Children’s Museum Passes Halfway Mark in Capital Campaign

(KNSI) – The Great River Children’s Museum is halfway through its capital campaign and hopes to open in 2024.

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The museum has raised around $7 million of its $13 million goal. There is about $1 million in the GRCM’s endowment. Museum Executive Director Cassie Miles talked about what will fill the museum’s space.

“We will have eight mainstay exhibit galleries here. And that means that those eight exhibits [get rid of s at end of exhibit] spaces will live here for many, many years with refreshments of programming and props and things like that. We’ll also have a rotating exhibit gallery where we can bring in rented exhibits or feature things from local artists or local craftsmen.”

Some exhibits like Community Connections will have space where kids can role-play and imagine creating their own food in the cafe, sell goods and wares in the market and create art. Another exhibit will be the Headwaters, meant to mimic Lake Itasca at the start of the Mississippi River. People will experience day to night with a shifting of light and sounds. There will also be a water experience, a climbing area, outdoor exhibits, engineering and more. She says each space is meant to be played with.

“Everything in our world here at the Children’s Museum is hands-on. It’s meant to be multi-sensory, multi-layered and dynamic. That’s so that kids and

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families can learn in the best way possible because learning comes through experiences. Children’s museums are not like other museums. You do not have to be quiet and you do not have to be hands-off.”

The museum has ordered its exhibits, but it will take around 12 to 14 months for them to be built. Miles hopes to have them installed and the doors open in about a year and a half.

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“Tell your friends that we’re coming. Talk to people, share with your employer. We need the community to build this community space because we want to serve all of Central Minnesota with all of Central Minnesota incorporated into the facility.”

The museum is expected to have around 125,000 visitors annually and serve as a field trip destination for 60 school districts. GRCM will be the second largest in the state at 30,000 square feet, behind only the St.