When the Discover Center & Pier announced that it was moving to the upcoming Freshwater Research & Innovation Center on South West Bay Shore Drive in Elmwood Township, it meant that the Great Lakes Children’s Museum (GLCM) would need to find a new home.
The GLCM is currently located on the Discovery Center campus in an old boat shop, which has been their home for 18 years. This building is set to be demolished some time before groundbreaking on the Freshwater Research & Innovation Center in late 2025.
Last week, the GLCM announced that the Grand Traverse Mall in Traverse City will be their new temporary home. GLCM Executive Director Tracie MacPherson said that they expect to be there for three to five years. MacPherson also said they are “narrowing in” on a permanent home that will house the museum once they leave their “interim space” at the mall.
The GLCM at Grand Traverse Mall will launch “the Curiosity Place” in mid-October, MacPherson said. According to a GLCM press release, the Curiosity Place will have expanded gallery space and doubled program spaces compared to the South West Bay Shore Drive location. This will allow them to bring “classic and well-loved exhibits” from their old home and introduce new attractions.
“This move is more than a change of address; it’s a launchpad for the future,” MacPherson said. “The Curiosity Space will be our creative laboratory where we can dream big and explore new ways to inspire our community.”
Some of these new attractions and activities at the Curiosity Space will be targeted towards families with older children, MacPherson said. They will include an exhibit about the solar system, aquatic invertebrates, and other life in the Great Lakes.
However, the museum’s target audience will still be younger visitors between birth and five years old, according to MacPherson. She said that the GLCM seeks to early neurological development through handson activities and play that give children “a strong foundation of brain development that impacts the rest of their lives.”
There will also be a play structure that will give younger kids an opportunity for physical activities during the fall and winter. MacPherson sees handson education for children as a somewhat underserved area in northern Michigan compared to elsewhere in the state.
The GLCM’s new home at the Grand Traverse Mall also includes a large classroom space that staff are eager to use. MacPherson said they plan to use it to host visitors through summer camps next year, and as an expanded play area for families visiting from the community.
MacPherson said that the current GLCM location on the Discovery Center campus will remain open until Oct. 6. And starting Monday, they will have a “homecoming week” at the museum with free admission, so people who visited the museum growing up can see it one last time before they move and begin their next chapter in Traverse City.
According to the GLCM Facebook page, people can reserve any day and time between Sept. 30 and Oct. 5 for a visit at the Discovery Center campus for $0 on greatlakeskids. doubleknot.com/facility/general- admissions- timed- ticketing/ 3017820. The GLCM is also hosting its annual A-ha! Fundraiser at the Hagerty Center at Northwestern Michigan Community College Oct. 12, to feature a performance by the Detroit-based dueling pianos group Piano Wars, with proceeds benefiting the new museum location at the Grand Traverse Mall.
