The Witte Museum should have a signature front entrance to help brand its future growth. The entrance should be historically resonant and futuristic bold. Specifically, the archways that reflect the architect of the original Witte front as well as throughout Brackenridge Park should be present. Integrated in that resonant past should be a large atrium that symbolizes the link from Broadway to the San Antonio River, from the front of the museum to the Park, from the building to nature.

We know from our museum colleagues nationally that Americans are increasingly fascinated with vanishing worlds and intrigued with the world to come. Upon entering the Witte Museum, the visitor will encounter enormous space with a flying Queztecuatol with a 40-foot wing space and a 6-foot-long skeletal head. Other Creataceous creatures will also greet them as well as paleontology pods that offer families the opportunity to dig along limestone walls, and in the floor. Sounds and footsteps of a Tricerotops will periodically appear from the entrance to the large Oak Tree at the rear of the atrium. The Creataceous creatures will be those that inhabited the shallow sea and swamps of Texas. The creatures are examples of a vanishing world, but interpretive strategy used to evoke  their lifeways should be ever-changing to illustrate the power of the imagination and high technology. The entrance should thus create a synthesis of the past and future, igniting anticipation for the experience to come throughout Witte Museum campus.

Though in plain sight, before entering this magical space, the visitor will be greeted by guest services personnel and given a ticket for entrance to the campus. For new visitors, an orientation theater experience will be offered. The visitor experience will be organized from the natural history (Texas Wild) spine to the three areas of the campus, Science, Texas History, and Water Resources, but the visitor can take any path, including the open collection storage areas, the archeology public program/gallery spaces, special exhibitions, and pioneer village and historic houses.

The signature spaces on the Witte Museum Campus will be the H-E-B Science Treehouse, the South Texas Heritage Center, the San Antonio River, the Acequia Court, and the Witte Water Center. In addition, the visitor can explore special exhibitions, programs, demonstrations, and theaters throughout the campus, some of which will have a surcharge. To help guide the visitor, podcasting and/or hand held devices will be available to enhance the experience. Outdoor and indoor informal dining will be offered at the Alligator Garden restaurant.

The Campus will include water and flora features that capture and interpret the special nature of a headwaters environment. The Witte Museum must incorporate outdoor interpretive strategy that will underscore and sustain a beautiful river front environment.

Such beauty, both from its architecture, views, windows, and its outdoor gardens and spaces, will ensure its attraction as a venue for special paid events, providing a healthy revenue stream for the future. 

Americans have thousands of choices to make every day as consumers, at the grocery store, on the internet, on television. Too many choices, some say. The Witte Museum has chosen to focus the programs for the visitors. Once known as the attic of South Texas, the Witte Museum today aims to reflect the passions, needs, and calls of the community. After years of planning, focus group and public survey research, community collaborative committee discussions and study, certain themes emerged as community initiatives. San Antonians, South Texans and visitors to this community yearn to experience the founding communities – the first people, the Spanish ranchers, the vaqueros and cowboys herding the cattle up the trail, and the sprawling ranches that became the land of the oil and gas wells, and hunting destinations for a global society. Community partners called for public access to specialized knowledge about the complicated story of water. How does an aquifer work, what is a watershed, how healthy are our precious rivers? Finally, families, educators, and corporate partners called for access to state-of-the-art science learning so young people can encounter what they must know to thrive in a scientifically literate society.

The Witte Museum intends to serve the community call and to continually test the relevance of its interpretive strategy in providing programs on South Texas heritage, water, and science. Already, we know through our increasing numbers of school children (87,000 in 2005) that the Witte Museum offers significant curriculum enhancement opportunities. School teachers are seeking innovative ways to share specialized knowledge that only the Witte Museum can offer for river and water learning, historical immersive experience, and scientific engagement. Pre-visit, gallery guide, and post-visit activities are offered to teachers throughout South Texas. Campus expansion will provide capacity for even more program opportunities for school children, through curriculum specific workshops, demonstrations and special programs.

The architecture, visitor way finding, and the interpretive strategy throughout the Witte Museum campus must reinforce and enhance the civic call for the three initiatives: History, Science, and Water features should dominate the outdoor and indoor experiences of the entire campus. Opportunities to integrate layered learning of scientific principles, river and water lessons, and historically revealing moments and spaces should be ever-emerging. 

In the landmark book, 100 Years of Museums In America, published this year , Witte Museum founding director Ellen Shulz Quillin was praised for establishing the museum, but also for founding the Reptile Garden, called the museum’s “most endearing attractions and a certified crowd pleaser – the perfect combination of serious scholarship and public entertainment.” How delightful that the Witte Museum has since its founding been a model for it vital and imaginative role in the community.

The Witte Museum must be continually engaging the public in new ideas to ensure that vitality. Life-long learning is the Mission of the Witte Museum and controversial and novel ideas should be encountered in ongoing forums and exhibits if the Witte is to be relevant and connected to the community. The new campus will include program spaces for adult, children, and family learning. We know from futurists and demographers that an aging generation will be looking for relevance and educational opportunities that can only happen in public spaces. The Witte has in its history successful adult and elderhostel programs. With campus expansion, the Witte will once again have capacity for life-long learning opportunities.

The Witte Museum is for the regional community, but also for the cultural visitor and its campus should reflect regional, national and world communities. San Antonio is viewed a model of the future with its predominant Hispanic population and its focus on families. The Witte Museum celebrates this novel story of cultural confluence, but also addresses the conflicts that can emerge when cultures collide. The Witte has an enduring reputation in exploring and exposing the most sensitive topics, most notably in its bold gallery theater presentations. The new campus will ensure spaces that embrace the Witte’s gallery theater tradition and innovation.