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Back to the Future – Celebrating 50 Years
In the course of any journey, to get a
sense of where you are and where you
need to go, you must look back at where
you started and see how far you’ve traveled. Times of reflection conjure up fond
memories and help adjust the course accordingly.
These times of reflection also remind us
of our mission and why we started the
journey. Remembering helps us revive and
revise the vision, casting it further down
the road. Such is the case with the Besser
Museum’s 50th Anniversary.
To recount all the steps that were taken
over the course of the past 50 years would
be next to impossible. However, each and
every step brought the Besser Museum to
where it is today. Through ups and downs,
through phases and fads, while history was
being made, the doors of the Besser Museum greeted hundreds of thousands of
visitors offering them unique and engaging
experiences.
Fulfilling the original Greek concept of
a museum, a temple for the muses, Besser
Museum has brought the inspiration of
arts, history, science and culture to the
communities of Northeast Michigan.
When you hit 50 years of age, as I have
recently, you wonder how it is you can be
old and young at the same time. You know
you have experienced a good portion of
your life, and yet you have so much life
ahead of you. This feeling of familiarity
mingled with anticipation and excitement,
is what I feel for the Besser Museum.
Standing at the 50-mile marker in this
remarkable journey we have much to celebrate and much more to achieve. Our past
accomplishments and the future successes
are completely connected to the people of
Northeast Michigan.
Make the Besser Museum Better!
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For more information about our
50th Anniversary Campaign, visit www.bessermuseum.org
2 - Besser Museum 50th Anniversary ~ Wednesday, January 27, 2016
The Besser Muin whenever needed.
seum torch has been
Hundreds of individucarried forward and
als have contributed
passed through the
their time, their talent
hands of your neighand their financial gifts.
bors, your families
Our volunteers are
and your friends.
the lifeblood of the
Jesse Besser started
Besser Museum keepthis journey by
ing the institution operbuilding the first
ating. They understand
major museum in
and value the impornorthern Michigan.
tance of having a culFollowing him was a
tural center of arts,
community who
history and science like
shared his vision and
the Besser Museum in
funded the installaNortheast Michigan.
tion of the only full
The Besser Museum
dome planetarium in
is a non-profit 501(c)
northern Michigan.
(3) charitable organizaBy Christine Witulski
Through the past
tion and receives no
Besser Museum
50 years, several dicontinuing financial
Executive Director
rectors have devoted
support from federal,
their time and talent
state or local governworking alongside volunteer boards of
ment entities or millage. The generous dotrustee members who took their responsinations from private individuals,
bility of stewardship seriously. The past
foundations, businesses, museum memfive decades have been filled with talented berships and paid admissions have kept
employees in the roles of curator of exthe Besser Museum fully functional for
hibits, education, collections, anthropolthe past 50 years.
ogy, planetarium coordinator, receptionist,
Looking back, we are filled with overdevelopment and maintenance.
whelming appreciation for all the past
However, the real heroes in our musupport. Looking ahead, there is great anseum’s history are our volunteers, the
ticipation for the journey and where this
friends of the museum, the Founders Soci- community will carry the Besser Museum
ety members; those who step up and step
in the future.
The most common
phrase heard uttered by the thousands of visitors
who have entered
these doors in the
last five decades is:
“I had no idea what
an awesome museum this is.” As
the Besser Museum
celebrates its 50th
anniversary, the
museum hopes even
more people, young
and old alike, will
come to appreciate
all that the facility
has to offer.