Operations Manager

Good news! During the time of COVID-19 we are now able to take appointments to visit the museum gift shop. We hope to open the museum galleries in the near future. Thank you for choosing to support the Rice Museum! Our Museum Store offers a wide variety of rocks, minerals, fluorescent minerals, thunder eggs, petrified wood, jewelry, fossils, books, and posters for collectors of all ages and interests. Schedule a store visit

As the Rice Museum works towards being able to reopen our galleries to the public we welcome your input to help us in our mission to engage, inspire, and educate generations on the splendor and complexity of our Earth. Please take our survey to help us make everyone feel safe as we reopen. Visitor Safety Input Survey

Over the years the patio sank so much that it was a tripping hazard. The Terra Firma team gently pumped in fast-setting foam to slowly lift the concrete. Once the project was complete, the tripping hazard was mitigated and only a few cracked tiles remain to fix. Patio Lift Completed with Grant from Kinsman Foundation The Rice Museum recently completed work on another infrastructure project thanks to a generous grant from the Kinsman Foundation. This project involved gently “lifting” the back patio up to three inches in places, using the ultra-cool services of local contractor Terra Firma Foundation Systems. The Kinsman Foundation is dedicated to preserving historicalstructures, and since we are on the National Historic Registry, we fit theirdefinition and were eligible for funding. The back patio has subsided over theyears for unknown reasons – perhaps groundwater flow shifted, or one of theunderground cisterns has an issue. Whatever the cause, the fix was to drillsmall holes through the concrete and inject fast-hardening polyurethane foamunderneath. Once the foam is injected to the right level, the drilled holes getrepaired and all is well. The trip hazard is gone, and wheelchairs no longerface an impasse.  Special thanks to Kinsman and Terra Firma for completing the project on time and on budget. We look forward to a long and healthy relationship!

The Museum successfully completed a Pollinator grant project this spring thanks to the generous support of the Tualatin Soil & Water Conservation District. Funded by the Tualatin Watershed Improvement Grant (TWIG) program, the museum’s event planning and maintenance team planted about 40 different rose bushes and 35 lavender plants encircling the back public area. The $1200 grant provided much-needed pollination sources for local bees and butterflies, as well as added color and variability to the landscape. The addition of about 75 pollination sources should immediately help boost various honey bee populations, for example. Other beneficial insect species should also benefit. “In time, the back area should be an even more attractive setting for spring weddings,” according to Vicki Botieff, the museum’s Events Coordinator. One new concern that popped up recently is the resurgent population of black-tailed deer. With the museum closed due to COVID-19 safety precautions, local deer have been much more visible this spring. Without a full yard of school children eating lunch, the quiet grounds have invited more local wildlife in general. The deer can be voracious rose bush consumers, but hopefully the bushes will survive and thrive. So far all of the new plantings persist, but many have been severely “pruned” by the deer. While the museum remains closed until further notice to help slow the spread of COVID-19 please consider helping us get through this challenging time with a gift today. Donate

Due to the continuing threat from COVID-19, the Museum will be closed to the public until the authorities at the Center for Disease Control and the Oregon Health Authority advise differently. The decision to temporarily close was a difficult one as we want to remain available to the community and our supporters. We will have minimal staff onsite to take care of administrative projects and some long-standing maintenance. Thank you for your patience as we all work together to overcome this challenge. Check this link from the amazing team at the Perot Museum of Natural Science for a video about the COVID-19 outbreak. We look forward to seeing you back at the Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals when we reopen.

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