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Last Updated: 12:16 pm | Friday, June 13, 2008

What's future for Freedom Center?

BY JESSICA BROWN | JLBROWN@ENQUIRER.COM

A month from now, more than 7,000 delegates for the NAACP national convention will converge on Cincinnati
where they’ll find on the riverfront a building devoted to the Underground Railroad, to freedom, to hosting school
groups and community forums.

As non-controversial as that sounds, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center may be one of the most
debated institutions in Cincinnati.

Shepherded by a Republican congressman – its original board even included Dick Cheney – the Freedom Center,
is now vilified by a group of local Republicans that consistently tries to derail funding for it.

• What do you think about the Freedom Center? Tell us in our new forum?

Those who visit the center are impressed. But only 20 percent of local residents have stopped in, according to
Freedom Center research.

Hundreds of thousands have visited since the center opened in August 2004, but attendance fell short of original
predictions and is slowly decreasing. Officials expect it to level out to between 160,000 and 180,000 yearly. But
the center’s financial picture is brightening, having posted a surplus for the second year in a row.

Even as the Freedom Center prepares for a showcase summer – the National Baptists convention arrives two
months after the NAACP – it’s still trying to explain exactly what it is and what it isn’t

“We are a museum of conscience,” said Donald Murphy, Freedom Center CEO. “It takes a little while for that to
sink in.”

In short, the story of the Freedom Center encapsulates all the clashes that often bedevil Greater Cincinnati – over
race, over taxes, over differing visions of riverfront development, even over history itself.

Former Cincinnati NAACP President Edith Thrower explains the controversy this way: When the Freedom Center
was being planned, many local whites thought it was going to be a slavery museum. They didn’t want to be
reminded of that dark place in history.

Meanwhile, many local African-Americans wanted it to graphically document the atrocities of slavery like the
Holocaust museum documented that tragedy. Many, including Thrower, think it didn’t go far enough, and the
disappointment lingers.
“I’m sad people have not embraced it locally,” Thrower said. “I think they just didn’t know what to expect so they
made a lot of assumptions. Now they are getting past those assumptions,” she said.

The Freedom Center is a museum about the Underground Railroad, the secret network that aided slaves’ escape
to freedom. But it’s also a place for discussions about contemporary human rights issues and a center for
learning, research and activism.

“Most people don’t know what they do there,” Thrower said. “I hope it expands and grows in the way the people
who planned it envisioned and that the people of Cincinnati will come to embrace it.”

Advertising giant BBDO (clients include Pepsi, Campbell’s and Gillette) is working – for free – for the Freedom
Center to see if there’s a better way to get the message out about what the Freedom Center is.

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The Freedom Center also is launching new projects – like distance learning programs, in which it provides
interactive online curriculum for schools, and kiosks at Underground Railroad sites in Ohio.

It’s engaging Internet-savvy and socially conscious young adults through online forums, YouTube videos and a
Facebook page. It also has launched a campaign against human trafficking.

But can the once-struggling Freedom Center escape the entrenched skepticism and finally convince the public
that it really is a worthwhile organization?

FINANCES

Finances are often the most criticized aspect about the Freedom Center.
Construction of the $110 million Freedom Center was paid for with a combination of public and private dollars.
The state contributed $15 million. The federal government gave $25 million. Cincinnati donated the land and gave
more than $6 million The county built the parking garage. The rest – about $64 million – came from private
donors. Private Donations and revenue covers the cost of operations – about $10 million a year on average.
When the Freedom Center was in the planning stages, hopes were high. It would be a unique and inspirational
attraction that would draw up to a million visitors a year, planners said in 1997, citing economic impact studies. At
the time they were certain that ticket sales and private donations would cover costs.
But two years before the 158,000-square-foot center opened with celebrity-studded fanfare in August 2004,
financial troubles already were foreseen.
In 2002, annual attendance estimates were scaled back to 260,000 people, and then-Freedom Center President
Ed Rigaud said he anticipated losses of $2 million to $3 million a year. He told The Enquirer, though, that the
center would not ask for additional public money to keep its books balanced. Critics still refer to that comment as
the reason the Freedom Center should get no public money, even for construction.
After it opened, attendance reached a high of 205,944 in 2005 and has declined slightly since to around 162,000
last year. The center lost $5.5 million in its first 18 months of operation, prompting then-CEO John Pepper in 2006
to acknowledge for the first time that the Freedom Center would eventually need a $2 million to $3 million annual
public subsidy to cover costs.
So far, it has not received any public money for operations – its only try in 2006 was rejected. That year the
Freedom Center was initially slated under Gov. Ted Strickland’s budget to receive $250,000 a year (for two years)
for operating proceeds on top of $2 million for construction debt. But the Ohio House cut all the operating dollars
after several people testified against it at a Senate panel hearing that summer.
The Freedom Center has received plenty of criticism for its miscalculations.
“They promised many, many years ago that they would not continue to seek taxpayer money,” said state Rep.
Tom Brinkman, R-Mount Lookout, who consistently opposes any and all public funding for the Freedom Center
and refuses to set foot in the building on principle. He doesn’t want to support a museum that he thinks has
misled the public.
The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes also is against Freedom Center funding. Sycamore and
Anderson townships passed resolutions in 2006 voicing their opposition.
The organization’s most recent battle involving finances erupted this spring when it requested $3.75 million in
state capital money – public dollars allocated every two years for construction projects across the state. Other
area attractions, including the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens and the Cincinnati Art Museum, also sought
money.
The Freedom Center hoped to improve exhibits and remodel its first floor, including reconfiguring a new front
door. Its priority request was to also collect the remaining $850,000 of a $15 million commitment by the state for
construction-related debt.
The Ohio General Assembly made a non-binding agreement in 1999 to give the money over the next several
years if it was financially able to do so. A packed-house public hearing in Hamilton County on the issue drew
arguments on both sides.
Several legislators have been supportive of the allocation.
“The state and the nation have to take a long view of a project like this,” said state Rep. Tyrone Yates, D-Walnut
Hills, who regularly tries to help the organization gain more legislative support.
Added state Sen. Eric Kearney, D-North Avondale: “It’s an important part of our city, it’s a national attraction that
brings people from all over the country so I want to do whatever I can to support it.”
Critics want the Freedom Center to relocate to a smaller site or go away all together. But U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt,
R-Miami Township, said it would be “a huge black mark on our city if its doors were to close.”
The capital bill, approved Wednesday, included only the $850,000. Brinkman had tried to block even that request.
“Every other project petitioning for money deserves it more because they haven’t proven themselves to be a
disaster,” he said.

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“Disaster” is hardly the word Freedom Center officials would use to describe their operation. Donald Murphy, who
took over as CEO in May 2007, said the Freedom Center is turning a corner financially and posting surplus for the
first time.
“When it was first opened, the budgets were based on projections,” he said. “That’s nothing unusual for
businesses.”
And like a business, it responded by restructuring. Since 2005, the Freedom Center has reduced operating
expenses by about a third – from nearly $11 million in 2005 to roughly $7 million this year – primarily by
eliminating more than a third of its employees; it now has 50 full time and 30 part time workers.
The Freedom Center’s overall budget was still in the red in 2006, according to its Form 990, a tax document that
certain federally tax-exempt organizations must file to provide information on their finances.
However, its operating budget – which officials typically use when describing an organization’s financial health –
recorded a surplus, mostly due to a fundraising campaign.
The “Bridge to the Future” campaign raised $10 million, eliminating a significant portion of the debt and generating
operating surpluses of $2.7 million in 2006 and around $500,000 in 2007.

'NOT ATYPICAL'

Murphy said the growing pains felt by the Freedom Center are no different than at any other museum.
“We’re still a start-up,” he explained, saying it often takes a while for stability to set in.
Others agreed.
“It’s not atypical. It’s kind of representative of the museum world,” said Dennis Barrie, the former head of
Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center, of the Freedom Center’s rocky first few years. Typically it takes that long
for true attendance and revenue figures to flatten out, said Barrie, who also co-created the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame and the International Spy Museum. He is now working in Cleveland for Westlake Reed Leskosky, which is
developing several more museums.
Like many other museums though, he expects the Freedom Center would ultimately have to rely on public
subsidies to cover costs.
The Freedom Center has some wonderful exhibits, he said, but the building is “oversized,” which increases costs.
“To justify its size is really hard given what their projected attendance is,” he said.
And, while the Freedom Center’s message is important, it doesn’t enjoy the mass appeal or heavy tourist market
of museums in New York or Washington, D.C.
“I can’t imagine it really doing more than the 200,000 in attendance. So they are in a rough place,” he said. “It
never in my mind was a museum that made money. I just can’t see it happening.
“Most museums have to operate with some sort of subsidy because costs and income never match up,” Barrie
said. “You have to accept that with the Freedom Center.”
With a trimmed-down $7 million budget this year, Freedom Center officials hope to eventually generate enough
money through private donations and the creation of an endowment because “public money is risky,” said
Murphy.
The Freedom Center is evaluating how to improve profits at its gift shop and restaurant space.
It approached developers for The Banks riverfront project, which plans to build two signature restaurants directly
south of the Freedom Center. Murphy wants them to consider integrating the Freedom Center restaurant into their
project instead.

WHY SO CONTROVERSIAL?

The debate about the Freedom Center, though, goes beyond money. It started well before the building was even
built.
As early as 1997, discussions arose about the location and the way the exhibits would be presented. Some
thought the Freedom Center should be in Ripley, Ohio, which is home of Rankin House, an actual Underground
Railroad site. Abolitionist strongholds of Philadelphia or Boston also were considered.
Then-U.S. Rep. Rob Portman pushed for Cincinnati, which was a major hub for runaway slaves. The city donated
the land, corporate giant Procter & Gamble donated seed money and the home of the Freedom Center was
eventually secured here on the river that separated free from slave states.
Questions also swirled about the building’s state-of-the-art design. The debate was noted in the Philadelphia
Inquirer in 1997. “Is a sleek $70 million high-technology museum backed by wealthy corporations, the place to
recount a heritage that was forged in fields, swamps and backroads?” it asked.
Leaders of the volunteer Ohio Underground Railroad Association, which looks after the often dilapidated safe
houses that crisscross the state, didn’t think so at the time.
“I don’t want to be sour grapes as far as the Cincinnati effort. (But) the story didn’t unfold in a big fancy museum,”
association founder Cathy Nelson told the Inquirer for the article. “We don’t need a great, big, shiny something to

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tell the story.”

Ten years later the association still took issue with the fact that the Freedom Center was getting public money. In
June 2007 Nelson testified before a state Senate panel against restoring a two-year, $500,000 operating subsidy,
suggesting the money should go to other sites. that Strickland struck from the state capital bill. She suggested the
money go to other Underground Railroad sites instead. Paul Bernish, Freedom Center spokesman, said the
center is working hard to promote tourism at Ohio Underground Railroad sites.
Brinkman said early divides like that may be why some people have bitter feelings toward the Freedom Center.
“They never got buy-in from the community,” he said. “It was a top-down thing. They said, ‘We will do this, and
you will like it.’ I don’t know how they turn it around.”
Bernish noted that thousands of people including celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Laura Bush attended
groundbreaking or grand opening events.
It was a big deal for the community, he said. Even the Enquirer was on board. It donated office space for the
Freedom Center for two years before the building was built and its publisher at the time was on the Freedom
Center board.
Many believe the ill will toward the Freedom Center is rooted in Cincinnati because of assumptions, racial ideas or
misconceptions.
Cincinnati NAACP President Christopher Smitherman thinks the Freedom Center could do a better job reaching
out to the local African-American community.
“It absolutely could be a very important institution in our community,” he said. “I wish them well. (But) why aren’t
you embraced by the people you are celebrating and fighting for? I don’t know.”
He is also troubled by its finances – he thinks it should support itself without tax money. The chapter membership
has not taken a position on the Freedom Center.
Just before construction on the Freedom Center began, Cincinnati was one of the most segregated cities in the
nation, according to a 2002 U.S. Census bureau report. In 2001, a Cincinnati police officer shot and killed an
unarmed black man, touching off days of riots that brought racial tension to a fever pitch.
The Freedom Center was mentioned by many influential politicians as a symbol that the city was healing. The
characterization didn’t sit well with some who thought the Freedom Center didn’t belong in a city where many felt
racism was alive and well.
Then there were the complaints about its cost and prominence on the riverfront. Some said the money and land
could have been put to a better use. Some thought the Freedom Center should be a wing at Union Terminal, not
its own building.
But not all discussions of the Freedom Center are negative. Those who go say it’s inspirational and educational.
They are proud Cincinnati is where this story is being told.
“We get some things really right,” Murphy said. “Once they’re here, they’re pleasantly surprised.” he said.
“That we aren’t a collecting-artifacts museum. We do that, but we’re very programmatic too.”
Comments on an Enquirer message board were mostly complimentary. Some said it should receive public
funding.
“I think it’s a beautiful building, and one of the most valuable places to go in this area,” one person wrote. “If
anything, the Freedom Center needs government aid to continue promoting awareness and education programs
about contemporary issues of slavery. In my opinion, it is a very beneficial institution that exceptionally enhances
this city.”
The Freedom Center is also a growing asset to the city for tourism and economic development. Its presence
draws visitors from across the country and internationally. It also put Cincinnati on the national map for luring
lucrative conventions here.
“They have a unique selling point because of our history with the Underground Railroad. They are a center for
that dialogue. Not a museum, a center,” said Julie Calvert, vice president of marketing and strategic development
for the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Although the Freedom Center’s appeal is not limited to multicultural events, she said, it will host two of the most
high-profile ones this summer. The National NAACP Convention takes place July 12-17, and the National Baptist
Convention is Sept. 8-12. The Freedom Center’s presence in Cincinnati was a major deal-maker.
“There are other cities like Louisville, Memphis, Birmingham that compete for these high-profile, thought-
provoking conventions,” Calvert said. “If we didn’t have the Freedom Center at the table, we would be at a
competitive disadvantage.”
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