TOPEKA, KAN. — The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, Topeka’s nonprofit children’s museum, has broken ground on a $10 million expansion project that will more than double the size of the museum from 15,000 to over 30,000 square feet. The expansion will feature an indoor climbing structure, 11 new exhibit experiences, three new learning lab classrooms, a 3,000-square-foot traveling exhibit gallery, indoor-outdoor learning space connecting a teaching kitchen with a garden, Kansas-themed learning opportunities, an inventive makerspace as well as access and safety additions.
The project will be funded by a combination of private donations, corporate gifts, grants, Gage Park Improvement Authority sales tax revenue and operating reserves. Public feedback collected on the project included public informational meetings, an online survey and three community listening sessions. Kansas Children’s Discovery Center opened in 2011. Visitors at the museum exceeded 120,000 in 2023, breaking the all-time attendance record set in 2019.