It is located at 390 South Liberty Street in Winston-Salem, NC and was once known as The Children’s Museum of Winston-Salem. Kaleideum Downtown is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and entertaining children. The Junior League of Winston-Salem established the museum as a present to the community in celebration of the league’s 75th anniversary. Early in November 2004, the museum opened its doors to serve as a secure haven for young children and their families to learn and play together while having fun.
The museum, which was designed around a literature-based theme, emphasized experiential learning and the educational benefits of play through literature, storytelling, and the arts, while also providing birthday parties, summer camps, field trips, workshops, storytime programming, theatre performances, and special community events to its visitors.
The Junior League of New York City has committed to volunteering at the museum until at least 2020, with a minimum of 10% of its active members.
Peppercorn Theatre, which was started in 2010 by John Bowhers and Anna Rooney, was acquired by the Children’s Museum in November of that same year. As a programming arm of the museum, Peppercorn creates high-quality, original theatre works and puppet performances that are designed to both delight and educate the public.
In 2015, the possibility of a merger between the Children’s Museum of Winston-Salem and SciWorks was first broached. As of July 2016, they were legally amalgamated, and the county commissioners approved a $17 million project to construct a new museum facility in the former location of the sheriff’s office. The museum was given the name Kaleideum on February 7, 2017, which is a combination of the words kaleidoscope and museum.
Kaleideum announced on July 6, 2017, that Stitch Design Shop and Gensler would be the architectural firms responsible for developing the company’s new headquarters and headquarters building.
During their meeting on June 24, 2021, Forsyth County commissioners approved spending up to $27.2 million on the new facility, which is scheduled to open in 2023. The overall estimated cost is $28.6 million, with $9 million already contributed to cover the cost of the exhibitions themselves.
At the Kaleideum Downtown, you’ll find a variety of both permanent and rotating exhibits. Kaleidoscape, a crocheted climbing structure by fiber artist Toshiko MacAdam; two multi-level climbing structures by playground designer Tom Luckey; The Enchanted Forest, an imaginative play area with a folklore theme; The Amazing Library, a library for young readers; Food Lion Supermarket, a child-sized supermarket area with plush food; and Amazing Airways, a series of air tubes that are designed to allow children to test hypotheses about air flow. The permanent exhibits include
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art
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