| 1995 - |
| The Beginning: The City of Kitchener and private donors made what proved to be a critical decision to provide funds to a group of local citizens to attend a conference in Philadelphia on the subject of starting a new Children's Museum.
Following that exploration, the Children's Museum Committee was struck and mounted a series of special events promoting the concept that would eventually lead to an innovative Children's Museum. The Committee established a successful track record in generating exciting, public events, which interpreted contemporary themes in unique ways and captured the imagination of children and parents alike. |
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| 1995 - |
| Trucks: In partnership with the Public Works Department of the City of Kitchener, using six trucks as vehicles for the making of art. |
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| 1996 - |
| Ducks: In partnership with the Kitchener Westmount Rotary Club and the City of Kitchener where children migrated like ducks do, to Victoria Park. |
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| 1996 - |
| Kidchener: In partnership with the City of Kitchener and the University of Waterloo Faculty of Environmental Studies, children were given the tools to re-imagine the form of their own city. |
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| 1997 - |
| Mosquitoes: This event was developed in partnership with the artist co-op MUSEO, and was comprised of six-foot models of mosquitoes, which illustrated the pests' ubiquitous yet fascinating life circle. |
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| 1998 - |
| Agorea to the
Future : An event where children imagined future forms of travel. |
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| 2000 - |
| Wave of the Future: An exploration of optical and sound waves. Artists, musicians, physicists, engineers, and architects worked together to make sound waves visible and optical waves audible. The exhibits were experimental and visitors created, played with,
perceived, and learned about one of the most pervasive and powerful of natural phenomena - the wave. Wave of the future occupied the ground floor of the future home of the museum (10,000 square feet).
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| 2001 - |
| KidSpark: An event in Kitchener’s Victoria Park where children used binary language to create a unique landscape composed by the orchestration of water using a device called the water organ garden. |
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| 2002 - |
| Second Wave of the Future: Children from several schools from Waterloo Board paraded down King Street from Kitchener City Hall to the museum to celebrate the beginning of construction of the Museum. |
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Impact of the Project
When the Waterloo Regional Children’s Museum opens on September 27, 2003, it will provide an educational opportunity that is not available anywhere else in Canada.
The Museum is designed to stimulate in youth an interest in the developments that have taken place in technology as they intuitively learn about it through experimentation and play. Along the way, the Museum will build pride in the community by showcasing local technological achievements and artistic vitality. The Museum will also help to revitalize the downtown core of the City of Kitchener by attracting an anticipated 100,000 visitors per year by its fourth year of operation -- local businesses will benefit from this traffic. There have been a number of successful partnerships developed from all sectors of the community in building the Museum and its exhibits. The Waterloo Regional Children’s Museum will continue to be a ‘good neighbour’ within the larger community, complementing existing children’s services already offered and providing a convenient and relevant destination to families.
Exhibit Designer – Kathryn Saunders.
Architects –
Architects, Jana Levitt and Marko
Lavrisa of Levitt Goodman Architects Ltd., an award-winning Toronto based firm,
were awarded the contract to transform the Goudies building into the Waterloo
Regional Children’s Museum in April 2000 after a national architectural
competition. Their extensive experience and sensitivity to detail have shaped
what was once an abandoned building into a dynamic environment that is conducive
to creativity and learning for children.
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