Published: July 27, 2006 11:38 am         

Big Steps

The Stillwater Children’s Museum is more idea than structure. In fact, there is no structure — but there is a museum.

Organizers are not waiting for their building to get active; they are taking their programs into the community. With the help of a $10,000 grant, the Museum Without Walls pilot program will begin this fall in Stillwater schools.

While “Smart Start to Science and Literacy,” is just the beginning for the Museum Without Walls, it is an important step: it is proof that the Stillwater Children’s Museum “exists,” even if it is not in a form that most people would recognize.

Ruth Cavins, the museum’s executive director, said the plan is to “begin implementing our mission without a permanent building.”

Stillwater and Payne County may not have the population to support a traditional children’s museum, heavy on a fixed location with a mix of static and changing exhibits. But that doesn’t mean the idea can’t be put into use. Cavins and museum board members — Regina Hall, Megan Matthews, Pam Davis, C.D. Turner, Karen Walters, Faye Ann Presnal, Kandi Speer and Kurt Baze — have done an excellent job “implementing” the idea.

“These are the baby steps,” Cavins said.

We think these steps are far larger than that.

     

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