Utica Children’s Museum will have kids climbing the walls
Most parents probably have at some point complained that their children were driving them up the wall.
Well, at the Utica Children’s Museum, opening later this year, turnabout will be fair play. It will be the kids climbing the walls.
The museum’s rotunda will include a 30-foot-long, 16-foot-high climbing areas thanks to $500,000 in funding from Oneida County and its American Rescue Plan Act funding, county Executive Anthony Picente Jr. announced Tuesday.
“The Climber exhibit will be the signature feature of the new Children’s Museum Rotunda,” he said. “It’s the first thing visitors will see when they enter, creating a wall of fun adjacent to the main staircase. And it will also be seen from the outside, signaling to passersby the spirit of adventure that awaits inside.”
As fun as the Climber is expected to be, it’s about a whole lot more than just fun, officials said. In the course of going up and down a series of ramps, platforms and curves, and climbing up to two lookout nests at the top, kids will overcome physical challenges and have the opportunity to take safe risks. They’ll develop gross motor skills, gain confidence in their physical capabilities and learn to share spaces and communicate with others, officials said.
The new museum, located at Holland Avenue and the Memorial Parkway, will include exhibits that relate to the region with focuses on diverse areas including STEAM, the trades, the four seasons and the cultures that make up the area. The museum will be one feature in nonprofit ICAN’s Family Resource Center, which will also include ICAN programs and a community room that other organizations may use.
The former Utica Children’s Museum on Main Street closed in 2020.