ShawneeDispatch.com

Editor’s note: This is the final part of a two-part series exploring the future of Shawnee’s signature museums.

The folks at Wonderscope Children’s Museum are in a waiting mode.

They’re waiting for someone to step forward with the funds and other resources that will enable them to build a new 55,000-square-foot museum.

Unlike their counterparts at the Johnson County Museum of History — whose plans for a new museum, though already approved in some fashion by county commissioners, must wait until the county has the funds to proceed — the Wonderscope staff’s hopes can be realized with one check, provided it’s big enough.

The former Flint Elementary School building at 5700 King St., which shares a parking lot with the Jim Allen Aquatic Center, the city’s new east-side swimming pool, encompasses about 10,000 square feet, but planners lament that 2,000 square feet of that space is taken up by a long central hallway — a desirable feature in a school where students have to pass between classes but an impediment to the natural flow between exhibits in a museum.

A total of 10 exhibits – designed to integrate the arts, science and literature for children 10 and under – are shoehorned into about 6,000 square feet of space.

Wonderscope is about a year into its master plan process initiated in the summer of 2007, said executive director Lauranne Hess. Officials have moved beyond the initial planning stage, into testing concepts that will form the core of the new, 20,000-square-foot facility they hope to inhabit as soon as a donor comes forward. The planning process, drawing upon the experience of experts in the museum field and elementary school educators, looked first at the educational experiences that would have the most meaning to children, then designed the proposed exhibits for the new museum with those concepts in mind.

The plans drawn up could either be used to build a new facility from the ground up, or to move into an existing structure, Hess said. Nationally, about half the new museums that open make use of existing structures, she said.

Unlike the present situation, where visitors come into a dark hallway that bisects the available space, children in the new museum could first come into a Central Park, an entry/gathering space with a fallen-tree climbing exhibit and a water exhibit. (The water exhibit features a water tower, and to some degree lets children decide where the water will flow, where they might race boats or ducks. It courses through about one-third of the museum.) From there, visitors might go into an outdoor play yard or on to Wonderscape, an “imaginative play space” where children can make up their own stories, perhaps even making costumes in an artist’s studio and putting on their own plays. At a Farm to Table exhibit, museum visitors might harvest make-believe vegetables or milk a cow, moving on to cook a meal and then eat it (for pretend, of course) in a dining area. A Townscape would feature an animal clinic where would-be veterinarians might heal sick animals and a service station where children could work on cars.

(Wonderscope is, of course, looking for donors, board member Christine Hamele said; Banfield, the Pet Hospital, has agreed to sponsor part of the cost of the animal clinic.)

The design of the exhibits is necessarily fluid, so that exhibits can be changed quickly when warranted. “One thing about children’s museums is that exhibits wear out quickly,” she said.

The museum also would include a Tinker’s Workshop where children can erect simple machines. That concept, along with several others identified in the planning process, is being tested now in the current museum.

Wonderscope drew 72,000 visitors last year. Once the museum is able to move into a larger facility, officials say attendance could grow to 250,000 or 300,000 visitors a year.

Size is really a limiting factor, Hess and Hamele say. As an example, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, acknowledged as one of the national leaders in the field, has about 200,000 square feet. Magic House, a fine St. Louis children’s museum, has about 25,000 square feet; good children’s museums in neighboring Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., each have about 20,000 square feet.

And Wonderscope officials say they like their current location, and the support from the nearby Splash Cove.

“We’ve always loved this location and that we’re in the heart of a suburban community,” Hamele said. “The city of Shawnee has been wonderfully supportive, but when you get to this old building, that’s where the challenges lie.”

The building has many faults.

“It doesn’t, from an architectural standpoint, allow us to do things that are dynamic in an environment that a child needs to thrive.”

It’s an antiquated building, with no central air-conditioning and numerous water problems. Also, its low ceilings limit the scope of many exhibits – it makes it impossible, for example, to erect the climbing exhibit the plan identifies as a central feature of the new museum.

Officials have looked into remodeling, Hamele said, but “financially, it just doesn’t make sense.”

“The reality is we have a 7,000-square-foot building with a 2,000-square-foot hallway,” Hamele said. “It is what it is. We’re either going to knock it down and rebuild or look for a new location.”

Despite the hardships that many families face in the current economy, Hamele said, “they are still making the investment to take their kids here.”

First, she said, families still want to create memorable experiences for their children. Second, “the community really does support us.” And third, the staff has worked to keep the exhibits fresh and rewarding for the children who return.

Wonderscope leases the property from the B & H Charitable Foundation for $1 a year. Museum officials have had talks with representatives of the foundation about building the new museum on the current site.

Wonderscope officials were about to start a capital campaign when the stock market tumbled in the fall of 2008, but those plans were shelved pending an end to the recession. When the campaign does resume, the target officials have in mind now is approaching $20 million, Hess said. About $8 million of that will go for exhibit spaces; the remainder, in addition to building a new building or renovating an existing structure, will go toward starting an endowment.

Once a donor comes forward, it wouldn’t take long to make the change, Hess said. She estimated that, if a donor came forward today, the museum could move in as little as 18 months. Usually it takes three to four years once it begins, and Wonderscope is about one year into that process, she said.

But they are still waiting for the one big gift to get the ball rolling.

“What we’re hearing from some of our major donors is that they’re waiting for that first gift,” Hamele said.

Although they have looked at many locations inside the ring that Interstate 435 transcribes around the metropolitan area, Hamele said, they would like to stay in Shawnee.

“Our hope is that we’d stay in Shawnee and continue to thrive and grow with the community,” she said. Then the other shoe dropped. “The reality is that, like many museums and not-for-profits, if a donor gives a space, that could be the tipping factor and that could be where we would locate.”

Value often underestimated

So, what will it take to keep Wonderscope in Shawnee? The answer is simple, if illusive, said Kevin Tubbesing, former City Council member and a member and former chairman of the Wonderscope board.

“The No. 1 way of Wonderscope staying in Shawnee is when a donor provides a sizeable donation to make that happen,” Tubbesing said.

“Children’s museums are major economic engines and completely underestimated by the communities that are served by them,” he continued.

He noted that the Indianapolis Children’s Museum has a $50 million economic impact on the surrounding community.

“According to a survey, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum was the No. 1-recognized institution in the state,” Tubbesing said, surpassing even the Indianapolis 500 and the region’s major professional sports franchises.

“Wonderscope sees 70,000 visitors a year,” he said. “Although some are obviously repeats, still every single one of those families drives by local businesses and patronizes them, due to their proximity to the museum.”

Part of the problem, he said, is that people do not realize what they will lose if the museum moves.

“Because today, without a $20 million museum, there’s not a vision of the desperate loss it would be to lose that museum,” Tubbesing said. “It’s going to take a total community vision to capture or keep our valued institutions.”

What would be the impact of the museums’ moving?

“Today? Little. There would be some impact to the surrounding merchants. Those stores will lose that business, no doubt about it.”

“Besides festivals, I don’t know anything that brings that number of people to downtown Shawnee.”

“Ten years from now, when there’s a $10 million museum with 250,000 to 300,000 visitors a year and many of them are from out of the region or out of state, it then enables other businesses to be supported by the patronage of the children’s museum.” Another impact would be on vendors to the museum, he added, plus improvements in the quality of life for local families who don’t have to go so far to enrich their children’s lives.

“When you think of possible local community assets that attract half a million visitors a year, there aren’t many that a neighbor could say, ‘Yeah, put that next to my house,’ but a children’s museum is one of those.”

Discussions continue

Meanwhile, the discussions continue. Some of the chamber’s conversations with Wonderscope have gotten as specific as discussing potential sites that might be available, such as an unnamed former grocery store.

But the clock is ticking, particularly for the Johnson County Museum, with its continuing space utilization issues. “They will, in the next five years, have to do something,” said Linda Leeper, the chamber president.

The chamber is also looking for donors, she said. Together with economic development officials, chamber officials have had conversations with a Shawnee property owner whom she declined to name.

But Shawnee is only one of 19 municipalities and six unincorporated areas (such as Stanley and Stilwell) in Johnson County, and each one of them would be happy to furnish a location, particularly for the Johnson County Museum. Several of them have made known their willingness to give land and even buildings for the museum, Leeper said.

“That’s a lot of competition,” she said.

‘Intangible’ assets

Discussions about the museums’ possible departure always focus on the number of visitors each institution attracts, but their value to the community is in many respects intangible. Like libraries and schools and theaters and other cultural attractions, museums are inevitably listed as intangible assets: their value is hard to pin down.

City Council Member Dawn Kuhn is one of many who see the value of institutions like the Johnson County Museum or Wonderscope. She also sees the city’s limitations in terms of land and money, but she feels there’s another side to the coin, so to speak.

“I think our biggest asset to these institutions isn’t public funding, or public land,” she said. “It’s the people that step up to help. I think that’s the best thing we can do.”

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