READING, Pa. – The Reading Public Museum is in the process of renovating, rededicating and renaming its popular planetarium. The new name will be “The Neag Planetarium at the Reading Public Museum” and reflects the $2 million gift made by local philanthropists Ray and Carole Neag of Wyomissing, Pa., a Reading suburb. The Neags have been longtime supporters of the museum, with a particular interest in the planetarium, which first opened in 1969.
The renovations, which have already begun and will take place over the next two years, include interior work to establish a new Space & Science gallery, a new roof and HVAC system, as well as other structural improvements. The rededication ceremony will take place upon the completion of the interior work, projected for late 2011 or early 2012.
A portion of the funding will also be used to create the Neag Fund of the “Feed Their Imagination” program, which is used to bring disadvantaged children to the museum through field trips, after-school programs and summer camps. Additional donors are being sought to increase the number of children impacted by this new program, which began in late 2010 and funded several summer camp opportunities for children through Opportunity House in Reading.
John Graydon Smith, the Reading Public Museum’s director and CEO, said, “The support the museum has received from Ray and Carole through the years has helped us become the institution we are today. This latest gift will help ensure that we remain the leading informal educational institution in the area for the next generation of scientists, artists, and educators and by lending their name to the museum we know that others in the community will want to follow suit and help us affect the lives of even more children and their families through our mission of lifelong learning.”
Ray Neag is a founding partner of the former Arrow International medical supply company. He told Dan Kelly of the Reading Eagle: “We’ve been very fortunate and we like to direct some of our wealth toward education.”
About the Reading Public Museum:
The Reading Public Museum has its collection more than 700 oil paintings by such artists as John Singer Sargent, Edgar Degas, Frederic Church, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Raphaelle Peale and N.C. Wyeth. Contemporary holdings include works by Dale Chihuly, Ansel Adams and Reading native Keith Haring.
The natural history collection encompasses hundreds of thousands of insects, thousands of birds and mammals, and more than 25,000 specimens that document the mineral wealth of our planet. Over 30,000 objects are included in the anthropological and historical collections, including sculpture from Southeast Asia, ivory and jade from China, a magnificent collection of Roman glass, Incan gold and a large and comprehensive collection of sculpture and textile work of American Indians, much of which is unique to the museum.
The museum contains many priceless collections that could not be duplicated today. Over 11,000 first-class specimens, the best of several old collections purchased by Dr. Levi Mengel in the first half of this century, make up the collection of Berks County Indian relics.
Visit the museum online at www.readingpublicmuseum.org.
# # #