Discovery Children’s Museum reaches Summit at new home

Misconceptions abound about the Lied Discovery Children's Museum.

First, when it relocates to Symphony Park and opens in February, it won't consist of old exhibits being transferred to a new setting. All the exhibits will be fresh and the new showcase piece will be the 60-foot tall Summit, described by officials as inviting visitors to "climb, crawl, wriggle, pull and wheel their way through its multilevel learning experience."

Second, the Discovery Children's Museum is adjacent to The Smith Center for the Performing Arts - its exterior has the same basic design - but the museum is separate and operates independently from the performing arts center. They are not one and the same.

Third, if you visit the current location at 833 Las Vegas Blvd. North, you don't have to share the front courtyard with the homeless. Two years ago, a new entrance was built on the left side of the pyramid, and the lobby once shared by the Las Vegas Library and the museum was remodeled so the visit doesn't include the sights, sounds and smells of homeless people who congregate at the downtown library.

Fourth, the name Lied is not being dropped from the Discovery Museum because the Lied Foundation no longer wants to support the museum. It's because the Lied Foundation is winding down. Now the main support of the $55 million museum comes from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, which contributed $43 million to kick-start the new facility.

Fifth, in either location, it's not just a place for kids to play.

"Everything has an educational intent," museum CEO Linda Quinn said.

There are exhibits designed for babies as young as 6 months and others aimed at children up to 12.

The question I would like answered: How many of you didn't know Las Vegas even has a children's museum? Or where it is? Much less where it's going?

Plenty, I bet.

It's one of those places that seem to be frequently overlooked by locals, even though it has been named the Best Museum by readers in the Review-Journal's Best of Las Vegas survey for 20 years.

First opened in 1990, this is the only museum in the Las Vegas area designed for children.

Recently, the Windsong Trust donated $1 million to the children's museum, money that will be used for programs. The first $1 million donor during this campaign was the Sands Foundation.

The museum is just $1.1 million shy of the $10 million it needed to raise from other sources.

In the 2012 fiscal year, the museum had 160,000 visitors in its present location. Quinn predicts 200,000 visitors in the first year of operation in Symphony Park, as well as an additional 20,000 in the popular outreach programs at schools.

The new museum will take 12 to 15 hours to visit, so obviously people will need more than one visit to enjoy it. The current museum can be enjoyed in three or four hours.

While the three-story Summit is the museum's flamboyant showpiece, there are eight other exhibition galleries, including Toddler Town for the young ones, Water World, Who Dun It, Young at Art, It's Your Choice, Patents Pending, Greenopolis and Fantasy Festival.

Construction is ongoing so I didn't get to peek inside. But even so, the concept of Who Dun It appealed to me immediately since it's a town with scattered clues to encourage kids to develop their investigative skills, good training for future journalists. However, the castle and pirate ship in Fantasy Festival also ring my bell. And who doesn't enjoy a water adventure?

If you have children, it's time to start getting excited about this new opportunity.

If you have fond memories of the existing museum, enjoy it while you still can. Then prepare to be amazed by the latest version.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.