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PAUL:

I believe it was the great philosopher Casey Kasem who said, “keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Today's episode is an out of this world look at something new that's coming to downtown.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places and events that make the City With Soul shine. Today, I'm talking with Mayor Kane Ditto, Jackson Mayor from 1989 to 1997, and Mike Williams, Deputy Director of Cultural Services for the City of Jackson, about the new JXN Planetarium, currently under construction. It's a multi-year, multi-million dollar project with a one-of-a-kind design, interactive displays and educational spaces, plus a new atrium shared with the Arts Center of Mississippi.

Mayor Ditto, you had just come into office at the time when I was participating in something at the planetarium back in junior high school called Mississippi Student Space Station. And that was one of the formative experiences in my life in that, I was in mission control for Student Space Station and I was the public affairs officer on my shift and look at me now: it's my career - communications. And so whatever you did from the city perspective back then to help make that happen at the planetarium. Thank you.

MAYOR DITTO:

Hopefully Mike can do that for some other kids as they come along.

PAUL:

You know, I've heard people say, wouldn't it be great once the planetarium is done, if Student Space Station comes back. So Mike, no pressure.

MIKE:

You know, the only pressure is figuring out how to get around all the liability that nobody was, you know, concerned about back in 90…

PAUL:

Late 80s actually - and times have definitely changed. And speaking of changes, the JXN Planetarium is on the come up. It is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2025. Mike, um, how did the new plan for the planetarium come about?

MIKE:

The new plan for the new planetarium came from living in the old one. And the experience of seeing our young students come in day to day and watching how differently primed they were for learning in that environment versus a typical museum. There's just a level of excitement that they experienced that was special. You know, we felt like it was incumbent upon us to give back to capitalize on that moment better than we were doing. And that's where the plan started. And so, that and, my naturally inherent space nerdism, it gave way to the initial parts of the plan. And we started collecting people along the way. We had David Lewis who came on board with the city and was my partner in our future cast in. And then we brought in some gentlemen from CDFL who were able to further crystallize the vision. And then along came Kane and he was our champion and our chief fundraiser. And everything just kind of, all the stars aligned, if you'll forgive me.

PAUL:

Mayor Ditto, you came along to serve as a champion for fundraising. What made you step into that role?

MAYOR DITTO:

Well, I'd always thought the planetarium was a great asset for the city and for the state, particularly for kids. And when I talked to Mike and other folks, at the city, they were so enthusiastic about it, wanted it to happen. And so I just thought, well, this is something I can get on board with and try to figure out how to get the funding.

PAUL:

You were the mayor from 1989 to 1997, kind of in the heyday of the planetarium. What do you remember from those times?

MAYOR DITTO:

Well, I remember basically seeing, you know, school groups that had been in the planetarium, including my own kids. And they loved the experience. And it was something different than they were able to get at school or really anywhere close by at the Jackson.

PAUL:

Mike, the plans call for the new planetarium to feel as if you're in - a space station?

MIKE:

Yeah, absolutely. The theme is the world's first orbital museum. And so as such, the elevator experience will be like an animation and light package to simulate a space elevator and your rocketing into a low earth orbit and you'll disembark into the space station arrival platform. And as you walk around the planetarium lobby and the exhibit space, all of the external windows will simulate a view down onto our planet from low earth orbit.

PAUL:

Oh, my nerdy little space heart is getting so excited about this. There's really a nostalgic feeling to this.

MIKE:

Absolutely. That's what we're aiming for. I mean, I was always, as I said, a lifelong space nerd, too. I think my grandmother started that when my first set of World Book Encyclopedias and my big Atlas. And they just always had, you know, really expansive sections on astronomy and cosmology. And it was just always really interesting to me. I wish that I would have taken part in the space station program back then as well, but I don't think I was here at the time. But yeah, I mean, it's really exciting. And, that excitement that is held over from back when you were a kid has been a lot of what sustained us through the tougher parts of the fundraising and the planning. I mean, we had to deal with COVID and all of that stuff, but there's just been so much community support and legacy support from, you know, parents who experienced a planetarium back then and want their kids to have a chance to have the experience too.

PAUL:

You mentioned fundraising, Mayor Ditto. What would be your challenges and of course your triumphs?

MAYOR DITTO:

The challenges are always getting people to believe in the project that you're trying to raise the funds for. With some folks, they didn't know whether we would be able to raise enough funds. So, you know, no one wants to be a part of an unsuccessful fundraising effort. So first we had to convince them that yes, we can get the money. There's the city putting in a large part, the county has put in a good bit, the state put in a million. We were working on new market tax credits. So when you convince folks of that, you get people excited about what the project can mean for the whole area. And then we did get really good participation from Junior League jumped in early. And of course, their support was very important. Let me mention the Community Foundation, which Mike got on board early on and they came through with over $2 million of support. And so, they realized how important it is.

PAUL:

Mike, I know you have people you would like to acknowledge too.

MIKE:

Well, I'm always, when I do these things, I always try to mention how appreciative we are to everybody that's helped because it really is, it really has been a community project from all of our donors to all the help we've gotten from JPS and Jackson State and just, individuals that have offered their sustained support through the whole project, which has been pretty long at this point. It's been about six years since we started this thing. And so, I'm always really, really careful to make sure that we acknowledge them and they really were the lifeblood that kept this thing going.

PAUL:

So many entities are standing behind this, helping to make this a place that people will want to come and visit. So Mayor Ditto, what are the outstanding needs to get this project to the finish line?

MAYOR DITTO:

There are other needs that the planetarium has that we have not completely sprayed money for. We intend to have a new projector that Mike has been working on. We’ll resurface the dome, which is not a huge expense, but we need to raise money for that. We also need to raise money, of course, for programming, because the more funding we have, the more exciting programs that Mike and the staff can put on. So, I think people that care about education and care about tourism in Mississippi should really be excited about helping to fund the project.

PAUL:

Mike, close us out. What's the vision for opening day at the Jackson Planetarium?

MIKE:

Well, I think the operative word is new. From its inception, we wanted this to be a thing that, we were not rehashing or delivering anything simple. We wanted it to be a seminal and new experience for everybody that visited. From the celebrated new entry to the new atrium, the way the reception desk, the way the gift shop, everything, the way everything's designed is going to be something that you can't experience anywhere else in the city. You know, forgive me because I hate when people say this, but I want people walk in and say, “Wow, this doesn't even feel like Jackson.” And I say that as a person who loves Jackson very dearly. But I think that it's something that will inspire. We want to instill a sense of pride in what Jackson can accomplish. You come in, you go upstairs, you enter into the exodus space, you forget you're on Earth for a little while, and you'll leave with that experience and you'll take it and you'll tell everybody about it.

PAUL:

My thanks to Mayor Kane Ditto and Mike Williams for giving us a glimpse of what to look forward to with the JXN Planetarium. If you'd like to get involved, you can make a donation to the Friends of the Planetarium Fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, and I'll have links in our show notes.

Soul Sessions is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. You can learn more about all the great work we do to help make Jackson a better place at our website. It's Visit Jackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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