching center.
Torvald Hessel, Jessica Lockhart, Will Mills
That does not compute. During the past decade, Austin has spent more than $300 million on arts and humanities centers (Long Center, Blanton Museum, Bullock Texas History Museum, MACC, etc.), but not a dime on a comparable science and technology amenities.
Steve Rung, Russ Finney, Teresa Finney, Richard Garriott
Austin Planetarium wants to change that. Like some many enthusiastic groups before it, the Planetarium demonstrates the right gray-matter stuff without much of the necessary green stuff.
Adam Schlender, John P. Funk
Now the Planetarium has earned the backing of Richard Garriott, the ever-imaginative Austin computer games inventor who recently traveled to outer space. Garriott promised to match all the contributions made during a party for the Planetarium at The Belmont on Saturday.
Zhena Rock, Alexander Kouznetsov, Sergey Vashchenko aka Flying Balalaika Brothers
The backers also benefit from the energy and determination of Torvald Hessel, a University of Texas systems analyst and Austin Community College astronomy professor who is now executive director of the Planetarium. (He’s such a dyed-in-the-wool science guy, he apparently didn’t know he shared a first name with Nora’s husband in Henrick Ibsen’s classic drama, “A Doll’s House.” Somebody needs to read C.P. Snow’s lecture, “The Two Cultures.” Come to think of it, I should re-read it.)
Shannon McCombs, Andrew Horwitz
Other than Garriott, there are no big names associated with the project, but the backers are aiming at a prime location (to be revealed) and have worked out a sensible construction budget (given how an ongoing recession can depress costs).
Natalia Ovcharenko, Oksana Chernyuk
Incidentally, the Russian regalia and music was in honor of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. This was no dress-up folk show, but actual Russians delighted to share their culture with Austinites. I wondered what Texans would do at a John Glenn party over there.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Biz & High Tech, Out
