As the oldest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, the Adler Planetarium has garnered a reputation for feeling a bit dated in recent years.
But the planetarium’s astrophysicists are working on “new discoveries every day” around gravity waves, star formation, black holes and exoplanets, and more of that research deserves to be on display, said Elizabeth C. Babcock, the museum’s new president and CEO, who has moved back to Chicago after 15 years to lead the nearly 100-year-old institution.
Babcock worked at the Field Museum from 2002 to 2010 and most recently she was the founding director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington, D.C. Nearly three weeks into her new role at Adler, Babcock shared her vision for the next era of the planetarium — which includes attracting a wider audience, offering a “revitalized” experience for adults who haven’t visited in years, elevating the institution as a world-class research hub and reinforcing the Adler’s status as a global organization.
So far, she’s spent her weekends and late nights meeting with staff and chatting with visitors. “Coming back here is like coming home,” Babcock told the Sun-Times.
Born in Evanston, she spent her adolescence in Indiana and Texas. Babcock later returned to the suburbs to complete her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University.
“I’ve gotten to spend an intense two weeks with the team,” she said. “I’m feeling excited and energized and glad to be here, to roll up my sleeves and get started.”
The new CEO joins the planetarium at a tumultuous time for cultural institutions. “The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,’” wrote President Donald Trump on social media in August.
While museums such as Babcock’s former Smithsonian face intense pressures from the Trump Administration, she assures the Adler won’t cower to anti-science rhetoric and will maintain its focus on research and education: “We’re not backing away from any of that.”
Babcock said the role of the planetarium at the moment is to “continue providing a safe and welcoming space for people to explore science and astronomy.”
“At the Adler, it’s your Adler, right?” Babcock continued. “It’s beloved already, but I want every single person in Chicagoland to feel that this is their space, literally, for space exploration and discovery. A family can literally grow up with us here.”
That means attracting more visitors through social media, particularly young adults. In addition to their weekly Adler At Night events, free to all residents, Babcock hopes the planetarium can bring back its Adler After Dark program. Visitors enjoyed a child-free night of drinking, live music and special guests at the museum.
And the Adler’s efforts to connect the past with the present and future are on display with an exhibition starting Oct. 31 called “Stars Aligned: Tracing the Story of Astronomy and Astrology” that will include some objects that have not been previously publicly displayed.
The Adler Planetarium was opened in 1930 by American businessman Max Adler and currently employs 135 people with an annual operating budget of just under $16 million. With the planetarium’s centennial celebration coming up in 2030, Babcock said the institution is already preparing for the festivities.
That includes significant capital improvements to visitor experience and digital media, from increasing social media reach to updating the planetarium’s iconic dome theater and immersive technology.
And new cabinetry, equipped with closely-monitored temperature controls, prevents light and moisture damage on some of the Adler’s oldest objects, according to public relations director Jennifer Howell. The museum’s collection includes nearly 3,000 artifacts, including ancient astrolabes (used for navigation, timekeeping and tracking celestial bodies), early Islamic and European observational tools and a replica of Galileo’s 1609 telescope.
The Adler also is home to a large library of astronomical books, including a 1790s almanac by Benjamin Banneker, an astronomer who lived as a free Black man in Baltimore during the 18th century.
As a former dean at the California Academy of Sciences, accessibility to scientific education is an important principle for Babcock. That means dissolving language barriers and providing more entry points for visitors.
“These institutions — museums, aquariums, planetariums, libraries and parks — we are the fabric of society,” Babcock said. “Your entry point to science and being excited about science, or in this case, astronomy, doesn’t have to always come through your physics class. It can also come through the arts. And I think that’s really key.”
Babcock also brings essential experience from adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. Museums have been forced to become a lot more creative, she said. Streaming services and platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have forever changed how people consume art, comedy, science and entertainment.
“Visitors have an ever-widening array of choices about where they get their science learning or their cultural fix,” she said. “At the end of the day, there’s no substitute for coming in person with your loved ones or your friends. You can’t replicate that kind of social and immersive experience online.”