Kaleideum

Kaleideum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was created from the July 2016 merger of Children's Museum of Winston-Salem and SciWorks, the Science Center and Environmental Park of Forsyth County. Currently, the museum operates two locations — Kaleideum Downtown (formerly The Children's Museum of Winston-Salem) and Kaleideum North (formerly SciWorks).

Kaleideum
The Children's Museum of Winston-Salem and SciWorks merged in July 2016, and the new entity was named Kaleideum in February 2017.
Location of the museum
EstablishedJuly 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)[1]
LocationWinston-Salem, North Carolina
Coordinates36.0915034°N 80.2438006°W / 36.0915034; -80.2438006
TypeChildren's Museum and Science Center
Visitors200,000 annually
Websitekaleideum.org

History

Kaleideum North

Kaleideum North began in 1964 as the Nature Science Center, started by the local Junior League; the museum was originally housed in a barn at Reynolda Village.[2] In 1972, the Nature Science Center moved to its present location on Hanes Mill Road,[2] into a campus that originally housed the Forsyth County Home and Hospital, the precursor to Forsyth Medical Center. In 1992 the Nature Science Center closed and underwent a major renovation, re-opening under the name SciWorks. In 2001, the museum upgraded the facilities by doubling the space of one of the main galleries and adding an indoor eating area to the building.

Kaleideum North, located at 400 West Hanes Mill Road in Winston-Salem, consists of a building with 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) of exhibit space, a 15-acre (61,000 m2) environmental park, and a planetarium. The exhibit galleries cover a wide range of topics such as North Carolina geography and geology, the human body, physics (featuring a Foucault pendulum), sound, and technology. In addition, there is a traveling exhibit gallery that features both nationally touring exhibits and exhibits created in-house. The BioWorks exhibit, focusing on animals both local and exotic, was renovated in 2010.

The environmental park features river otters, white-tailed deer, and a barnyard that has donkeys, a miniature horse, sheep, domestic goats, and cows. The museum runs several interactive education programs for elementary and middle school students. In addition, Kaleideum North also offers special summer camps, as well as camp-ins for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

Kaleideum Downtown

Kaleideum Downtown, formerly The Children's Museum of Winston-Salem, is located at 390 South Liberty Street in Winston-Salem. The museum was created by the Junior League of Winston-Salem as a gift to the city to celebrate the league's 75th anniversary. The museum opened its doors during November 2004 as a safe place for young children and their families to learn and play together. Designed with a literature-based theme, the museum focused on experiential learning and the educational benefits of play through literature, storytelling, and the arts, while offering birthday parties, summer camps,field trips, workshops, storytime programming, theatre performances, and special community events. The Junior League pledged that 10 percent of its active members would volunteer at the museum until at least 2020.[3]

In November 2014 the Children's Museum acquired Peppercorn Theatre, which was founded in 2010 by John Bowhers and Anna Rooney. Peppercorn became a programming arm of the museum and produces high quality, original theatre works and puppet shows to entertain and educate.

Merger between Children's Museum and SciWorks

A merger between the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem and SciWorks was first discussed in 2015.[4] In July 2016 they officially merged, and Forsyth County commissioners approved $17 million for a new museum building where the sheriff's office used to be.[5] On February 7, 2017, the name Kaleideum, combining kaleidoscope and museum, was announced for the museum.[6]

Kaleideum announced on July 6, 2017, that Stitch Design Shop and Gensler would be the architectural firms designing its new building.[7]

Permanent exhibits

Kaleideum Downtown features many permanent and rotating exhibits. The permanent exhibits include: "Kaleidoscape", a crocheted climbing structure;[8] "Lucky Climber" and "Beanstalk Climber", climbing structures that lead from the lobby to the second floor; "The Enchanted Forest", "Amazing Airways", a series of air tubes that are designed to allow children to test hypotheses about air flow; "Art Studio", provides materials and suggested art activities.[9]

Kaleideum North features a planetarium, live animals, PhysicsWorks, BioWorks, HealthWorks, KevaWorks, a traveling exhibit hall, nature trails, and an Outdoor Environmental Park.

References
  1. "Welcome to the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem, North Carolina!". Retrieved 5 July 2011. opened its doors on November 20, 2004
  2. Herron, Arika (December 11, 2014). "SciWorks continues its 50-year evolution". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  3. Suzy Fielders (May 21, 2014). "Just Kidding Around". Winston-Salem Monthly. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  4. Young, Wesley (January 28, 2016). "Children's Museum and SciWorks to merge". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  5. Herron, Arika (June 26, 2016). "Downtown Winston-Salem museum moves forward". Winston-Salem Journal.
  6. Young, Wesley (February 7, 2017). "It's the Kaleideum: SciWorks, Children's Museum announce new name". Winston-Salem Journal.
  7. Young, Wesley (July 7, 2017). "Kaleideum hires architect for downtown building". Winston-Salem Journal.
  8. Susan Gilmor (June 13, 2013). "Colorful Playscape: Children's Museum unveils new climbing art installation". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  9. "Exhibits - Children's Museum of Winston-Salem". Childrensmuseumofws.org. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
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