Museum would fit nicely at Fun Zone

Glenn Zagoren

The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum is about to celebrate its 20th

anniversary of serving the residents and visitors to our community,

and unfortunately the lease on our current riverboat site will run

out in 2008.

At that point, the riverboat will most likely be gone from the

harbor. It is not that we want to move, but we have to move.

The board of trustees of the museum has done an exhaustive search

of potential sites in Newport Harbor and has considered Balboa Fun

Zone as a possible home.

I believe it would make a great location for the museum. What

better use for that area than to create an updated, cultural Fun

Zone, one that takes the best aspects of the current environment and

adds to it an educational and historical flair.

Imagine a multitude of family-based activities that embrace our

harbor heritage and use interactivity and participation just like the

current rides and games, yet are upgraded to reflect a nautical

theme. We are not suggesting that we remove the feeling of the Fun

Zone, but we are submitting a proposal for improvement.

While the museum alone would be an asset to the Fun Zone area,

consider the creation of the Historic District of Newport Beach.

Given that the pavilion is currently there along with the Balboa

Theater, the Ferris wheel and the auto ferry, the museum would add a

spectacular new facility that would create a true historical

environment that represents the Newport of yesterday as well as

today.

One Daily Pilot reader stated that the museum was for “elderly”

people. Obviously, this person has not been to the museum.

We host more children here than adults. We run a sold-out

toddler-educational program for kids 3 to 5. Our current main exhibit

is the award-winning artwork of kindergarten through eighth-grade

students of Newport Beach. (We had over 350 parents and students

attend that opening.)

And, most importantly, we provide a required educational program

for all fifth-graders in the Newport Mesa Unified School District,

not to mention other schools in the area. And kids from 3 to 103

really enjoy our state-of-the- art fishing simulator, ship models,

antique engines, world-class fine art, sea animal touch tank and

historic nautical photo collection of over 80,000 images, not to

mention the upcoming surfing exhibit, which opens May 27.

The museum benefits a wide range of residents and visitors and is

a true community asset.

In conclusion, the museum would not add any more summertime

traffic but would bring the type of visitor that the businesses and

residents would want in their neighborhood on a year-round basis.

See you at the museum.

* GLENN ZAGOREN is the president and chief executive of the

Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.