Children's Museum & Theatre receives $500K pledge in final push toward $14M goal
courtesy / Children's Museum & Theatre
The new 30,000-square-foot site of the Children's Museum & Theatre, at Thompson's Point in Portland, is under construction and expected to open in the spring.
As it nears the finish of a $14 million fundraising campaign for its new Portland facility, the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine has received a $500,000 gift from the Lunder Foundation.
The Portland-based philanthropy made the donation as a challenge grant to spur matching contributions and raise the remaining $1 million of the campaign, according to a news release Monday.
The Children’s Museum & Theatre in February officially launched the $14 million capital campaign to fund construction of a state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot facility at Thompson’s Point in Portland. Twice the size of the current site at 142 Free St., Portland, the new one is expected to open in the spring and construction is "proceeding as planned," a spokeswoman said Monday.
Officials project the new facility will host nearly 250,000 visitors per year, although that estimate was originally made before the pandemic. In 2018, the Children’s Museum & Theatre had 105,000 visitors.
Peter and Paula Lunder, who lead the foundation, have been longtime supporters of Maine cultural institutions including the Colby College Museum of Art, the Colby College Arts Collaborative, the Portland Museum of Art and the Maine College of Art.
In recognition of the Lunder donation, an arts workshop and culture exhibit space at the Children’s Museum will be named “The Lunder Arts and Culture Gallery.”
The Lunders said in a statement Monday, “This project is for the next one hundred years. The gift is to support future generations of young people who will find delight and learn so much at the newly reimagined Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine. Parents will be very glad to have such a great museum where they can take their children to see, play, and learn.”
Board Member and Chair of Imagine Capital Campaign Barbee Gilman said, “We are so thrilled to have this support from The Lunder Foundation which is instrumental to the final stages of the campaign. The Imagine Campaign is not just about a new building — it is about increasing opportunities for children across the state.”
At the time of the campaign launch in February, the campaign had already raised $12.5 million in gifts and pledges from individuals, corporations and foundations, and from the sale proceeds of its building at 142 Free St., which sold for $2.1 million to the Portland Museum of Art a year ago.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments