EcoTarium in Worcester to undergo first major expansion since 2000
WORCESTER - A popular educational attraction in central Massachusetts is expanding. The EcoTarium in Worcester this week announced the first major addition to its science and nature museum since 2000, when it added classrooms.
The highlight of the renovations is a new 8,300 square-foot traveling exhibit gallery and rooftop solar array that will let the EcoTarium host traveling exhibitions. The 10-month construction project starting later this month will be complete in time for the museum's bicentennial in the fall of 2025.
"The new exhibit gallery at the EcoTarium will enable the Museum to offer Worcester and Central New England communities immersive, world-class, large-scale exhibitions for the first time in our 200 year history", CEO Noreen Johnson Smith said in a statement.
New childhood learning center at EcoTarium
After opening the new exhibit gallery, the EcoTarium also has plans to build a new Early Childhood Science Learning Center that should be completed by 2027. That space "will include interactive exhibit components for young children ages 0 - 6 to experience and learn preschool science concepts through play," the EcoTarium says.
Earlier this year, thousands of people came to the EcoTarium for a specialized viewing of the solar eclipse. The museum mounted telescopes around its sundial for people to safely look at the sun.
The EcoTarium says its roots go back to 1825, when 14 men founded the Worcester Lyceum of Natural History "to foster an appreciation and understanding of the natural world." The museum opened in its current location as the "Worcester Science Center" in 1971 before changing its name to the EcoTarium in 1998.