Expanding the arts - Neighborhood North looking to expand Museum of Play | KD Sunday Spotlight
BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (KDKA) - After nearly a decade of success, a pop-up children's museum in Beaver Falls is ready to expand and one local mom is leading the charge.
Christine Kroger is a mom of three boys and she's working to give them, and other kids, a new place to learn and play in Beaver Falls. She's also the founder and executive director of Neighborhood North.
"There just weren't enough places," she said. "A lack of resources in Beaver County, specifically in Beaver Falls, for play-based learning, the arts, and family engagement."
The Beaver Falls School District created The Museum of Play with a grant in 2015 and it offers summer camps, after-school programs, and hands-on activities.
"You can paint, you can do crafts or things like that, or work with 3D printers and laser-cutters," Kroger said. "We also have a marketplace where kids can pretend play - do imaginative play. We have a climber, an air tunnel, a theater room, a block room, and we also have an outdoor space with a pollinator garden exhibit outside as well."
The pop-up museum's been popular with so many families and now Kroger and her team want to expand it.
"Evidence shows that children's museums are great economic drivers for revitalization," Kroger said. "We've had really positive reactions from families in our community. Each year, we've had more and more people visiting. It started out with 7,500 people, all the way up to last year, we had up to 9,500 people."
The new Neighborhood North location will be down the street - an 18,000-square-foot facility within the News Tribune Building on Seventh Avenue.
They're trying to raise $10 million by 2026 to make it happen.
Kroger said they've already raised $2 million and they're hoping to open this new space for young kids and teenagers in 2028.