For Louisiana Kids, Opportunity Knocks

Anyone who drives by the LSU lakes along Dalrymple Drive can’t fail to notice the colorful glass-and-steel ramparts going up between the corner of Washington Street and the I-10 on-ramp. Sometimes known as “Picnic Hill,” the site—a grassy, live-oak-shaded triangle of City-Brooks Community Park that is about as close to high ground as you’re likely to find in Baton Rouge—commands a view over City Park Lake so pretty, it’s hard to believe nothing was built there until a consortium of local parents and educators realized what a great spot it would be for a best-in-class children’s museum. Ten years in the making, the Knock Knock Children’s Museum will open late this summer, offering eighteen distinct learning zones designed to engage, challenge, and facilitate learning in, kids from birth through age eight. In early May, we took a tour with Executive Director Peter Olson to get a progress report. Olson, a native Minnesotan and speech and theatre major, comes to Knock Knock having spent seven years as Executive Director at the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, which by the time he left was attracting 100,000 visitors a year to Mankato—a town of 50,000. Boyish and articulate, with piercing blue-green eyes and an ever-present grin, Olsen is a passionate advocate for engaging kids’ natural curiosity to promote life-long learning. “The goal here is to truly change lives,” he declared. “If we do it right, kids would rather go here than to the amusement park.”

Facts & Figures

• In Louisiana, the Capital Region is home to more kids between the ages of birth and ten than any other in the state.

• The museum approaches its mission on the assumption that children are our greatest resource. Consequently the building and all its installations are designed to create a new sense of place that puts children at the center.

• The site was chosen not only for its beauty and visibility, but also to serve as an intentional bridge between the Old South Baton Rouge and Lake neighborhoods. In its location, installation design, and outreach programs, the museum is focused on reaching the kids who aren’t naturally coming in.

• Inside, the museum will offer eighteen “Learning Zones,” ranging from the Story Tree, Go Go Garage, Art Garden, I See Food Café, Maker Shop, and the fifty-foot-tall Storybook Climber, that challenges kids to climb through three floors of giant books with a view out over City Park Lake.

• Every exhibit is designed to stimulate informal learning experiences. They have been built by 1220 Exhibits, the company behind projects including the Baseball Hall of Fame and the National World War II Museum’s Road to Tokyo exhibit.

• Opening date will be in late summer.

Full profile story coming in our August issue. 1900 Dalrymple Drive, Baton Rouge. www.knockknockmuseum.org.