Eager to raise its profile as a Tristate center for arts and culture, the Cincinnati Museum Center has a new estimate of its annual impact on the local economy: $75.6 million.

Cincinnati Museum Center officials say upkeep on Union Terminal is too expensive. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Almost one-third of its more than 1 million yearly visitors are from out of town, and about 28 percent of the households visiting the Queensgate facility are low-income, according to the study from the Economics Center for Education & Research at the University of Cincinnati.

        Despite its economic impact, the museum center has not been financially stable since it was founded in the old Union Terminal in 1990.

        President Doug McDonald said he hopes the report will show that the facility's offerings — the Museum of Natural History and Science, Children's Museum, Cincinnati History Museum and Omnimax — are a “public treasure” that deserve public support.

        The Museum Center's attendance is No. 1 among all Ohio museums and it's among the top attractions in Greater Cincinnati, officials said. They planned to present the study to Hamilton County commissioners today.

        “There isn't one institution that you can say touches as many people as the Museum Center,” said Valerie Newell, chairwoman of the museum's trustees.

        The CMC broke even for the first time in its 12-year history in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001, and while results for the year finished June 30 aren't complete, the CMC will post a loss, Mr. McDonald said.

        The center receives about $150,000 a year in operating and capital support from the city of Cincinnati and the state of Ohio. That would pay only about one-quarter of the center's annual utility bill. Overall, it spends about $2.5 million annually just to maintain the Union Terminal building.

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