news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Officials at the Greensboro Children’s Museum plan an overhaul of the downtown attraction that will result in major improvements inside and out.

Although no final price has been determined, museum officials estimate the enhancements — the most significant since the museum opened in 1999 — could cost $5 million.

The improvements will be financed through a fundraising campaign that will be announced later this year.

“You can always touch up something with paint and make it look fresh, but that wasn’t enough,” said John Cross, chairman of the museum board of trustees. “The museum does need a face-lift.”

The most significant change will be the addition of The Edible Schoolyard, a nonprofit cooking and organic gardening program started in Berkeley, Calif., in 1995 by chef and author Alice Waters.

The Children’s Museum will be the first nonschool site to use the nationally recognized “seed-to-table” program, which teaches children about food production, ecology, nutrition and work.

“The garden is the wow factor,” said Melanie Soles, chairwoman of the capital campaign. “There will be nothing (else) like this in North Carolina for families to enjoy.”

The new, half-acre garden will allow children to shape beds, plant seeds, tend soil, turn compost and harvest flowers, fruits and vegetables.

In a teaching kitchen, they will learn to create recipes, prepare food, set a table, eat together and talk about the foods they have grown.

The garden and kitchen will be ready in May, when the museum, at 220 N. Church St., celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Some improvements won’t be completed until 2010 or 2011, as money becomes available.
Plans also call for a four-story tree house, a greenhouse and tool shed, a chicken coop, and an outdoor learning center that will include an amphitheater, a bamboo or sunflower maze and a cafe where kids can make mud pies and cakes.

The parking lot will be moved to the rear of the property and enlarged.

Inside, there will be new and improved exhibits, including a train depot, a health center, a cultural plaza, a campsite, a toddlers’ play area, plus additional office space and bathrooms, a new conference area, a new lobby, a catering kitchen and birthday party rooms.

“I think it is fair to say that most of your favorite things will be enhanced or moved to another space,” said Betsy Grant, the museum’s CEO. “You will certainly recognize them, but many things will be new.”

Officials agree, however, that it will be The Edible Schoolyard that will bring national attention to Greensboro.

Waters will come to Greensboro in May for the grand opening of the museum’s Edible Schoolyard.

The improvements at the Children’s Museum come at a time when a recent consultants’ report recommended that the city turn the Church Street area into an expanded cultural district.

“I think this whole museum renovation has the potential of jump-starting the cultural district and its progress,” Soles said.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com