Once an adult playground, Kahunaville site set to become children's museum

When Lisa Lessner, Karen Townsend and Bill Smith started working on bringing a hands-on, educational children's museum to Delaware, they were all parents of young children.

More than a decade of tireless work later, their kids are in high school, college or beyond, and the Delaware Children's Museum is finally set to open this fall on Wilmington's Riverfront. The milestone is important for families and for the region: it means Wilmington can join every other major city in the United States in offering a children's museum as a resource and destination.

The museum, which aims to educate children through playful exploration, will be located at the former Kahunaville -- once a playground for adults. And, yes, they hope to incorporate the volcano into the plans.

“Everybody knows the volcano. You see it in people’s eyes; you’ve got this little spark,” says marketing and communications director Paige Winburn.

The Delaware Children's museum first incorporated in 1987, operating out of a storefront on Market Street. When that closed down, there was a group that never gave up, even though the museum had no location, money or staff, says Executive Director Julie Van Blarcom. For years, The museum was little more than a nomadic exhibit, staffed by volunteers who set it up under a tent at community events. 

Today, it operates out of a planning office in the EDiS building on Poplar Street on the Riverfront. It is doing so with help from the Riverfront Development Corporation, donations from businesses and state, federal and individual donations.

The move to a permanent facility began in the mid-1990s when then Gov. Tom Carper was spearheading the Riverfront Development Corporation.

“Gov. Carper told the group that if they were willing to focus on science, math and technology he would help them find a site,” Van Blarcom says. “He has held true to that commitment.”

The board finally found Kahunaville in late 2007 after four other sites fell through. With a location, it was time to hire an executive director and staff to raise more funds, Van Blarcom says.

“This is how long it takes if you look at other children’s museums, with moms around the kitchen table talking passionately,” says Townsend, who joined the board in 1995 and became president in 1996.

Museums come in a spectrum of functions, Winburn says: there is pay-to-play fun like an arcade on one end and the art museum on the other end.

“A children’s museum is sort of the sweet spot in the middle where kids get to be kids,” she says. “It’s completely kid-friendly. … You better touch everything in a children’s museum. There’s nothing you shouldn’t touch.”

It's also important to remember that a children’s museum is not a one-shot deal  -- it seems to grow with a child, says Townsend, a life coach at the Center for Disabilities at the University of Delaware.

“A 5-year-old will act differently than an 8-year-old and can experience it quite differently,” she says. “They’re learning and they don’t know it; it’s not at a desk. That’s what’s so great.”

Van Blarcom agrees.

“Children’s museums are interactive, hands-on opportunities for kids to immerse themselves in role playing, in environments and activities that have an underlying learning experience,” Van Blarcom says.

The children’s museum also sees itself as contributing to the revitalization of Downtown Wilmington, she says.

“Schools are going to come because we’re going to offer good field trips for teachers by building our exhibits to meet the standards – understanding what they need to rationalize being allowed to spend money on a field trip,” she adds.

“We don’t see ourselves as a tourist attraction. We see ourselves as a resource.”