New children’s museum offers interactive exhibits
In the spring of last year, the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County expanded its mobile museum program by establishing a permanent home where children could visit and explore seven days a week. Now in 2015, the educational stomping grounds are slated to open a full exhibition targeting children ten and under.
Since its conception in 2005, the museum operated by bringing exploration activities to children through school visits and events with its mobile museum unit. With the support of donations and several grants, the museum now has 4.2 acres dedicated to educating children ten and under through hands-on activities focused around art, science and nature.
The new, 45,000-square-foot museum is located adjacent to the Charles M. Schulz Museum on West Steele Lane in Santa Rosa. Phase one of the project is complete, which includes Mary’s Garden, Ella’s Art Studio and Dow Event Center. Work is underway to finish the interior exhibit areas.
“Jeannie Schultz was looking for a symbiotic partner and made an agreement to lease the land to the museum. That was our major gift to the campaign at the beginning. With this donation, we feel very, very lucky to just be paying property taxes. That is the reason we were able to open the space,” said Collette Michaud, CEO of the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County.
The current exhibits range from a farmers market, fully equipped with shopping baskets and a cashier station, to a garden full of edible plants and vegetables. Water stations are set up surrounding the popular small-scale replica of the Russian River and a wetland area where children can splash and play around bubbling water rocks and gravel.
The larger exhibits are built around the lifecycle of a butterfly. The entrance to the garden follows the transformation from a cocoon-like structure, to a climb-on caterpillar. Follow the path down to the water area where the environment is a representation of Sonoma County, its coastline and wetlands.
“Then of course there is a farmers market, it is all related to Sonoma County. There is a master plan to it all,” said Michaud.
Other areas of activity include a wild zone made up of natural materials to play with such as straw bales and sticks.
“The idea is to have a place where children can build a fort and have open space to let their imaginations drive them,” explained Michaud, noting that the area is also used for messy art activities.
Outside of free play at the museum, visitors can also participate in weekly programming such as story-time, art in the garden, worm wrangling and more.
Both story time and art in the garden are aimed at children age’s three to seven, whereas ‘Crazy Awesome Science’ is for a little older crowd, ages seven to 10. Worm wrangling is for all ages. Once a week, on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon, the spotlight of the week features an artist, and once a month children can expect a visit from puppeteer Mary Nagler.
New Additions Planned
Mark Dolan, president of the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County Board of Directors, has announced that the grand opening for the new Children’s Museum will take place in 2015 and that the board is looking for support from the community to help complete the final phase of the capital campaign.
“Today we are renaming our campaign from ‘Cultivating Curious Minds’ to ‘Finish the Fun!’ We need the community’s help in raising the final $460,000 so we can open all areas of the campus in 2015,” Dolan said. “The community has shown its support from the beginning of our campaign, and we have secured 94 percent of our $8.3 million goal. We are ready to sprint to the finish, but we need their help now more than ever. If you are excited about this project, if you realize the impact that this museum will have on our children, our families and our workforce, if you have enjoyed the current exhibits and want to see us grow, now is the time to step forward and do what you can to help us reach our goal.”
Plans for inside the museum include the ‘Science & Imagination Gallery’- two floors themed after a Sonoma County main street with exhibits including a hardware store, beehive and train station.
When the museum reaches its capital campaign goal, there are also plans to build TOTtopia-an area custom designed for children two and half years and younger.
The area will be literacy focused with a storybook themed room where little ones can have tea parties, read in the enchanted forest and explore a flower sensory area with water play and science exploration tables. The soft play areas will be built to encourage gross motor skills while also offering a place for parents to meet and find resources on early childhood development.
“A tremendous amount of work and planning has gone into the design for our exhibits, especially our Science & Imagination Gallery,” Michaud said. “There will be a giant Apple Tree House, a Head2Toe Health & Science Lab, a Dental Clinic and multiple science-based exhibits interwoven into the gallery space. We are looking forward to watching children learn through playful exploration, and I’m sure we’ll see many adults exploring and enjoying the exhibits as well.”
Friedman’s Home Improvement is the exhibit sponsor of the child-size hardware store in the gallery. CEO Barry Friedman said, “We really believe the Children’s Museum provides an important and unique learning experience for the kids of our community. The hands on learning that the kids will be able to do in the hardware exhibit is what made this sponsorship opportunity so intriguing to me. I love that kids will be able build and create with things we sell in our stores.”
The Sonoma County Medical Alliance Association and Foundation is sponsoring the Head2Toe Health & Science Lab on the Museum’s Main Street Sonoma County.
Alliance President Shawn Devlin said, “It was important for us to expand our commitment to health education to the youngest members of the community. Our sponsorship will provide a space for children and their families to learn about science and healthy living in a fun, playful way that easy to understand.”
Other exhibits will include an Air Maze, a bubble play area called Bubblemania, a miniature train track and city, an Air-Light-Sound experience, a Victorian house and a live beehive demonstration. The museum will also feature a gift kiosk, spaces for programs, birthday parties, meetings and events, and a small outdoor stage.
One major focus for the museum will be to support the educational efforts of school districts in Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Mendocino and Marin counties. The museum will continue to work with preschool centers and daycares to introduce toddlers to the wonders of science, art and nature at an early age. The museum will engage local higher education resources to provide design, mentorship, and entrepreneurial opportunities for students from these institutions by working with staff to develop museum programs.
The Sonoma County Children’s Museum is located at 1835 West Steele Ln., Santa Rosa. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Mondays. Admission is $7 for both adults and children.
