In one corner, a real fox, though a beautifully stuffed one, is caught mid-howl near a makeshift rock overhang. Close by, a taxidermied racoon quietly crawls above a rope tunnel spanning a bridge and treehouse.
The detailed scene is one just one small snapshot of the completed, new Camp kidscommons, the $500,000 three-year project to bring the great outdoors to an indoor, children’s museum setting at kidscommons in downtown Columbus. The exhibit is open to donors now, to museum members March 9-12, and to the public beginning March 15.
The facility is important regionally because it has attracted more than 50,000 visitors annually for several years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new effort is significant because it is now such a big part of the museum.
“A dream came together pretty amazingly,” said Ben Wagner, kidscommons’ executive director who earned a degree in outdoor recreation and resource management at Indiana University.
And it came together with broad-based community support from private, resident donors to six-figure totals from entities such as The Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County and the Columbus Area Visitors Center.
The new, permanent exhibit encompasses the facility’s entire 3,000-square-foot third floor that once featured an exercise and active lifestyle theme. This addition highlights the importance of trading screen time for green time, for plopping next to a makeshift stream and fishing for magnetic bluegill, for roasting pretend marshmallows over a facsimile firepit, for crawling along a darkened underground where moles meander.
Maybe the only thing missing is a chorus of cicadas or the haunting hoot of an owl. Such fitting sound effects might be a next-step project sometime in the future, according to Wagner.
For the complete story, see Saturday’s Republic.
