The Curious Kids Museum in downtown St. Joseph is back on its feet after a fire that destroyed about half of its exhibits last year.
Museum Director Lori Marciniak tells us they’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the supporters have been amazing. The museum reopened a few weeks ago, and she says it’s a joy to have the building full of kids again.
Work to replace lost exhibits continues.
“We want to make sure that we can get these exhibits professionally made and designed, and that costs a lot of money,” Marciniak said. “A lot of people will look at one of our exhibits and we ask what they think that costs, and they’ll say between $5,000 and $10,000 when in reality that exhibit could cost between $75,000 to $80,000.”
Marciniak says about 20% of what was lost has been replaced.
“The first floor is in pretty good shape, but the second floor where the fire happened, we’ve purchased a couple of things that were more like off the shelf exhibits. Our exhibit design company that we use a lot, KidZibits out of Minneapolis, they’re coming down on November 14 for a design charrette.”
As for the museum’s effort to purchase its building from the city of St. Joseph, Marciniak says the focus is simply on being open and serving the community now that the negotiations have fallen apart. She said there may still be some talk of a purchase in the future, but the goal now is to be a museum for the kids.
The Curious Kids annual Celebrate Curiosity gala is this Friday to raise funds. Marciniak says it’s more important than ever as recovery from the fire continues. The Spooky Soiree they have planned Friday is already sold out, but it will include a silent auction open to everyone.
Stayed tuned to the Curious Kids Facebook page to learn more about the auction.
