February & March 2004 issue
Contents:
Letter From Lindy
Master Plan Right Fit for
Future
Meet Hillary Nather
Faces of Homelessness Opens
T-Rex Puts up a Fight
Students Asked to Send in
Titantic Facts
Letter From Lindy
When I was in my teens, I dreamt that I would
be famous enough to be interviewed on the Tonight Show with
Johnny Carson. I would practice sitting in the interview
chair, smiling in the direction of the camera and firing
off quick one-liners to make Johnny and the audience laugh.
I still believe this dream will come true, that Johnny Carson
will return for one more show to interview me . . . when
I am good and famous.
My stepdaughter Vickie is 12, and she, too, is a dreamer.
Vickie has very vivid dreams about what she will be when
she grows up, who she will marry and what her children will
look like. I have no doubt that Vickie’s dreams will
happen because she so passionately believes in what she
envisions.
In the past few months, several very dedicated people and
I have been dreaming about the future of the Omaha Children’s
Museum. In our dreams, we see a museum that is full of new,
fresh and exciting opportunities that beckon us in to play,
learn and experiment. From a transformed first floor to
a second floor full of long-lasting exhibitry, the museum
will become a place where kids will dream of going. The
moment you walk through the front door, you will be invited
to begin the wonderful adventure of discovery.
This dream of a stronger, more engaging museum will come
true. It will take many more meetings, hours of planning
and the enthusiastic support of this community and beyond
to make it happen. But it will happen because we can already
see what this museum can be. And, soon, very soon, we will
begin to share the plan that the "Dream Team"
of the Omaha Children’s Museum has put together. In
the meantime, I invite you to dream with us and envision
an exciting future.
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Master Plan Right Fit
for Future
2003 was a seminal year for the Omaha Children’s
Museum, ending on the high note of a sold-out Masquerade
Parade on New Year’s Eve.
While Grossology and the Super Gravitron grabbed headlines,
another effort was underway to make sure that the museum
had a direction for the future: the creation of the museum’s
Master Plan.
Completed and presented to the museum board in early December,
the plan outlines the mission and vision of the museum,
its educational philosophy as well as projections for exhibitions
and programs well into the next decade.
"For the Board, it was a great way to end the year,"
said Lindy Hoyer, executive director. "Board Members
left that meeting truly excited about the vision for the
museum."
The source of the excitement may have been the ambitious
nature of the plan, the innovation of its execution and
the inclusive nature of its development.
In order to come up with the plan, members of the staff
and board along with a design team visited museums in Chicago,
St. Louis and Indianapolis. They took hundreds of pictures,
hours of video and many pages of notes.
Board member Micky Marvin said, "This team and process
has put us on the right path. Having a diverse group of
moms like me, educators and people in the field was invaluable."
Inspired by their trips, the group came up with key exhibitions
and programs that made their way into the Master Plan, including
the following:
• art and creative initiative,
featuring artist-led programs in a variety of media;
• science center expansion, crossing the boundaries
between science and other fields of study and creating experiences
that highlight various natural forces;
• communications initiative, highlighting the uniqueness
of the area and its role as a hub of communications and
transportation; and
• cultures initiative, celebrating the different people
of the community with language, food and history.
Board member Dennis Hansen said, "The consultants really
listened and had a vision to create what the board and community
were asking for. I’m very pleased with the uniqueness
of it."
The tornado-like kinetic sculpture that is envisioned for
the lobby of the museum, suggestive of a force of nature
well-known in the midlands, has in its lineage the museum’s
own Super Gravitron, the water-clock at the Indianapolis
Children’s Museum and the climbing tubes throughout
the City Museum in St. Louis.
Marvin said, "For some time, we’ve been asking
ourselves, ‘Are we a science museum, for big kids
or for little kids?’ It’s now become clear that
we need to bring all these things together. Like Cinderella
and her slipper, we’ve finally found the right fit."
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Meet Hillary Nather
Once you’re a part of the Omaha Children's
Museum, you can never stay away for too long. Just ask Hillary
Nather, the latest addition to the museum staff. Hillary
is the director of development, in charge of raising money
for the museum. She started her journey into the working
world as a volunteer at the museum when she was 13, joining
the payroll at age 14 and working until she went off to
college.
"The museum was a valuable piece of my childhood, so
I was excited to have an opportunity to come back,"
Hillary said. "I am also glad to be working with Lindy
again. She is an amazing mentor."
Most recently, she was the director of fund development
for the National Conference for Community and Justice. She
also worked for more than two years at Boys Town National
Research Hospital.
Hillary is an active member of the Omaha community. She
is the Grantmaking Chair and Interest Group Leader of the
Omaha Venture Group, the president of All About Omaha Board
and serves on the Child Saving Institute Guild Board and
the Omaha by Design Working Review Committee.
Hillary has studied in San Francisco and Boston, but she
calls Omaha and the museum home now. She received her BA
from San Francisco State University, participated in the
Certificate in Museum Studies Program at Harvard and earned
her Masters of Public Administration from the University
of Nebraska at Omaha.
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Faces of Homelessness
Opens
Museum Exhibits Art of Homeless Children,
Feb. 1-27
Throughout the month of February, the museum will host the
Faces of Homelessness, 15 art pieces created by homeless
young people.
The Faces of Homelessness is an annual art campaign sponsored
by the Omaha Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless. It
was designed to build self-esteem in children staying in
local emergency shelters and to create community awareness
of homeless issues.
Through art, children can express their emotions and find
some childhood joy through their creativity. This artwork,
in which homelessness is seen as through the eyes of children,
will be on display throughout Omaha during the year.
The exposition will be on display Feb. 1 – 27 at the
Omaha Children’s Museum.
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T-Rex
Puts up a Fight
Dinosaur Makes Dramatic
Entrance
To paraphrase an old joke: "Where does a 12,000 lb.
T-Rex sit?" Answer: "Anywhere it wants to."
The museum staff found that out while bringing in the life-sized
Tyrannosaurus Rex that will be spending its spring on the
museum’s second floor. Even 100 million years hasn’t
slowed this big guy down.
The majority of the T-Rex: King of the Dinosaurs exhibit
came packed in easily unloaded crates. The large robotic
T-Rex, more than 46 feet long from head to tail, was delivered
almost completely intact inside the back of a Mayflower
Truck. The legs of the dino were laid next to him, very
cleanly amputated. The T-Rex was mounted on a wheeled, steel
skiff, which kept the dino relatively stable during its
move.
The drama of the load-in came after the T-Rex emerged from
the back of the truck and was lowered to the ground. The
pitch of Howard Street and the chain that was tethered to
a forklift created a kind of pendulum effect. As Pete Lochren,
leading the move-in crew, guided the forklift, the T-Rex
began to swing down the hill and toward the side of the
building.
"Oh, oh, oh!" was the all the moving crew could
say, with the exception of the technician from Wonderworks,
which owns the dinosaur. He quickly told everyone to get
out of the way—wise words when a T-Rex is coming towards
you.
Christine Walker, one of the crew members, held onto the
tail, doing what she could to keep the predator from crashing.
The force of friction, however, probably did the most to
slow the T-Rex. In the end, the T-Rex gently nudged against
the rampway along the side of the museum, no worse for the
wear.
"We only saw the creature as a piece of machinery,
obeying the laws of physics. That was scary enough,"
said Tom Simons, director of education. "Imagine what
the T-Rex could do when it was moving on its own and had
a potential meal in front of it. Yikes!"
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Students Asked to Send
in Titantic Facts
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit will be making
its voyage to the museum, May 15 – Sept. 6, 2004.
We are calling on all school children to get involved with
our "Did You Know?" Program.
Students or classes research information about the Titanic.
As you find interesting facts about the ship, people or
voyage, write them down. Choose one of these facts and send
it to the museum. Some of these facts will be printed on
changeable signs all over the museum as part of the exhibit.
Three participating school
will, then, be chosen at random to receive the Titanic Outreach
Program for free during the 2004-05 school year.
Send facts to:
Omaha Children’s Museum
Attn: Education Dept.
500 S. 20th St.
Omaha, NE 68102
All facts must be postmarked no later than Friday, Mar.
12, 2004.
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