September 30, 2026
John Kopp/PhillyVoice
Despite the closure of the Academy of Natural Sciences, advocates of the museum say they will not stop fighting for the institution.
Supporters of the Academy of Natural Sciences say their fight for the museum's future is far from over, even after it closed to the public Sunday after 198 years of operation.
Save the Academy, a grassroots group advocating for the reopening of the institution, said it's urging Drexel University's board to formally disaffiliate from the museum that it acquired in 2011 and calling for an independent, public process to decide the academy's future.
Sarah McAnulty, an organizer with the group, believes pressuring decision-makers at Drexel to give the museum autonomy may be the best path to get it to reopen. A protest was held Tuesday evening at the National Constitution Center during an event for a new exhibit at that institution that was curated in partnership with Drexel.
"Drexel, I think, views the academy as a financial burden," she said. "We want the academy board to be able to negotiate without the complication of multiple partners … so that the academy has the space to negotiate what's best for them."
Drexel said in a statement it has previously offered the Academy of National Sciences a path to disaffiliation and "have been, and remain, open to that possibility."
"We continue to engage in good-faith discussions with the academy about its future," the statement said. "Because those discussions are ongoing, we believe they are best conducted privately."
Save the Academy's call to action comes after a string of organized protests leading up to and during the museum's final weekend, when hundreds of people withstood rainstorms to protest outside the building on 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway and marched to City Hall.
"It's a critical place for both science history, for modern Philadelphians and where kids can be inspired by the natural world," McAnulty said. "It's an irreplaceable resource, and so it's really important for us as a coalition that there is someone standing up for maintaining that space for the people of Philadelphia."
Drexel announced Sept. 1 that due to dwindling attendance numbers and resource strains, the country’s oldest natural sciences museum would officially shut down on Wednesday, Sept. 30, three days after its last publicly accessible day.
The Academy of Natural Sciences reported a revenue of $25.8 million and expenditures of $23.8 million on its tax filings for 2025. While its expenditures were nearly identical the previous year, its revenue was actually up from $22.4 million in 2024.
During its final weekend, calls to keep the museum open were punctuated with reports that the William Penn Foundation offered to fund the museum's operating costs for at least one year while the feasibility of its long-term survival was studied further.
After the closure of the Academy of Natural Sciences, advocates are calling for Drexel University’s board to disaffiliate from the museum.
In a statement Saturday, Councilmembers Nina Ahmad and Jeffery Young called for Drexel and the academy's board of trustees to accept the offer, saying that "anything else is a clear abdication of their public duty and a demonstration of their contempt for this priceless cultural resource."
"We … have been asking Drexel to slow down and to explore the full range of solutions available to us to stop this tragedy from occurring," they said in a statement. "What the Foundation has done is give us the ability to do just that — to take a breath and better understand how we got here and what we can do to keep the Academy open for hundreds of more years to come.”
A spokesperson with Drexel told the Inquirer that it had not received a proposal "that would provide a permanent, sustainable path forward for the Academy’s museum." On Monday, Drexel told the outlet that it would continue "to explore the possibility of Foundation support," specifically for its deferred maintenance costs and operational challenges.
Elected officials have begun making efforts to protect the historic site and have made similar pitches to university leaders. City Council members said they will begin to hold hearings to investigate the academy's closure. The first meeting will be held Wednesday, Oct. 7. Mayor Cherelle Parker also said she and Gov. Josh Shapiro would be working with Drexel to "preserve" the mission of the Academy of Natural Sciences society, a scientific society that dates back to 1812.
McAnulty said she remains optimistic that the museum will be open to the public again and is hoping that the council hearings provide her and other supporters more transparency about how the academy and Drexel got to the point of closure.
"We need a public record of what happened, what led to this point and what support is needed," she said. "So that we don't make these mistakes again. … I think we need to embrace creativity and willingness to try new stuff when it comes to engaging audiences."
Until a long-term solution is found, she and other advocates with Save the Academy will continue to protest and pressure the university’s leaders to bring back the museum as a public institution.
"While of course there is sadness in all of this, I think the story's not all written," she said. "One of our goals is making sure people know that just because the doors have closed, this isn't over until the museum has been emptied."
