Children’s Museum launches $14M campaign for new site in Portland

COURTESY / BRUNER/COTT & ASSOCIATES Construction has begun on the future Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine at Thompson's Point, seen here in a rendering.

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By Staff

The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine officially launched a $14 million capital campaign to fund construction of a planned state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot facility at Thompson’s Point in Portland.

It has already raised $12.5 million in gifts and pledges from individuals, corporations and foundations, and from the proceeds of the sale of its current site at 142 Free St. building, which sold for $2.1 million to the Portland Museum of Art last October.

The new facility at Thompson's Point will be twice the size of the current one and is projected to host nearly 250,000 visitors per year, officials said at a press conference Monday. In 2018, the museum had 105,000 visitors, according to the most recent Mainebiz Book of Lists.

The museum acquired the 1.12-acre site on Thompson's Point in 2018 and construction started this past November. Grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the city of Portland, the Greater Portland Council of Governments and the Davis Conservation Foundation have been supporting brownfield remediation of the site.

Under terms of the deal with the Portland Museum of Art, the Children's Museum will be able to stay at its current site, rent free, for 20-months during construction of its new home.

When complete, the new facility will offer space for performing and visual arts, STEM curricula and cultural education for children, youth and their families. New exhibits will be geared to children and caregivers of all abilities.

Largest gifts ever

The campaign’s 10 top donations include three of the largest single gifts the organization has ever received.

The entire facility will be named after Joseph A. and Anna Marie Petrin of Biddeford, the parents of the one of the top donors, Dorothy Suzi Osher.

“Mrs. Osher has been a kind and generous supporter of the Museum & Theatre for many years,” Barbee Gilman, who co-chaired the capital campaign, said.

Madeleine G. (Maddy) Corson of Yarmouth led the quiet phase of the campaign with a foundational gift in honor of her life-long commitment to children’s theater. She is the former board chair of the Guy Gannett Communications and honorary chair of the Imagine Capital Campaign. In recognition of her donation, the new, 100-seat theater will be named “Maddy’s Theatre” after Corson’s birth mother, with whom she shares her name.

A number of campaign gifts are supporting portions of an entire 10,000-square-foot floor that comprises one-third of the facility and will be devoted to STEM education for school groups, and children and youth with their families.

“At the same time that Maine is committing itself to becoming a technology hub, the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine is greatly expanding its longstanding commitment to STEM education for pre-K through 8th graders,” Executive Director Julie Butcher Pezzino said.

“The more we can develop critical thinking skills, create a comfort level with processes of inquiry and engineering design, and increase understanding of basic concepts such as ‘cause and effect’ and the interconnectedness of systems, the more successful our workforce development initiatives at higher grade levels will be.”

Interactive exhibits

Nestlé Waters and its Poland Spring brand are supporting the facility’s center for natural science and environmental education. The 2,000-square-foot exhibit features aquariums and touch tanks that will showcase Maine ecosystems. The ecosystem exhibits range from mountain rivers to inter-tidal zones to the Gulf of Maine.

The exhibit will also serve as a home for daily STEM educational programming emphasizing the importance of water stewardship and sustainability. Within the exhibit, the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust is naming an inter-tidal touch tank after the late philanthropist, conservationist and former museum board of directors member Joan Morton Kelly.

Another 2,500-square-foot space on the STEM floor features three interactive exhibits that explore the phenomena of light, water and gravity and foster critical thinking skills and an understanding of physics. Of these, the Air, Ramps & Balls exhibit is being supported by a lead gift from Drew and Barbee Gilman of Cape Elizabeth. The Hagerty family and the Coulombe Family Foundation have named the Water Play Exhibit, as well as a mural wall by Maine artist Gloria Rachel Adams.

A gift from IDEXX Laboratories Inc. will go toward what will be named the IDEXX STEM Learning Hub, a large workshop offering specialized educational programming from scientists, including IDEXX scientists, who are practicing in several fields.

Bank of America's largest gift ever awarded in Maine has gone toward the first-floor admission desk and welcome area. The gift acknowledged the impact of the organization on individual children and families, and on economic development and workforce development of the region.

“We are inviting the full community to help us get to the finish line so we can open our doors in early 2021; there are many exciting giving opportunities available at all levels of participation,” Chris Dougherty, president of the organization’s board of directors, said in the release. “Over the next 12 months, we will also be forging new partnerships and building a robust volunteer corps to fortify our growing community.”

While construction is underway, the Children's Museum & Theatre will continue its usual schedule at the 142 Free St. location.