The New Children’s Museum (NCM) recently unveiled an 8,600 square foot expansion, adding more art studio space on the third story, an education commons for classroom visits, and additional gallery space. It was the first major renovation at the Downtown museum since it was built in 2008 by architect Rob Quigley.
The footprint of the museum remained the same. To maximize the space, administrative offices, storage areas and back-of-house spaces were converted to be used by visitors under architect Jim Brown, who was brought on to create a low-impact design that honored Quigley’s vision.
“We really have put our heart and soul into this new space,” said Gabrielle Wyrick, NCM’s chief curator and director of audience engagement.
Artopia: NCM Creative Studios first opened to the public on April 12 with an open house that brought in 900 visitors. It was an unprecedented chance for art-making at the museum, with kids using the pottery wheels in the new ceramics studio, painting in the large versatile studio, and attending workshops in the education commons. The large Artopia studio is a flexible space, which could accommodate 200 people in a giant painting class or be split so four smaller classes could run simultaneously on fiber arts, sculpture, watercolor painting, and more.
Previously, the museum’s popular Innovator’s LAB was only able to accommodate 10 to 15 people per class. Even hosting four workshops per day every day of the week, the demand far outstripped NCM’s space with spots selling out within hours and a long waitlist.
“We could never accommodate the number of young people who wanted to have access to that art-making process. We just didn’t have the space,” said Wyrick. She credits with Elizabeth YangHellewell immediately seeing the need to expand NCM’s studios when she became CEO. 
“As a contemporary art space, we really want to foreground the art-making process and give kids and people of all ages as much access to art-making themselves as possible,” Wyrick said.
Even the new gallery space on the bottom floor of the museum will have more opportunity for creation and interaction with art. Currently, local creative collective SOSO is exhibiting “Miraj,” an interactive digital installation where people can shout a word and it will be interpreted into moving lights and projections. The gallery will change in June to an exhibit on social emotional learning through the visual arts.
With the expansion of its art workshops and artist-led experiences, NCM created two new positions: A general manager of studio programs and operations as well as an art and creative learning manager.
Some of how the new space is used remains to be seen. It is available for private event rentals that could be used for multi-generational community events, but could also become a hub for early childhood art programs. How the newly-available space is used will be partially based on audience feedback and interest. “We want this space to be a haven and a community hub,” Wyrick said.
“We want people of all backgrounds to really have this space as a creative resource.”
To see a current list of workshops at Artopia, visit thinkplaycreate.org.
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