American Bible Society announced that it will be shutting down its Faith and Liberty Discovery Center, effective March 28, writes Michelle Myers for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The museum was created just under three years ago in July 2021.
Though, it has recently been besieged with challenges, including layoffs, funding troubles, and five CEO changes within the last two years.
“Despite the valiant efforts of our FLDC leadership and team, we have not been able to achieve the long-term sustainability that an experience like that needs to be successful,” CEO Jennifer Holloran wrote in an email to staff, according to Christianity Today.
The museum’s leadership also credited the pandemic and “structural limitations” as further reasons for the closing.
By June 2022, the museum’s total revenue after expenses dropped from $29.6 million to just under $4 million, according to ProPublica tax documents.
The museum houses numerous exhibitions, a collection of historic Bibles, as well as video interviews of everyday people telling personal faith stories.
The impact of the museum’s closure on its exhibitions is yet to be fully fleshed out
However, Holloran said she is looking forward to “reimagining what the future of content could look like through a publicly accessible, digitized format.”
Read more about the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center’s backstory and imminent closure at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
_____
