Contact: Cathy Christensen, 608.256.6445, ext. 539
cchristensen@madisonchildrensmuseum.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MADISON, Wis. (November 21, 2012) ― Madison Children’s Museum’s vision of an early-learning, outdoor deck will come to life next summer thanks in part to a $50,000 grant issued by The Association of Children’s Museums and The Trustees’ Philanthropy Fund of Fidelity Charitable. The grant for the four-season “WilderDeck” was matched by a $50,000 bequest from Bonnie Berman.
WilderDeck is scheduled to be completed in summer 2013 and will offer an elevated, outdoor play space for preschoolers visiting the museum’s Wildernest exhibit. A focus of the new addition will be to demonstrate to families how sustainable ecosystems can thrive in smaller, urban settings. The exhibit will include a hands-on Under Garden Mushroom Farm and a Children’s Garden with gutter, container, and vertical growing spaces. The WilderDeck will also house kid-sized discovery tools such as an Observation Station, Telescope Platform, and Periscope.
The featured gardening and nature play activities found on the WilderDeck are designed so that they can be easily replicated by families on a deck, porch, or balcony. The WilderDeck will also add covered bike parking to downtown Madison.
A Grant for Growing
The goal of the $50,000 “Good to Grow! Going Wild” grant is to provide sustainable natural spaces that promote play and learning to communities while reconnecting kids with nature, benefiting their overall health and appreciation for the great outdoors. Through the WilderDeck project, MCM has secured multiple local partners including representatives from Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, Greening Madison, Goodman Community Center, and Nature Net, a Wisconsin environmental education consortium.
Madison Children’s Museum: Madison Children’s Museum (MCM) is an award-winning organization whose hands-on exhibits and programs celebrate and encourage children’s imaginations and the power of play as the cornerstone of learning. MCM is a proud recipient of the 2011 National Medal for Museum Service form the Institute of Museum and Library Services. To learn more about MCM, including a fact sheet and detailed exhibit descriptions, please visit our Newsroom page. To download photos for media use, please visit our Flickr page.
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