- Though the Planetarium won’t “lift off” again until next year, the excitement is already building in the capital city.
Downtown Jackson’s Russell C. Davis Planetarium is in the midst of a $20-plus-million facelift, the result of a remarkable public-private partnership and fundraising effort that kicked off after the facility sustained significant storm damage in 2018.
Construction began in late 2023 and was formally marked by a “Lift Off” ceremony on the grounds in February of this year. The planetarium is expected to reopen as soon as late fall 2025 with major upgrades, including greater accessibility to the building, an expanded atrium that will adjoin the Arts Center of Mississippi, new exhibits and classrooms, and a new space theater.
After representing Hinds County in the Mississippi House of Representatives for almost 10 years, Russell C. Davis (1922–1993) was elected mayor of Jackson in 1969. Besides being an early advocate of the mayor-council form of city government, Davis proposed the idea for a planetarium during his tenure. Construction on the planetarium began in 1976, and the facility was named in Davis’s honor.
According to the City of Jackson’s website, the planetarium is one of the largest constructions of its kind in the U.S., with only 25 other planetariums in the country meeting or exceeding its size and capability. The architectural overhaul of the space is being completed by CDFL Architects + Engineers, Falcon’s Treehouse, and Fountain Construction Company, and will feature state-of-the-art exhibits on how Mississippians have contributed to the science of astronomy and outer space travel.
The funding for this monumental undertaking was secured from a number of sources: city, county, and state governments alongside private partners such as the Community Foundation for Mississippi, Ergon Foundation, Junior League of Jackson, Downtown Jackson Partners, Cadence Bank Foundation, and Trustmark National Bank, to name a few.
Instrumental to the fundraising effort was another former Jackson mayor, Kane Ditto.
Ditto’s involvement with the project was almost by happenstance: “After COVID, Mike Williams, who was director of the Planetarium … and David Lewis … they started a fundraising effort. I met with them one day, and they were telling me about the project. And so I said, ‘That’s a great project. It’s meant a lot to the city in the past.’”
It was clear, Ditto explained, that the over-40-year-old facility needed an upgrade beyond repairing the storm damage from 2018. After insurance money was secured for the roof, the real fundraising work could begin. And the price tag for the project would be higher than what anyone initially thought.
“It was a $12 million to $14 million project,” said Ditto. “But with the increase in construction costs and with certain foundation issues they ran into, and with a total redesign of the third floor theater which was not contemplated on the front end, and then the addition of two exhibits … the price has gone from that to around $23 million.”
The former mayor indicated that with a few small caveats, almost all of the funds are in place. The City of Jackson put up the majority of the money—about $7 million. However, the list of significant private partners is extensive. The Junior League stepped up early with $500,000. The Community Foundation gave $2 million.
“And then, a big addition,” said Ditto, “was we got about $5 million in New Markets Tax Credits through Hope Credit Union and Wells Fargo. We couldn’t have done it without that.”
Ditto mentioned that the last public-private project of this scale in downtown Jackson was the Two Mississippi Museums, which opened to the public in 2017. To see the excitement around the Planetarium and even to see that excitement reflected in a number of gifts both large and small from private citizens, he said, is encouraging.
“Folks who live in Jackson, even folks who live outside of Jackson, and even other parts of the state, recognize that if your largest city—your capital city—is not a vital place that people want to be, then you’re not going to have economic growth, financial growth. It reflects poorly on the image of the state. All sorts of good things happen when the major metropolitan area is thriving.”
Though the Davis Planetarium won’t “lift off” again until next year, the excitement is already building. Along with the former mayor, Jackson residents should be heartened by the generosity of so many public and private entities who are still willing to invest in the capital city and want to see it soar to new heights.
Stephen Griffin
