logoThe Chisholm cultural institution known until last summer as Ironworld will lay off 26 full-time staff members Friday and on Satuday close its doors to visitors. The Minnesota Discovery Center, originally a state-funded effort now struggling as a private nonprofit, has suffered in the economic downturn. But like the mines that anchor the Iron Range culture it celebrates, the center has come back from temporary closures before.

The center, which has existed in one form or another since 1977, has been planning a new children’s area at its centerpiece museum and has a fundraiser and holiday program on the calendar for December. The center also houses a 7,000-volume library and research center and hosts events throughout the year.

In January, the museum was scheduled to open an exhibit of photographs from Walden Woods in Massachusetts, a project involving the Walden Woods Project. That’s a cultural nonprofit (dedicated to preserving the place that Henry David Thoreau made famous) founded and supported by musician Don Henley.

Now would be a good time for a famous son or daughter of the Iron Range to do the same for the former Ironworld.