Executive director of Science Central says farewell to Fort Wayne and the center he helped shape

The colorful smokestacks atop Science Central’s building on North Clinton Street are among some of Fort Wayne’s most notable, iconic sights.

Below those smokestacks is an equally impressive operation.

Brittany LantzScience Central, 1950 N Clinton St, Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Inside the 70,000-square-foot building, Science Central holds over 200 exhibits that provide hands-on education and entertainment for approximately 135,000 individuals each year. As the only science center in the region, they draw in visitors from far beyond the boundaries of Allen County. 

Their programming includes demonstrations, labs, outreach events, parties, camps and workshops. Science Central has served 31 counties in the tri-state region through school outreach programs and study trips, which are aligned with the state’s standards for science. 

Claiming the title of the most-visited Fort Wayne museum, Science Central is undeniably a staple on Fort Wayne’s activity list for families, schools, scout programs, and other children-focused organizations.

But, it wasn’t always that way. 

Science Central was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1987 by a group of teachers, parents, engineers and community leaders with the goal of creating a science center. In November of 1995, the organization opened the doors to Science Central in the former City Light and Power building, which had sat decaying for 16 years prior. They spent $9 million renovating the building and constructing exhibits. 

Courtesy Science CentralMartin Fisher demonstrating an experiment at Science Central.When Martin Fisher joined the Science Central staff as executive director 12 years later in 2007, he found the organization to be nearing financial collapse, as they struggled to chip away at the $9 million it took to open the center and keep up with bills and payroll. Exhibits were worn down and broken. The community perspective of the center was not what it is today.

In a recent press release, the Science Central Board credits Martin with reducing Science Central's long-term debt, which was paid off in 2012, leading capital campaigns, revitalizing and growing the exhibit floor, establishing a rebranding effort, and boosting community awareness through media appearances and partnerships.

Under Fishers’ leadership, Science Central came to life, built a remarkable reputation and began flourishing. Now, he’s preparing to depart after 17 years. Fisher says personally, it feels like a good time to try something different, and professionally, he feels Science Central is in a great position. 

“I have absolutely loved it,” Fisher says of his time in Fort Wayne. “I have really enjoyed the city and this region and the time we've been here. We have seen so much growth and we've been able to participate in so much of that growth.”

As Fisher prepares to leave his role as Science Central’s executive director, Input Fort Wayne sat down with him to learn more about the organization's turnaround under his leadership, their soon-to-be planetarium, and the importance of hands-on science experiences.

Visitors experiment with a Topo Box at Science Central.Input Fort Wayne: How did your career path land you at Science Central?
Martin Fisher: When I was 14 years old, I found out that I could be a high school student volunteer for the science center in my hometown. It was unpaid, but I would get to work at that science center and help do programs for the families that were coming in, work on weekends, or help with exhibits. 

I did that all through high school and all through college as an undergraduate. After I graduated with my undergraduate, that very Science Center offered me a job. I worked there, and worked my way up the ladder in a number of different higher-level positions, even through graduate school.

Then after graduate school, they offered me a couple of positions, but I wanted to explore a little bit, so I started applying to places all around the United States and ended up at a children's museum. I was in a senior-level position and I was there for about five years. Then I went to a maritime-themed science center– an ocean science center. I was, again, senior level, part of the leadership team. 

Then I thought, “Can I take everything that I've learned over the years with programs, exhibits, strategic planning, fundraising, media, community relations, partnerships, and on and on, and become the CEO of a place?” I started applying to places around the country and 17 years ago, I decided that Science Central was the right fit for me. 

IFW: What sparked your lifelong interest in science and science centers?
MF: My father was a geologist and we would go on summer vacations to national parks and go camping. On weekends we would go mineral and fossil collecting. During the week, if he was out in the field doing work, he would come back and he would bring me snakes and lizards and frogs and salamanders. So I never had normal pets of cats and dogs, but I had plenty of reptiles and amphibians. 

I was also one of those kids who grew up in a city like Fort Wayne that had a science center. I, like every kid in every grade in every school, went on field trips every year to that science center. In addition, I went there on weekends with my family and attended birthday parties and summer science camps there. I really enjoyed it, obviously. When I would go to other cities on summer vacation or winter vacation with my family, we would stop at whatever city we were in and go to the local science center, science museum, nature center, or planetarium– and again, we really enjoyed it.

IFW: When you started here, Science Central’s financial status and physical space looked quite different. Can you tell me what that looked like 17 years ago?
MF: Yeah, the finances were rough. We owned a lot of money. Projects hadn’t been completed. Bills were owed for everything from building repairs to payroll to you name it. 

In addition, the place visually and physically– it was a little bit rough. It needed some maintenance. Most of the exhibits were all original exhibits. Many of them weren't working and had signs on them about being broken or down. That's standard and a lot of Science Centers. In places where I've worked before, places that I visit, you'll always see a couple to a handful or so of exhibit temporarily broken signs. Hands-on exhibits take a lot of abuse, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. But a lot of them were broken and we didn't have the funds to replace the wire, replace the circuit, replace the bulb, replace the fill-in-the-blank, whatever the broken part was. 

I guess the third piece, in addition to the funding and the look, was just the community perception. It felt like it had been forgotten. People knew of Science Central, but not as well as they do now or as intimately as they do now because the attendance was down. They weren't coming because it wasn't getting advertised and there weren't new additions or repairs. So I think those three things were kind of the roughest aspects I was working with. 

Visitors explore the Gear Wall at Science Central.IFW: Now Science Center holds a million-dollar endowment and is constructing a planetarium, both of which the board attributes to your leadership abilities. How did you navigate the organization from the verge of financial collapse to its current state?
MF: There's no one answer. It was a lot. It was working very closely with our board to come up with solutions. For example, I worked with the finance committee to figure out how we could take a lot of the separate debt lines and roll them into one line to be able to pay it off. 

Some of it was a skilled staff working with the community to figure out how could we partner and get the word out. So we started working with the media, the TV stations, newspapers and whatnot. A lot of it was some common sense standards that exist in my field. For example, if an exhibit is broken and it can be fixed and it's maneuverable enough to get off the floor, get it off the floor while you fix it. If you can't fix it for whatever reason– it's so broken, the parts don't exist, it costs too much to get the parts you need, get rid of it, so that way you have fewer broken exhibits on the floor.

Some of it was creating new programs that would be applicable and of interest to schools, teachers, the general public and scouts. The staff worked very hard, for example, in the education department to develop a lot of these new programs and worked with the fundraising team to develop new fundraisers as well as ‘friend raisers’. Working on a strategic plan that was a bit more financial of a basis rather than strategic of a basis, but that's what was needed. It was being very, very careful with every penny we spent. If it wasn't essential, we didn't spend the money. It was all of those pieces. It was a lot of working with staff, working with the board, working with sponsors, working with the community and just slowly chipping away at everything. 

A slide at Science Central.IFW: How did you come to the conclusion that it was time to leave?
MF: I've been here 17 years. It's a long time and personally, I think it was just a good time to move on and try something different. I have absolutely loved it. I have really enjoyed the city and this region and the time we've been here. We have seen so much growth and we've been able to participate in so much of that growth. I love everything that's going on in downtown.

Professionally, I think that the place is in a good spot right now. Finances are good. We've got a lot of great exhibits. We’ve installed more than eight new exhibits just this summer and we’re going to be opening other new exhibits in the next couple of months. 

The staff is amazing. They're dedicated. They're skilled and putting together new programs and events to meet the needs of our visitors. By all of our visitors, we really take the idea to heart to make sure that we've got accessibility, whether it's for people with physical mental, or emotional disabilities, whether it's lower income families that are coming in on free or reduced admission days. We really want everyone to enjoy Science Central and to learn at Science Central. 

IFW: Science Central’s planetarium is scheduled to open in 2025. Can you tell us about that project?
MF: We've been working on it for a very long time, and it would have been done by now if it hadn't been for the pandemic. We're going to have the only public planetarium in the region inside of the only science center in the region. Anytime that we're open, the planetarium will be here and available. It's pretty exciting.

The planetarium will have a 28-foot diameter. It'll seat somewhere between 40 and 45 people, depending upon what program we're doing. 

We're going to use two types of equipment. We're going to use what's known as a star ball, those old, classic, round, weird-looking things that you would see in the center of the room. It's a sphere that has thousands of tiny holes punched in it, drilled in it. Some of them are the thickness of a human hair. A light is on the inside and shines through those holes and projects the images of the stars on the dome up above. We're going to use the star ball in conjunction with a modern digital system, basically a computer system and a computer projection system. 

Using those two together, we can really show anything. We're going to do predominantly live educator-guided programs. We'll also be able to show digital science movies on it. Then we're also going to have a laser system, so we're going to do the classic Friday night or Saturday night laser Dark Side of the Moon, Laser Zeppelin, or laser pop music shows for people. 

Visitors attempt to build an arch.IFW: What inspired the planetarium?
MF: I knew how powerful they could be for, again, that educational and entertainment process and I knew that at some point it was one of the capital campaigns that I wanted to have inside of this building. So just like with Science On a Sphere, we did the same thing with the planetarium, went through all the processes of talking to staff, talking to the board, talking to community leaders, talking to sponsors, getting feedback from community organizations, getting feedback from visitors and it was clear to us that this area needed it. 

IFW: Science Central is classified as a science center. Can you explain the difference between a science center and a science museum?
MF: A science museum is collections-oriented and research-oriented. They get stuff, keep it safe, analyze it for posterity, and publish it. Don’t touch anything. Visitors look through cases to see the exhibits or on walls to see the exhibits. As a science center, we don't really do research and we don't really have collections. The visitors get to touch the exhibits and manipulate the exhibits. We both want to entertain and educate.

Martin Fisher, executive director of Science Central, in their Science On a Sphere exhibit.IFW: Do you have a favorite Science Central exhibit?
MF: Oh yeah, there are a lot. First I'll share one of the few original exhibits we have that I really, really like. It's called an Echo Tube. It's this really long tube that goes literally from floor level across the floor up to the ceiling. It's a way to learn about sound waves, how they have different speeds and sounds. It's one of the handful of original exhibits we still have, and I love that exhibit. 

Another favorite exhibit of mine would be our Science On a Sphere exhibit, which was our first-ever capital campaign to build into a section of Science Central that had never been used. It was a raw and untapped area, and that was a multi-million dollar project.

Single standalone exhibits that I like out there are our Nature Nook area, which has low-tech natural science items like rocks, fossils, shells, and live animals. I think that that's just a nice, low-tech way for people to learn about the basic science of biology, ecology, and natural sciences. 

IFW: Science Central is the only science center in our region. Why are centers like this important to our community?
MF: When you think about it and when you look at us geographically, Fort Wayne is in the middle of that great big two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half hour circle in any direction, up north to Detroit, east to the Ohio cities, south to Louisville, west to Chicago. We put a pen in the center– that's Fort Wayne, which means, again, we're the only Science Center that's in this region of the country. 

Taking a step beyond that, yes, there are a lot of science centers out there. There are hundreds of science centers around the world, but not every city, including metro areas of this size, has a science center. I think it's very important and very lucky for not just Fort Wayne and not just Allen County and not just northeast Indiana, but really this tri-state area to have a place like Science Central. 

We hear story after story of adults coming in saying something like, ‘I'm a nurse because I came here as a kid with my family for Doctor's Day,’ or ‘I'm an engineer at one of the local engineering places because I came here for a week-long summer science camp.’ We've got feedback from the teachers who are telling us that we're helping to complement what they're doing in the classroom by teaching a lot of the state science standards.

When it comes right down to it, if we can get visitors to come in here and learn a couple of facts and figures, that's great. If we can have visitors come in here and say, ‘I see the connection between that fact or figure from science and my life,’ that's pretty powerful. If we can get visitors to walk out of here, not just learning, but then saying, ‘Wow, science is fun!’ That's really powerful.

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Science Central is open Wednesdays through Fridays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and on Sundays from noon until 5 p.m.

Admission is $12 at the door for children and adults and $11 for seniors. Children ages 2 and younger get in free. The price of admission is discounted by $1 if tickets are purchased online.

Check out their events calendar for special events and their programming page for more information on activities happening at Science Central.