Omaha Children's Museum

Omaha Children's Museum Announces Campaign

A Page From the Capital Campaign
A GLIMPSE INTO OCM'S FUTURE

Designer Focus: Tom Kraemer

Ways To Get Involved
Campaign Committee Overview

New Donors Support Annual Fund

Museum Awarded For Titanic Discovery Ports
Science Centers Recognize OCM with Inaugural Award

Omaha Children's Museum Announces Campaign
Pledges and donations to date top $4.4 million

Omaha Children’s Museum announced its “Building on the Best” campaign to completely renovate the museum’s permanent exhibits. The $6.6 million campaign includes the first floor exhibit areas, new outdoor exhibits and signage and a fully-equipped second floor science lab. To date, more than $4.4 million has been raised through foundations, corporations, government entities and private donors.

“More than a year and half of planning, dreaming, discussing, studying and meeting culminates today in the ‘Building on the Best’ campaign,” said Lindy J. Hoyer, executive director of Omaha Children’s Museum, at the November 15 press conference.

In addition to Hoyer, “Building on the Best” campaign co-chairman Sandy Parker and Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey also spoke at the press conference.

The announcement included a three dimensional model of the new science center, which builds on the popularity of the Super Gravitron. The museum released images of the new arts area, early learner area and outdoor renovations, including a wind-powered sculpture where the museum’s sign tower now stands on 20th Street.

The museum also announced the companies chosen to build the exhibits.

Boss Display of Columbus, Ohio, designer and builder of the Super Gravitron, will renovate the Charlie Campbell Science and Technology center. Working closely with Tom Kraemer, who designed the new exhibitry for the science center, Boss will build three more Super Gravitrons to flank the current one, an Inventor’s Workshop, a “whiz bang” science theater and other science exhibits.

Lexington of Arleta, Calif., and Heartland Scenic Studio of Omaha, Nebr., will collaborate to renovate the arts and early learner exhibits. Lexington fabricated much of the indoor exhibit spaces for KidSpace Museum in Pasadena, Calif., during its 2004 renovations. Heartland Scenic Studio fabricated the original Charlie Campbell Science and Technology Center in 1995 and has since worked with other children’s museums.

“We were particularly excited to find a qualified, competitive bid from a local fabricator,” said Hoyer. “It makes the project even more fully reflect our community, while also keeping some of the dollars in the area.”

The Campaign chairs are Barb and Bill Fitzgerald, Julie and Mark Mowat, Anne and John Nelson, and Sandy and Dave Parker. Throughout the campaign, OCM will seek donations from the community through special events and fundraising activities (more information on page 3).

The museum will begin demolition and construction first in the creative arts area, starting April 2006. The museum will remain open during the process, re-opening areas as they are completed and closing others for construction. The project will be finished and celebrated with a grand-reopening in spring 2007.

“Building on the Best,” according to Hoyer, refers to the master plan for exhibits and programs that takes all the best offerings of the museum and improves them. While many areas will be similar, such as a grocery, farm, arts area and science center, they will be outfitted with new exhibits and activities.

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A Page from the Capital Campaign
A GLIMPSE INTO OCM'S FUTURE

Science Initiative: Makes science and the scientific process fun and explores how and why things work.

We believe that a child’s most serious work is play. Our science initiative encourages visitors to play with ideas and concepts, experiment, observe and try something in a different way all within contexts that are recognizable, comfortable and connect to the real world. Our region is rich in natural environments and scientific endeavor. We will explore how things work and what is going on in our own back yard. Our initiative will connect the work of local universities, scientists and naturalists to the work of the museum, allowing young people and families to explore the scientific process and themes and issues in contemporary science.We will encourage the asking of “why” while understanding there will always be a new set of questions.

Designer Focus:Tom Kraemer

When Omaha Children’s Museum began its master planning for new permanent exhibits, the museum staff, board members and others would often sit at a large table and brainstorm together. People would talk excitedly about a room where kids could fly kites or build an enormous pyramid while exhibit designer Tom Kraemer would quietly take the ideas floating around and sketch them out in a notebook.

Those meetings and Kraemer’s sketches grew into a complete vision for an overhaul of the Charlie Campbell Science and Technology Center.

Said Kraemer, “From very early on, we [the design team] knew that we wanted to do more than one Super Gravitron. It’s very popular, and we saw a spot to develop it further, using air, water and mechanics to tie it in with science. The difference is that we made each pod unique so the experience is totally different from one exhibit to the next.”

Kraemer took his concept design drawings to Boss Display, the designers and builders of the first Super Gravitron, to create the schematic designs, which explain the workings of each piece and include dimensions and placement within a space.

“The science center had [Boss’s] name all over it from the get go,” said Kraemer.

Kraemer, who has 22 years of experience, has worked with Boss Display before at the world’s largest children’s museum in Indianapolis, Ind., and at the Cinergy Children’s Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, the same city where Kraemer has his own firm, Kraemer Design and Production Inc.

Kraemer Design and Production consists of planners, architects, writers, educators, industrial designers, exhibit and graphic designers that have done work for museums, science centers, theme parks, and visitor centers. Kraemer’s creations are found at COSI Columbus, Ohio; COSI Toledo, Ohio; Imagine It! Children’s Museum (Atlanta, Ga,); The Creative Discovery Museum (Chattanooga, Tn.); Six Flags Great America (Gurney, Ill. and Jackson, N.J.); MagiQuest (Myrtle Beach, S.C.); as well as theme parks in Brazil and China.

Kraemer graduated from the University of Cincinnati, at the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1983, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Design.

After graduation, Kraemer joined Giltspur Exhibits in Rochester, N.Y. after which he worked for four years at Adex International, Inc. becoming Senior Industrial Designer, primarily responsible for the design of exhibits, displays, graphics and interiors. He worked on scale models and color renderings, graphic layouts and photography.

Kraemer then spent six years as Senior Project Designer for Jack Rouse Associates Inc., where he first worked with museums. His responsibilities included designing and coordinating interactive museum exhibits.

Kraemer’s work has not only earned him decades of work on dozens of projects but also the Themed Entertainment Association’s Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement for his exhibit design at COSI Columbus.

Ways to get invloved
Campaign Committe Overview

As Omaha Children’s Museum’s campaign committee volunteers and staff complete the major gift solicitation phase of the campaign, a community-wide effort was designed to include the entire community in creating a new museum.

Grandparents Committee
Sharon and Bill Griffin, Co-chairs
Betsy and Bob Reed, Co-chairs

Grandparents love to give their grandchildren gifts. The grandparents on this committee are willing to spoil their grandchildren with a brand new children’s museum. The committee will reach out to the grandparents in our community with more incentives to become members and support the “Building on the Best” campaign.

Kids Campaign
Kristine Gerber, Co-chair
Cristina Castro-Matukewicz, Co-chair

Early in the master planning process, OCM knew one thing for sure: this would be a renovated museum for children and by children. Kids helped design some of the exhibits that are in the museum’s master plan, and they are helping to raise some of the funds, too.

The campaign will involve elementary and middle schools in the metro and surrounding area school districts. The museum designed its own rainbow colored rubber wrist band that children can buy and wear to show everybody how much they love their museum. The wrist bands will be sold by school committees and the Omaha Children’s Museum Store. Kids will not only have the satisfaction of supporting their museum but will also get the following perks when they come to OCM: $1 off admission to OCM throughout the 2006 calendar year, 25% off museum store purchases and a complimentary invitation to preview DinO!saurs on Friday, June 2, 2006.

Membership Committee
Greg and Kim Brokke, Co-chairs
Stacie and Rob Reed, Co-chairs

No one knows better than museum members the value of a renovated Omaha Children’s Museum. This committee will work with the museum’s biggest fans to gain their support for the campaign and a new OCM.

Special Events Committee
Laura and Michael Luther, Co-chairs
Micky and Barney Marvin, Co-chairs
Brigid and Steve Wilkening, Co-chairs

As anyone who has ever walked through our doors can tell you, Omaha Children’s Museum is a place where kids and families have a great time. This committee will use the museum’s sense of fun to create events that will attract younger donors who are beginning to become philanthropically active in the community to build the museum’s long-term donor base.

New Donors Support Annual Fund
By, Kristen Ostenso

Omaha Children’s Museum’s 2005 Annual Appeal has attracted many new donors, most of whom have previously been connected to the museum as members or attendees to annual the “For the Kids” Benefit. OCM is very excited to extend its base of supporters, which will enable us to increase our programming, outreach and capacity to deliver on our mission of engaging the imagination and creating an excitement about learning.

It is because of the generous support of donors this past year that OCM was able to grow and accomplish so many of the following goals:

OCM welcomed 191,000 visitors, making OCM the third most visited attraction in Omaha.
OCM received the 2005 Association of Science and Technology Center’s (ASTC) Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience for our continual effort to provide educational exhibits and programs throughout the community.
OCM facilitated 456 school fieldtrips, representing schools from all over the metropolitan area and over 15,000 students.

OCM hosted three nationally acclaimed traveling exhibits to enhance visitor experience: Invention at Play, Five Friends From Japan and Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body.

With your help, OCM can ensure that in our upcoming 30th year, we will make an even bigger impact on the community. By supporting OCM through the annual appeal, you will assist us in reaching more classrooms through educational outreach programs. Your gift will help us continue to offer exciting, new traveling exhibits and special events. For more information regarding the OCM annual appeal and how to make a contribution, please contact Kristen Ostenso at (402) 342-6164, ext. 420 or kostenso@ocm.org.

MUSEUM AWARDED FOR TITANIC DISCOVERY PORTS
Science Centers Recognize OCM with Inaugural Award

In a field dominated by science centers, Omaha Children’s Museum was singled out for its approach to hosting Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit.

On October 16, 2005, the museum was one of the first five museums awarded the Association of Science-Technology Centers’ (ASTC) Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience for developing the Titanic Discovery Ports.

Omaha Children’s Museum Executive Director Lindy J. Hoyer accepted the inaugural award at ASTC’s annual conference in Richmond, Virginia.

Omaha Children’s Museum created Titanic Discovery Ports in order to complement Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit, which the museum exhibited in the summer 2004. Titanic expanded the museum visitor age-range into older children and adults with its display of actual artifacts from the sunken ship.

“It’s deeply rewarding to be recognized by the Association of Science-Technology Centers as a children’s museum impacting science, education and the visitor experience, particularly because this is the first year the award was given. This award demonstrates how Omaha Children’s Museum and children’s museums in general are setting the standard for learning outside the classroom.”

Each year, ASTC will select two Leading Edge Awards for Visitor Experience, one to a large museum (with a budget of $1.5 million or above) and one to a smaller museum, which Omaha Children’s Museum received. Each nomination is judged according to its unique application of new ideas and promising practices, demonstrating a leap of creativity and an extraordinary dimension of performance; its role in furthering the institution’s mission by achieving a tangible impact or lasting effect on visitor experience-including, but not limited to, exhibitions, education programs, technology applications, theater and film programming, visitor services, research and evaluation; its embodiment of the ASTC values of collaboration, joy of experiential learning, equity and diversity, and forward-looking leadership; and its potential to serve as a model of creative thinking and best practices for the field as a whole.

Said Hoyer, “Through this project, Omaha Children’s Museum created many lasting partnerships with funders, schools, local theater groups and RMS Titanic Inc.

Discovery Ports: A Titanic Program was made possible by the Peter Kiewit Foundation, The Ahmanson Foundation, The Iowa West Foundation, George and Susan Venteicher, The Charles and Mary Heider Family Foundation, The Qwest Foundation and The Rainbow Connectors Guild.

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