Area kids will get the chance this December to navigate through a rope web, participate in hands-on STEAM learning, develop an appreciation for the building trades, experience all four seasons on the same day and explore the world — all from the Memorial Parkway in Utica.

More specifically, at the new Utica Children’s Museum at the corner of the Parkway and Holland Ave.

The building for the 60-year-old museum, first announced in 2020, will open sometime this December, interim Director Meghan Fraser McGrogan announced Monday on Facebook Live, standing in the museum’s newly built rotunda next to a wall of windows and in front of a life-size Connect 4 game.

The move from its old home on Bagg’s Square in Utica gave museum leadership the opportunity to “reimagine” the museum, something they did through focus groups, through discussions with many different area groups and by hiring children’s museum design experts Hands On! Studio, of St. Petersburg, Florida, McGrogan said.

Universal design

The Children’s Museum may be one of the oldest in the country, but its new building will be the first to incorporate universal design throughout. That means designers worked to remove barriers, including both physical and sensory ones, so that people of all abilities will be able to access enjoy and feel comfortable in all parts of the museum.

The museum will include six galleries with 60 interactive exhibits focused on the theme of “love where you live.” And it will be “just perfect for our community,” McGrogan promised.

Those exhibits will highlight the four seasons residents experience in the Mohawk Valley, the different cultures found in the region, local trades and STEAM learning.

“Our journey to this point has been filled with passion, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to bring to life a museum that not only entertains but also educates and inspires our visitors,” said Meghan Fraser McGrogan, interim director. “Working with world-renowned museum designers, local artists, and students, we have crafted a space that truly reflects our community’s spirit and forward-thinking vision. We’re working hard to get it just right before we open our doors.”

The museum has had a management services contract with ICAN since 2017 and will share its new building with ICAN’s Family Resource Center, a first-of-its-kind home to ICAN family-based programs and a community room that can be used by other groups.

Between now and December, the museum’s 14,000-square feet of custom-made exhibits — being constructed in several states — must be finished, trucked to their new home and installed. The museum will share updates on Facebook and Instagram, McGrogan said.

The galleries

The rotunda is the star of the new museum, a 4,000-square-foot glass walled addition to the building where families will enter the museum and where kids can explore The Climber exhibit, two stories of ramps, platforms, a rope web and two lookouts at the very top. It will also include The Meeting Place where parents can watch their kids climb or school groups can gather.

The other five galleries will include:

• World Market where kids can explore the music, art, food and language9o-_+kjn b[s of different parts of the world. It includes a food truck, a rickshaw and a world music mixer.

• Build It Up, a place for STEAM-based building and engineering activities where kids can design, construct and craft by trial and error. It will include electricity and plumbing walls, a designer station and a deconstructed constructed house.

• Let’s Experiment with STEAM activities to spur creativity and problem solving. This area will include a magnetic ball field, prism and light play, and racetracks.

• Seasons, an exhibit to help children understand and appreciate the four seasons in the Mohawk Valley. It will include the Toddler Forest, a weather command station and a cloud lounge.

• The Cove, an “oasis of calm” to help kids and adults who need to pause for some relaxation in a space appealing to anyone with sensory needs. It will include a ribbon entrance, bubble tubes, a soundscape and a reading nook.

The museum will also include a multi-purpose room that can be divided into two rooms for school groups, special programming, rentals for occasions such as birthday parties or a maker space.

History

The Junior League founded the museum, known then as the Junior Museum of Oneida County, in 1963 in the basement of the Utica Public Library. It had one exhibit at first — a Haudenosaunee longhouse.

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Over the years, the museum moved to the city’s Department of Parks & Recreation building and then on to Valley View Country Club before finally moving to 311 Main St. in Bagg’s Square in 1979 where it remained until it closed in 2020, earlier than expected because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the year’s, the number and size of the exhibits slowly grew as well, eventually taking up four of the five, 6,000-square-foot-floors in the Bagg’s Square building.

The museum launched a Mobile Museum in 2021 to carry learning, creativity and play around the region to fill in the gap left by the early closing of the old building.

So stay tuned for the museum’s opening date in December,for its scheduled hours and for the chance to watch the kids you care about learn and grow through the power of play.

“This museum,” McGrogan said in a statement, “is a testament to what can be achieved when a community comes together to create something extraordinary for future generations.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Utica Children’s Museum to open in December on Memorial Parkway