The power of crowds | Group Tour Magazine Blog
The power of crowds | Group Tour Magazine Blog
TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2012
| Nikola Tesla's lab, Wardenclyffe, as it looked in 1904; more than a century later, the lab will be saved and preserved. | |
The power of crowds
This blog examines the true story of how a cartoonist raised $1 in a week to fund a Tesla museum
By Amanda Black
Did you hear the one about the cartoonist that raised a million dollars for a new museum? It’s not a joke; it’s something that’s really happened — and it only took a week.
Matthew Inman, the cartoonist from theoatmeal.com, has long admired Nikola Tesla, the inventor and one-time rival of Thomas Edison. (Warning: his website is very funny, but it’s not exactly family-friendly.)
Like Edison, Tesla worked in a workshop, did amazing things with energy, and earned the title of genius. He was a character in one of my favorite movies: The Prestige, a dark, twisty Christopher Nolan movie, and he was the namesake of Tesla Motors, the innovative electric-car company based in California.
But, Edison seemed to win when it came to the popular vote. Children learn about him in school, and he seems to have gained the status as American legend. His workshop has been carefully preserved and is the centerpiece of Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey.
Tesla’s Shoreham, N.Y., workshop, Wardenclyffe, lies in near-ruin, but soon it will be saved. A nonprofit group has been working hard to save and restore his workshop and create the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
The museum has been long in the works, but thanks to a crowd-sourced fund-raising project led by the cartoonist, its reality is solid.
By Amanda Black
Did you hear the one about the cartoonist that raised a million dollars for a new museum? It’s not a joke; it’s something that’s really happened — and it only took a week.
Matthew Inman, the cartoonist from theoatmeal.com, has long admired Nikola Tesla, the inventor and one-time rival of Thomas Edison. (Warning: his website is very funny, but it’s not exactly family-friendly.)
Like Edison, Tesla worked in a workshop, did amazing things with energy, and earned the title of genius. He was a character in one of my favorite movies: The Prestige, a dark, twisty Christopher Nolan movie, and he was the namesake of Tesla Motors, the innovative electric-car company based in California.
But, Edison seemed to win when it came to the popular vote. Children learn about him in school, and he seems to have gained the status as American legend. His workshop has been carefully preserved and is the centerpiece of Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey.
Tesla’s Shoreham, N.Y., workshop, Wardenclyffe, lies in near-ruin, but soon it will be saved. A nonprofit group has been working hard to save and restore his workshop and create the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
The museum has been long in the works, but thanks to a crowd-sourced fund-raising project led by the cartoonist, its reality is solid.
| It was just another day at the office for Nikola Tesla. | ||
The nonprofit group behind the museum (formerly the Friends of Science East, now Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe) received a grant from the state of New York to purchase the for-sale property where Tesla once worked, but needed to raise $850,000 to unlock the full value of the grant and purchase the land.
It seemed impossible to raise that much money — but it ended up taking less than a week once Inman got involved. The whole story is long, and it’s told at the fundraising page at indiegogo.com.
But to make the long story short, 27,654 people from around the world have kicked in donations and have raised $1,146,303 in a week since the campaign began. The campaign goes on for another month, and the extra dollars beyond the original $850,000 will go towards operations and anything else the new science center will need.
Is crowd-sourcing the future of museum fund-raising? The website is new, but museums and historical sites long have been funding by multiple small donations. Inman and the Tesla Science Center have gotten a lot of press for this, and deservedly so.
I hope that other great places out there can harness the power of the crowd, whether or not cartoonists are involved.
Amanda Black has spent the last 10 years with Group Tour Magazine uncovering the best attractions and tours for groups. She lives in Holland, Mich., with a lovely view of a meadow and duck pond. Amanda is big fan of fresh food and TV dramas as well as all things cute.
It seemed impossible to raise that much money — but it ended up taking less than a week once Inman got involved. The whole story is long, and it’s told at the fundraising page at indiegogo.com.
But to make the long story short, 27,654 people from around the world have kicked in donations and have raised $1,146,303 in a week since the campaign began. The campaign goes on for another month, and the extra dollars beyond the original $850,000 will go towards operations and anything else the new science center will need.
Is crowd-sourcing the future of museum fund-raising? The website is new, but museums and historical sites long have been funding by multiple small donations. Inman and the Tesla Science Center have gotten a lot of press for this, and deservedly so.
I hope that other great places out there can harness the power of the crowd, whether or not cartoonists are involved.
Amanda Black has spent the last 10 years with Group Tour Magazine uncovering the best attractions and tours for groups. She lives in Holland, Mich., with a lovely view of a meadow and duck pond. Amanda is big fan of fresh food and TV dramas as well as all things cute.
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