by Dennis Dalman
The Great River Children’s Museum has been a long time coming and it’s still not here, but – hold on – it’s expected to open sometime in 2023.
Cassie Miles, the museum’s executive director, told the Newsleaders that construction will likely begin toward the end of this year and could take 12 to 15 months to complete.
The museum and its programming will be designed for children 0-10.
In the meantime, grants are being sought and money is being raised through individual and business contributions to make the museum dream become a reality. When it opens, it will be the second largest children’s museum of the eight now in Minnesota – the biggest being the Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul.
The plan is to convert into a museum three current, adjoining buildings on Seventh Avenue S. in downtown St. Cloud. One of the three buildings, the former Liberty Bank, was donated for the Children’s Museum by Donald Helgeson of Sartell, one of the three children of the man who opened Gold ‘n’ Plump hatchery on that site many decades ago before it became a bank. Helgeson, who moved to a Sartell river home in 1957, died on April 20 at age 94. Helgeson and his brother, Jerry, owned Liberty Bank for many years.
The museum, with its 30,000 square-foot space, will serve all of central Minnesota and 11 surrounding counties, the same area served by the Great River Regional Library system, which will be a program partner with the museum. In fact, Miles noted that museum-type “pop-up” exhibits (also known as learning “experiences” have already been displayed in many of the regional libraries – in Annandale, Becker, Clearwater, Paynesville, Pierz, Richmond and Swanville. Those exhibits rotate library to library every two weeks. More libraries will be added toward the end of this summer. These pop-exhibits are like “sneak peeks” of what children, their siblings, parents and friends can expect to experience when the museum opens.
The plans for the museum have involved (and still involve) a vast partnership of people and companies. Split Rock Studios of Brooklyn Park, Haizlip Studio of Memphis, Tennessee; and Kidzibits of St. Paul are the exhibit designers/fabrication team. GLT Architects of St. Cloud is the project architect and BCI Construction of Sauk Rapids will serve as construction management.
The Great River Children’s Library is governed by a board of 13 volunteer members, including Dr. Glen Palm, who initiated the concept of the museum. Palm, a professor emeritus of St. Cloud State University, taught classes in child development, parent education and parent-child relations.
Besides the museum’s board, there are also several committees comprised of more than 30 volunteers.
“They are working hard to make sure the facility, exhibit environments, programming and other experiences at GRCM are rich with learning opportunities that foster development and complement curriculum (school-based) learning,” Miles said. “Paid staff is small right now, with myself, a full-time program and outreach manager, a communications specialist shared with Stearns History Museum, an intern from the Bonner Leadership Group at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University and a student worker from St. Cloud State University.”
The underlying concept of the GRCM is that children learn best through hands-on experiences that involve all the senses: sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell. That is why many of the exhibits in the museum will be interactive ones so children can explore through contact, play and fun.
The following is an example of that. An exhibit space is now being designed called “Community Connections.” It will include a global “market” that features foods, spices and more from various cultures and places in the world. Children will smell the spices, experience the textures of the foods and will enjoy a visual feast of colors and sizes when they assemble flower bouquets and sort produce.
One of the goals of that particular exhibit is to demonstrate that even though people are different in many respects and come from different places, backgrounds and cultures, all people are connected through common humanity.
One of the exhibits already designed is called “Climber to the Clouds,” sponsored by the Coborn Family Foundation. Located in the heart of the museum, Climber to the Clouds is intended to awe visitors as they enter the museum’s vast atrium. Children will be able to climb higher and higher, above cityscapes and rivers, exploring and interacting to learn about weather systems and even create their own rain, thunder, wind and rainbows.
Another interactive exhibit will be called “Headwaters,” based on the inspiring outdoors of Minnesota, complete with the call of loons, a crackling campfire, leaves rustling in a breeze and other sights and sounds of the great outdoors.
Yet another exhibit, also interactive, will be “Great River” in which children can learn about the importance of water as a habitat, as a means of transportation and as a vital resource for so many cities and towns.
There will also be outreach programs at the museum to connect with children, parents, caregivers and educators at parks and festivals, in schools and other venues.
The GRCM has been in a period of gestation since 2012 with planning and design input from many people and organizations. Part of the planning process involved trips by board members and staff to other children’s museums throughout the nation to see and to learn about how to design the best possible exhibits and programming for children in central Minnesota.
The following are statements of the museum’s mission:
“Play is a powerful factor in a child’s healthy development. From birth, children practice a wide range of skills as they play, explore, discover and learn. Play encourages critical thinking and problem-solving, cross-cultural competence, creative thinking, collaboration, persistence, communication and curiosity.”
To donate to the Great River Children’s Museum, visit its website at greatrivercm.org and click “Donate” on the upper part of the screen.
This is an artist’s conception of “Climber to the Clouds,” one of the elaborate interactive exhibits that will be in the Great River Children’s Museum when it opens sometime late next year.
Cassie Miles is the executive director of the Great River Children’s Museum, which is raising funds to ensure its opening in St. Cloud.
