They're baaack.
After a year without a building, the Great Lakes Children's Museum will reopen on September 16 with a grand celebration at their new facility in Greilickville. Situated on M-22 just north of Traverse City, the museum will feature many of the same child-pleasing exhibits. In addition, the building will include a new, larger hands-on water table exhibit, a two-story lighthouse keeper's exhibit, a Great Lakes Activities room and an expanded museum store.
The museum's staff and volunteers will also host a fifth anniversary party during this week's Friday Night Live downtown near the corner of Front and Cass streets. Youth musicians, including the Traverse City East Junior High Jazz Band, will serenade attendees while children and families can draw on a portion of a wall mural that will be displayed in the museum.
Installing and putting the finishing touches on the exhibits will keep museum staff busy through the end of the month as they work toward a late summer opening.
"We're actually hoping to open before Labor Day," said executive director John Noonan. "I just can't wait to get the kids back in here. Drywallers and electricians are fun to spend time with, but this place needs kids in here."
Construction professionals from many trades have shown great support over the past six months, contributing both time and materials to help defray the costs of the extensive renovation. Transforming a former marine sales building into a bright, well-lit, organized and inviting museum with numerous large exhibits has been a challenge. The past few weeks spent reassembling the exhibits, which had been cleaned before being stored for 11 months, provided another challenge much like assembling a giant puzzle.
"Any project of this scope is going to take a lot of effort but what's amazing to me is the donations from local construction businesses," noted Noonan. "It really is amazing, all the help we've gotten."
The 5,400 square foot Great Lakes Children's Museum is slightly larger than the previous location on West Front Street. However, years of experience at the former site gave them ideas for organizing the new building better to improve traffic flow and usability.
The land donated by developer Michael Dow will also house three other related organizations: The Watershed Center, the Maritime Heritage Alliance and Traverse Area Community Sailing. Noonan praised this synergy among like-mined educational organizations and noted the museum may revisit a long-term vision of moving back to downtown Traverse City.
"It's really an awesome location that might prove to be a highly successful location for the museum and the community," said Noonan, adding of the effort of moving: "It's worth it to be in a place that is financially stable for the long-haul."
Although operating without a building for nearly a year, the Great Lakes Children's Museum kept its presence in the community by co-sponsoring programs or reviving their traveling exhibits.
A grant last August from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services funded the new water table, the old one of which was one of the most popular exhibits. Titled "Thoughts Flow" and built by Tom Egan, an artist from Kansas specializing in these structures, the exhibit will contain numerous canals, locks, paddlewheels that invite play and learning by visitors of all ages.
"It was a very competitive grant and we were very pleased to get it," said Noonan. "One of the nice things about this water table is there are so many ways the water can be diverted."
For more information about the Great Lakes Children's Museum events and programs, call 932-4526 or visit their website at www.GreatLakesKids.org.