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Moving: Old Salem to close its museum for kids, move contents nearby
Journal Photo by Walt Unks
Hope Mason (left), 10, and her sister Mercy, 6, play husband and wife in a replica of the Miksch House at the Old Salem Children’s Museum.
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Published: November 18, 2008
After 10 years of allowing children to dress up like mini-Moravians, the Old Salem Children's Museum will close on Jan. 3.
Some of the museum's most popular exhibits will move up the road to the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem, said Lee French, Old Salem's president and chief executive. The move comes as a result of an examination of Old Salem's operations and priorities, he said.
"There's only so much you can do and so much you can do well," French said.
The Children's Museum offered a good experience for children, he said. But Old Salem, he said, is taking a hard look at operations and focusing its efforts on the things it does best.
The Old Salem Children's Museum got about 10,000 to 12,000 visitors a year, he said.
The Children's Museum of Winston-Salem gets about 85,000 visitors a year, said Mariedith Appanaitis, a public-relations consultant to that museum.
French characterized the decision as a painful one that is eased somewhat by the fact that some of the exhibits will move to a nearby museum.
"The legacy of the (Old Salem) Children's Museum will live on," he said.
Old Salem will try to place museum staff elsewhere in its operation, French said. There is one full-time worker, two part-timers and two part-time, seasonal positions at the children's museum, he said.
The two children's museums, two blocks from each other, opened within six years of each other. The Old Salem museum opened in September 1998, and the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem opened in November 2004.
French said he did not believe that the closing of the Old Salem museum was inevitable. But knowing that there was a way to keep some of the Old Salem story in the public eye and in young people's consciousness made the decision to close more attractive.
The Miksch House, a miniature version of one of Old Salem's houses, and the Climbing Sculpture will move from Old Salem to the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem.
About 120 Kater Klub memberships, which were special Old Salem Children's Museum memberships, will be honored at the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem until June 30. Kater Klub members will also receive a free 60-day family membership to Old Salem Museum and Gardens, French said.
The puppet shows, which have been a popular feature at the museum, will continue as part of the education department at Old Salem, French said.
Old Salem will also present puppet shows at the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem and at other locations in the community.
Appanaitis said that the Children's Museum is excited to receive exhibits that are so particular to Winston-Salem.
A lot of times, children's museums don't offer visitors much about the specifics of the city where they are, she said.
"With little bits of Old Salem incorporated into our museum," she said, "they're going to get a little taste of Winston-Salem."
■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.
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