Jenny Baltes has been keeping close track of the new Madison Children's Museum taking shape on the Capitol Square and appreciates how it will cover a wider age range and appeal to older kids.

"It's important to me as she gets to the edge of the age limit," said Baltes, of Sun Prairie, nodding toward her daughter, Lily, 6, who, during a day off school Monday for parent-teacher conferences, was in the museum's pretend cafe, "Juice Caboose," making her mother a faux pizza.

"Do you want it extra cheesy?" Lily asked.

"Sure," said Baltes, adding later, "this is the best pizza ever."

Baltes has been taking Lily to the museum regularly since she was 18 months old. Going to the museum is what Lily chooses to do when she has days off from school, her mom said.

The cafe, along with the museum's life-size fiberglass cows, Gertrude and Melba Sue, are Lily's favorite exhibits, and the ones she voted for the museum to bring to its new home.

Those planning the new museum listened to museum users in determining the future of the museum, which is moving from one corner of the Capitol Square to another. In a survey of its visitors, the No. 1 request was for on-site parking, followed by exhibits for older children and science exhibits.

The last day of operation for the State Street museum will be Jan. 3, so for more than seven months the city will be without a children's museum.

When it opens in August, the museum will have three times the exhibit space of the current location, with room to expand to five times its present size. It will offer about 55 public parking spots and art and science exhibits aimed at pre-teens. The museum also plans to devote a portion of its third floor to science and technology by 2012.

The building will have a cafe run by Middleton's health-conscious Bean Sprouts Cafe; a four-season rooftop terrace and clubhouse; a mural by internationally known Spring Green-native Richard Haas; and new attractions like a treadmill to give children the experience of feeling like "a hamster in a human-sized wheel."

The museum is also bringing over, expanding and improving on the most popular exhibits from its current location at 100 State St.: "Juice Caboose"; the construction crane; and the shadow room, where kids draw with light and project their shadows on a wall. All will find new life at 100 N. Hamilton St., when the museum opens to the public Aug. 14.

"The shadow room was the No. 1 winner when we asked our visitors which exhibits they wanted retained in the new building," said Ruth Shelly, the museum's executive director.

The current location was so cramped, the museum had to gear its exhibits toward early elementary-aged students and intentionally limit its upper age range to 7 or 8. Exhibits in the new building will be targeted for children up to age 11 or 12, Shelly said.

Families come in with mixed-aged siblings, she said. "They might have a preschooler but they've also got a 10-year-old. And the 10-year-old in our current facility is bored."

The museum also wants to appeal to the 45,000 fourth-graders who take field trips to the Capitol every year as part of their state history curriculum. A trip to the museum will allow the children to make a full day of it, she said.

The renovated building, originally a Montgomery Ward department store in 1929, will have a freight elevator that can hold up to 30 kids and a classroom where groups of children can eat lunch. "If you build a lunchroom, they will come," Shelly said on a recent hard-hat tour of the new building.

Parents in the visitor surveys also pointed out that while there are small science museums on the UW-Madison campus, the city lacks a science center.

The two main floors of the new museum will have a strong science component. Shelly described one area of the building, the city of "Possible-opolis," as a cross between Dr. Seuss and Rube Goldberg, where blenders, lava lamps, pinball machines, vintage salon hair dryers and other old appliances can be re-engineered and used to create "wayback machines."

Shelly anticipates going from 90,000 visitors annually in the old building to 130,000 visitors in the new one.

The new museum's hours and prices are still being discussed, but the $5 admission price for both children and adults will probably increase. "We're really sensitive to the tough times that families face. We are going to keep the admission and membership increases as modest as possible," Shelly said.

The first floor of the museum, with preview exhibits, a dress-up area, and waterspouts that send balls aloft on jets of water, will be free and open to everyone.

Also, instead of the first Sunday of the month being free as it is now, the museum is considering "twilight Thursdays" where the museum will be open until 8 p.m. and the first Thursday evening of every month will be free.

The museum plans to continue to heavily subsidize admission for people on public assistance. "We never want economics to be a barrier for people attending," Shelly said.

Eliot Butler, chairman of the museum board and president of The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Co., has no children himself, but said his niece enjoys the museum when she comes to visit. But nearly 8, she is starting to outgrow it.

The new museum will be a great asset not only for the children of Madison, but for the whole community, said Butler. "We need to have a good workforce here in the future and the way you get that is by good education," he said. "And the museum is going to be a critical part of good community education."

Login to post your comment. If you don't have an account, you may register for one.