A year after launching a 50th Anniversary Capital Campaign, Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan has not only met but exceeded its $500,000 goal. Museum officials this week put an ending stamp on the campaign that raised a grand total of $530,000.

“Last night at the Board of Trustees meeting, we officially closed the campaign. We have met our goal,” said Board President Steven Lappan of Wednesday’s action. He helped to steer the successful fundraising effort along with Executive Director Chris Witulski and other key volunteers.

Both Lappan and Witulski are extremely pleased with the generous response from the community as well as significant contributions from the Besser Foundation and Besser Company. A $65,000 matching grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs also played a major role in the campaign’s success as did a $50,000 anonymous matching gift, in-kind donations totalling $17,000 and a $25,000 gift from the George and Edith Cook Family.

“The campaign was extraordinarily successful,” Witulski said. “The support from the community was overwhelming and sent a message that the Besser Museum still is a treasured asset and valued by community members.”

On Saturday, the public can get a sneak peak of what a large portion of the donated funds made possible. During the museum’s Season of Light opening gala slated from 6-8 p.m., visitors will see the new state-of-the-art digital planterium that becomes fully operational in mid-January.

This year’s Season of Light theme, “Stars of Wonder: A Celestrial Celebration,” dovetails perfectly with the new planetarium equipment that opens up countless opportunities for learning across many disciplines. It also is a unique educational offering for all of Northeast Michigan.

“Now we can do things with technology that people before us could not even have dreamed about,” said Lappan of the huge upgrade over the original 50-year-old planetarium system. With the campaign funds, the museum purchased a SciDome digital planetarium system from Spitz, Inc. at a price tag of $240,000.

“Now what we can dream, we can throw up on the dome and make it a truly living space,” Lappan said. “We have something that nobody else north of Bay City has, and to me that’s great.”

The planetarium upgrade included installation of high-definition digital projectors, new computer systems with software, energy efficient LE lighting and a new surround sound system.

“This transformation turned the only 30-foot, full-dome planetarium in Northern Michigan into a state-of-the-art IMAX-style experience providing relevant, enriching humanities-based programming for audiences of all ages,” Witulski said.

Funds also are dedicated to the servicing of the new equipment and the purchase of additional software programming for the planetarium.

Another area of the museum that will benefit from the capital campaign is the Native American Gallery. In particular, the $25,000 gift from the Cook family was designated for research and development that will ultimately reinterpret the gallery so that it focuses on Native American families who lived and are living in the region.

The museum’s impressive art collection also is a focus, with funds allowing for the framing and display of pieces that were formerly tucked away in storage.

“We have a significant art collection that sat dormant for years because there was not as much passion about it as there is today,” Lappan said. “Danyeal Dorr (curator of collections and exhibits) came along and cataloged the art and found a lot valuable pieces. A little town like Alpena has world class artwork how cool is that?”

All of the donations received were funneled through the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan, which Lappan said has a solid reputation for managing funds.

“None of the money given has been used nor will it be used for projects that don’t fall within the objectives of the purpose of the capital campaign,” he said.

While the fundraising effort resulted in a $530,000 overall total, some of that amount represents pledges that will given over the next 3 to 5 years. The breakdown is as follows:

• $65,000 MCACA grant

• $150,000 Besser Foundation pledge

• $50,000 Besser Company gift

• $50,000 anonymous matching gift

• $25,000 George and Edith Cook family gift

• $17,000 in-kind donations

• $173,000 community donors and pledges

According to Witulski, the museum also recently learned that the Youth & Rec Grant Committee is recommending to the Alpena County Board an $11,000 grant for the Shout Eureka Science program. Part of that grant will allow 100 people to attend a digital planetarium show for free during Shout Eureka’s science events to be held one Saturday per month throughout 2017.