Tech group will help Leonardo

The Utah Technology Industry Council wants to boost the state’s current tech sector, but it also has an eye on helping that sector’s future.

Meeting last week, council members said they would do what they can to help the development and fund-raising efforts for The Leonardo at Library Square, a planned arts, culture and science center at the former main library in Salt Lake City.

By Brice Wallace
Deseret Morning News

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595051827,00.html

Project officials discussed the development’s potential and needs with the council, saying they want to open the center in late 2005 or early 2006.

The project would have three partners operating at the former library: Global Artways, the city’s arts education program; the Center for Documentary Arts; and the Utah Science Center.

Several council members said the science center — which will have hands-on, interactive activities for people from fourth grade on up — could be helpful in getting youngsters interested in tech careers.

"If you think about why we choose the career we’re in, I’d say that 75 percent could say it was one person or one experience," council member Suzanne Winters said. "This science center would turn on the general population to the opportunities in science and engineering technology."

"We see this as very much a pipeline issue for the (state’s) engineering initiative," council member Rod Linton said.

Those were the kind of comments Joe Andrade likes to hear. He’s in charge of the Utah Science Center component.

"Four hundred thousand people per year going through a place like this can’t help but be affected and informed with respect to their awareness" of science and technology, he said.

Mary Tull, development director for The Leonardo at Library Square, said experiences that will be offered there will be "exploratory, experiential, high-quality," and emphasized that its officials expect to work closely with schools and teachers on the development.

"It’s important to point out that our audience for the Leonardo is adults and kids that will respond to being treated as adults. It’s not a kids’ museum," Andrade said. "The whole idea is to celebrate and empower creativity, invention, innovation — not just in the hard science and technologies, but also looking at the arts and culture and so forth."

Andrade suggested that council members could be involved individually, encourage employees to volunteer their time or effort, work on attaining corporate sponsorships or in-kind donations, or provide leadership and connections that could benefit The Leonardo’s development.

Michael Keene, the state’s science adviser and director of the Centers of Excellence program in the state Division of Business and Economic Development, said project officials have worked closely with educators and institutions to maximize what The Leonardo will offer.

"I’m not even sure Joe and his compadres are in a position to realize just how different some of those things they are doing really are," Keene told the council. "Everybody gives lip service to the educational aspects of what they do with these kinds of institutions. These folks have involved the science and math education specialists from the state Office of Education from the beginning and have worked very closely with them to make sure this actually works as a working, living institution that interacts with the public schools."

He noted that the science center already has a program visiting schools throughout the state, including rural areas, to help teach and inspire "bright and promising young people out there that struggle with minimal numbers of highly qualified teachers and very limited or no labs at the school."

Council member Peter Genereaux said he once saw how young people can be inspired by learning about Utah innovations and innovators. He saw a group get excited when visiting a Utah Information Technology Association display at the Capitol.

"Kids get turned on by these role models and these examples and see them in their language and see what the possibilities are from their points of view," he said. "They don’t say it that way, but that’s kind of the outcome."

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