MIDLAND, Texas — After a three year long wait, the Museum of the Southwest Children's museum opened up for the first time today and it was a big hit for kids and adults alike in West Texas.
At the Fredda Turner Durham Children's museum, you can find plenty to do like learn about dinosaurs, run your own shop, and paint or build.
"We're a steam campus so we have art and engineering and math so what we really want to do is to make sure kids understand that they're not different things, they're just different ways to use the same knowledge," Said Lori Wesley, the Executive Director at the Museum. "We're going to have watercolor classes and then when you go to the planetarium you're going to learn about diffusion which is the same thing just one is art and we call the other one science so were really trying to make a very organized practice approach to learning.
It's been a long time in the making and took just about three years to finish renovations.
"We got caught up in COVID and then we got caught up in supply chain problems so it did take us a little longer than we wanted" Wesley said.
The museum has all different kinds of activities for all ages and even includes a calming room if you need to take a little break.
Certain exhibits will be switched out throughout the year, while some you'll be able to see at the museum all the time.
"The dinosaur exhibits that you see here is a traveling exhibit and that'll be here about another hundred days or so and then we'll bring in the next exhibit," Wesley said. "The My Town, the Blocks and the learning part is a permanent exhibit for the museum so something will change all the time. It'll be different."
It's one of the best children's museum in West Texas.
"Now we have the greatest children's museum in 300 miles so we are really looking forward to seeing excited faces, air conditioning in July, it's going to be a great place," Wesley said.
Parents that went to the children's museum when they were kids can continue the tradition for their kids.
"It's fun to watch some of the young families come in cause you can hear them talking in line and they're like I used to come here when I was a little girl so it's been fun to see that community, that sense of family that continues," Wesley said.
Tickets are $5 each from Tuesday to Saturday and free on Sunday.
