Omaha Children's Museum

February & March 2006

Contents:

Letter From Lindy - Jane Goodall, an Inspiration

Go Ape this Spring!

3 Cheers for 30 Years!

Creating a Masterpiece: "Building on the Best" starts with the Arts

Kids Campaign Allows Everyone to Give

Baby Shower

Clown Around on Spring Break!

February and March Sponsors of the Month

Letter From Lindy
Jane Goodall, an Inspiration
Lindy J. Hoyer, Exec. Dir.

Growing in the 60’s and 70’s, one of my heroes was Jane Goodall, the lady who loved chimpanzees and made me love them too. She was someone whose very life defined caring, observing and dreaming.

Recently, I read about a day in the life of Jane Goodall spent with her beloved chimpanzees. She talked about the evenings being a magical time when the chimps nest. She would watch the mother and children playing up in the branches until dark when the babies come to the mother’s arms to sleep.

In my own life, I treasure the times when I can observe a family at play in the museum. Recently, I watched a father and daughter in the Toddler Exploration Center playing for nearly an hour with the wooden train set. This simple, relaxing play between a parent and child is just the experience I wish for all visitors to the children’s museum.

At home, I look forward to my magical evenings with my three year old son. We have a chimp-like “nesting” routine before bed of reading books, getting tucked in and telling stories. Every night, he asks me to tell him about when he was a baby inside my tummy and how I went to the hospital to get him out and bring him home. I want to always remember how he beams at me as I tell it and hugs me tight at the end.

I hope Discovering Chimpanzees: the Remarkable World of Jane Goodall inspires you in some way to stop, observe, document and enjoy the magical moments in your life.
Lindy J. Hoyer, Exec. Dir., signature

Lindy J. Hoyer
Executive Director

Go Ape this Spring!
Discovering Chimpanzees: The Remarkable World of Jane Goodall opens February 4

From the chimp's mouth Visitors can learn to hoot like a chimp, one of the many skills Jane Goodall mastered in Tanzania.
Photo: © Michael Neugebauer

Families will journey into the world of Jane Goodall and the chimpanzees she met in the jungles of Tanzania at Omaha Children’s Museum. Discovering Chimpanzees: The Remarkable World of Jane Goodall opens February 4, 2006.

Jane Goodall spent more then 40 years in the African forest of Gombe National Park, studying the lives of chimpanzees in the wild. When she observed chimpanzees creating and using tools, a behavior thought to be uniquely human, the scientific community was forced to rethink the difference between humans and animals.

"Discovering Chimpanzees gives visitors a sense of Dr. Goodall’s remarkable story and her global influence, while taking them on an exciting adventure,” said Lindy J. Hoyer, executive director. “It’s an up close and personal encounter with both Dr. Goodall, and some very endearing chimpanzee characters.”

In The Chimp Forest families can walk like a chimp through the lush foliage of the Tanzanian jungle, learn to hoot and call to their primate friends and retrieve a delicious termite snack.

The Work of Jane Goodall brings Goodall’s 40 years of research alive through field notes, photographs, video clips and other artifacts. Set in a recreation of Goodall’s field research tent, multimedia presentations document the “family history” of the chimps and their intricate family structure.

Mother and child reunion Chimp mothers develop a life-long bond with their offspring.

Primate explores the Order of Primates. Visitors will learn about each of the twelve families of primates, compare their physical characteristics to that of other primates and join in the Primate Reunion for a “family photo.”

Reason for Hope demonstrates successful initiatives of individuals who have taken action to deal with environmental and societal issues. Visitors will be inspired by Goodall’s life size message of hope and learn about her recent work.

Discovering Chimpanzees: The Remarkable World of Chimpanzees will be on display February 4 – May 7, 2006. The presenting sponsor is the Dixon Family Foundation. Media sponsors are Cox Communications and Star 104.5.

3 Cheers for 30 Years!
Omaha Children's Museum
Celebrates Decades of
Hands-on Learning and Play

There is a celebration all year long at Omaha Children’s Museum. Families from all over are invited to the learning and fun happening in 2006.

To celebrate thirty years, Omaha Children’s Museum is bringing three large traveling exhibits town. Discovering Chimpanzees: The Remarkable World of Jane Goodall arrives in February, bringing the jungle with it. Families will learn to walk like a chimp, talk like a chimp, hang out in a chimp nest, and even “fish” out termites for a high protein chimp snack. Plus, they will be able to relive Jane Goodall’s discoveries in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park in a recreation of her research station.

A blast from the way past comes with the June 2006 opening DinO!saurs:
A Return of Prehistoric Proportions.

"Omaha Children’s Museum really came into its own with the first dinosaur exhibit in 1989,” said Lindy Hoyer, executive director, “so this is the perfect time to welcome back our Jurassic and Cretaceous friends.”

Among the 16 dinosaurs to be displayed some of them are more friendly then others. Sharp-toothed Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor will be on the prowl for a dinner of plant-eating Apatosaurus and Triceratops. The dinosaurs not only look as they might have when they walked the earth, but they also move and sound like the real thing.

Fast forward to 1969 to the debut of Sesame Street, the groundbreaking program for young children. The exhibit Frontier presents Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? will take parents back to their own childhood of “sunny days, sweeping the clouds away,” and watching a show sponsored by the letter “G” and number “7.”

Families will step onto Sesame Street and go hands-on with activities seen on TV. They can sit on the famous 123 Sesame Street stoop, see themselves on TV with the Muppets, and drive Elmo around Sesame Street in a big yellow taxicab.

This year, Omaha also gets the gift of a newly-renovated Arts Area, opening in July. While other areas will still be under construction or awaiting an update as the year ends, children and parents can expand their creative horizons together at the museum. (More information).

Hoyer said, “It’s like when your parents asked you to choose between having a birthday party with all your friends or getting one big present. For our 30th birthday, we chose both.”

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Tell us your story
For 30 years, Omaha Children’s Museum has brought play and learning together, beginning in 1976 as a traveling workshop in the back of a station wagon and entering 2006 by way of Grossology’s slide-through digestive tract.

More than a million visitors have enjoyed the museum over past three decade, and each one has a story to tell. We want to hear your museum memories to include in upcoming newsletters, press releases or events.
Did you come with your parents and now take your kids?
Were you scared when you first saw Dinosaur Encounter in 1989?
Is there a craft in a scrapbook that you or your child created at the museum?

Please tell us your story via e-mail at cburk@ocm.org or by letter to Christian Burk, Omaha Children’s Museum, 500 S. 20th St., Omaha, NE 68102.

Creating a Masterpiece
"Building on the Best" Starts with the Arts

For nearly three years, Omaha Children's Museum has barnstormed, brainstormed, collaborated, planned and critiqued to create a design for new permanent exhibits. This spring, visitors yto the museum will be able to see those plans become a reality as the first phase of constructions begins.

Beginning March 30, the arts area where children painted their faces, put on costumes, assembled crafts and broadcast their news reports will be moved and museum presentations will be performed outside the performance gallery while the renovations are made.

The first floor traveling exhibit gallery will host most of the art activities, including face paints, the puppet theater, the reading trees and the crafts. Lego Landing will become the temporary costume area, and museum science shows will take place throughout the museum.

“It was hands-on art activities that first launched Omaha Children’s Museum 30 years ago,” said Hoyer, “so it is only natural that we should start there on our way to making a first rate museum.”

The general contractor Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. will begin demolition and preparation of the area to install new exhibits once a temporary wall is in place, a process that begins April 4, 2006. The wall will extend from the performance gallery to the west wall of the current Creative Center. It will protect visitors as workers take down old areas and prepare the space for new activities.

Visitors interested in seeing the progress being made will be able look through windows at the ongoing construction. The museum also plans to document the process with photos of the construction on the museum website, www.ocm.org.

The new arts area is scheduled to open during July 2006. It will include an artist-in-residence studio, a community sculpture, an invention area focused on Leonardo Da Vinci, a light piano, a place to record videos of your stories and ideas, moveable art activities and a theater where kids can paint their faces, dress up and put on a play. (More information in the April & May 2006 Fun Times).

During this phase of construction, the museum will renovate the bathrooms next to the arts area. In addition to the new child-sized potties, the bathrooms will feature tiered sinks that will be easily reachable for even our youngest visitors.

The science lab, the only area on the museum’s second floor that will be renovated during the “Building on the Best” campaign, is included in this phase of construction. The lab, which houses science workshops, will be outfitted with mobile activity stations, equipment for multimedia demonstrations, artifact display cases and lab-quality scientific instruments.

Kids Campaign Allows Everyone to Give

In November 2005, the museum announced its $6.6 million “Building on the Best” campaign to renovate the permanent exhibits. With $4.4 million raised thus far, the museum launched its Kids Campaign.

Adults Kristine Gerber and Cristina Castro-Matukewicz are joined as campaign co-chairs by four area children, Jordan Castro-Matukewicz, Charlie Erker, Lilly Marvin and Bryan Rose.

The cornerstone of Kids Campaign is the sale of rainbow wristbands for $1. Available at the museum store and through a school-based outreach effort, 10,000 wristbands will adorn the wrists of Omaha area children, providing funds for the renovations and awareness of the campaign.

"We want everyone to feel like they can help,” said Kristine Gerber, Kids Campaign co-chair. “Here’s a way to do that and get some great benefits in return.”

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.

"The Kids Campaign ensures that children in our community will know that they actually helped renovate their own children’s museum,” said Gerber.

Come celebrate your baby's healthy arrival. Whether you're a new parent or still expecting, Omaha Children's Museum and Alegent Health invite you to a free, fun, and interactive opportunity for the latest tips and information on giving Baby a healthy start.

Clown Around on Spring Break!

Spring Break Clown Camp
April 3 – 7, 2006
Grades: 3 – 6
Times: Monday – Friday, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Cost: $150 (until March 10); $160-members/$180 – non-members (after March 10)

Cut loose over spring break as you get a little clown crazy. Learn the basics of clowning, including makeup, juggling, balloon animals, pies-in-the-face, and more while creating your own clown characters. Explore the history and art of clowning as you create original and classic clown routines. At the end of the week, you and your fellow clown campers will “take to the big top” to show off your new clown skills to your parents and friends.

Pre-camp Activities, 7 – 9:30 a.m. ($25.00 for the week, per child)
Post-camp Activities, 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. ($25.00 for the week, per child)

Summer is just around the corner….Look for great SUMMER CAMPS being offered by OCM!

February Sponsor of the Month

First National Bank of Nebraska is one of the largest bank holding companies headquartered west of the Mississippi River. First Natioanl and its afiliates have $16 billion in managed assets and over 7,000 employees located across the United States. Primary banking offices are located across in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Texas.

March Sponsor of the Month

For more than 95 years, Mutual of Omaha has provided insuranceprotection and financial services to individuals, businesses and groups throughout the United States. As a Fortune 500 company with more than 5,000 employees, Mutual is one of the largest private employers headquartered in Nebraska. With a longstanding tradition of giving back to the community, Mutual of Omaha continues that legacy today through the Mutual of Omaha Foundation, by supporting family-focused organizations like the Omaha Children's Museum. For more information, visit www.mutualofomaha.com.

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