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It’s Time to Move the Albright-Knox and Buffalo Zoo to Niagara Falls

If we could ever put the interests of institutional advancement over the prissy sensibilities of cynics, we may be able to make something spectacular of the The Albright–Knox Art Gallery which barely earns 200,000 attendees annually at its Delaware Park location.
BY MATT RICCHIAZZI

If we could ever put the interests of institutional advancement over the prissy sensibilities of cynics, we may be able to make something spectacular of the The Albright–Knox Art Gallery which barely earns 200,000 attendees annually at its Delaware Park location. To put that in perspective, the Niagara Falls State Park attracts more than eight million visitors per year and the Canadian side attracts another 14 million.   

By moving the Albright-Knox across the street from the state park [there is plenty of undeveloped land in downtown Niagara Falls], we could elevate the institution to global prominence. By placing an architecturally jawing museum within the photo-frame of Niagara Falls, we will make the institution instantly recognizable to global audiences, yielding newfound stature and influence that comes from a global stage.

Imagine the revenue growth that would be possible. Of those 22 million visitors to Niagara Falls every year, it would be reasonable to forecast museum attendance by the millions of visitors rather than hundreds of thousands – and with them vastly more operating resources for programing, exhibits, curators, acquisitions, and events.3

The Metropolitan Museum of Art attracts 6.2 million visitors per year; while the Museum of Modern Art attract 3 million visitors. Let’s start competing above our weight – because we can. We can beat them both.

In Niagara Falls, the Albright-Knox could quickly wean itself from taxpayer dollars while simultaneously advancing the institution’s core mission. At Delaware Park, the institution will be limited to its 200,000 visitors, continue to depend on public resources, present fewer exhibitions, provide less programing, and will lack what global relevance it could otherwise have had.

Imagining a Buffalo Niagara Zoological Garden

The Buffalo Zoo is a sadder experience than SeaWorld for many animal lovers. With a 23-acre footprint in Delaware Park, the exhibits are small and the animals emote that they are caged. The administration of the Zoo does fine, given all of the constraints: limited public resources, a relatively small base of patrons, and a lack of public appetite to expand into the park.2

Billionaire developer Howard Milstein owns nearly 140 acres of land in downtown Niagara Falls and Senator Charles Schumer has been prodding the community to come up with a plan. Schumer has argued that the billionaire is a reasonable person who would be receptive to a plan that was brought to him by the community.

So let me propose this: a world class, first rate, awing zoological experience.

The Buffalo Zoo currently attracts 400,000 visitors per year with a $7.43 million annual budget, $1.85 million of which is a taxpayer subsidy. In Niagara Falls, it could conceivably attract 5 million, and can do so without the subsidy. With ticket prices ranging, perhaps, between $10 and $50 per visitor, imagine the operating budget, the job creation, the habitats, and the animals that could be afforded.  We cannot turn our nose at that kind of opportunity.

Lack of regional leadership leaves us all poorer

On survey after survey of Niagara Falls’ tourists, there is a resounding complaint. Tourists tend to be day-trippers because, after the state park, there is little to do. So rather than staying for a weekend or a week, they depart after four hours – not because they don’t want to stay, but because they can’t find anywhere to spend money. What a wonderful problem to have.1

Western New York’s staggering lack of leadership, exceedingly parochial mindset, and dastardly political culture leaves us all poorer.  Decades of bad decision-making and the pettiness of our thinking have kept the region locked in economic doldrums that – despite the best attempts of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s propaganda ministry, known as Empire State Development – we’ve yet to escape.

About the author

Frank Parlato

13 Comments

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  • Artvoice seemed fine up to about two years ago. To paraphrase our ‘favourite’ Buffalo Board of Education member, there must have been a fair amount of “treachery and betrayal” involved in the amalgamation of Artvoice and the Niagara Falls Reporter. Mr. Moses must not have read the fine print.

  • I used to live in Niagara Falls, and left after it became 1946 Berlin. It’s still 1946 Berlin. If there is “regional leadership” in Niagara Falls, they might be part of the French Underground.

    If Buffalo redlines, Niagara Falls does it in spades (think of the Warsaw Ghettos). Redlining itself specifically curtails diversity. There was no diversity when 1946 Berlin separated neighbourhoods by nationality either. Consolidating WNY’s cultural icons within a constrained geographic area will assure that the Warsaw Ghettos continue.

    Niagara Falls is a city frozen in time, as a sociological example of what not to do in urban development. A new urban development in Niagara Falls needs to start with at least bringing its political structure into the post cold-war era – not handing over WNY cultural icons on a private “market” that will only be destroyed in a few years because of its political structure.

  • You’ve got an angry young clown writing for you now? Let’s see, what to do, what to do….Fort Niagara, 8 hiking trails – easy to hard – down into the gorge, Fantasy Island, Niagara Aquarium, the Wine Trail, Historic Lewiston, Olcott Beach, Hershel Carousels, Lockport Locks & Erie Canal Cruises, Lockport Caves Tour, Erie Canal Museum, Buckhorn Island State Park trails,, The Flight of Five, etc. I’ll bet he’s never heard of these places because he’s never left his neighborhood.

  • I have a feeling who ever wrote this article breathes through their mouth.

  • I have a feeling who ever wrote this article breathes through their mouth.

  • Ludicrous. Buffalo and Niagara Falls should be working together as sister cities in a gestalt-the organized whole perceived as more than the sum of its parts. A high speed rail link between Niagara Falls and Canal Side, for instance. Looting Buffalo’s cultural assets is silly.

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