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Staff photo by Mark L. Thompson Students from art classes at E.C. Glass High School |
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By Molly Roper Jenkins The News & Advance Central Virginia’s children’s museum — rising like the Phoenix out of the dust of Lynchburg’s lone neglected riverfront — is quickly becoming one of the city’s stars, even before it opens its doors. The place where science, the human body and wellness, local culture and geography, architecture and creative arts can be explored is on schedule to open early in 2000. The idea of Amazement Square — a place where children (and adults) can learn by touching, hearing, smelling and experiencing — began with one mother and her two young daughters. The growth from an idea to reality has been steady — but deliberately slow. “It’s been a few years,” said Mary Doyle. Actually, seven years have passed since 1992 when Doyle began taking her daughters to visit children’s museums, a family adventure that has spilled over to envelop the entire community. First Doyle and her girls, ages four and two years, went to Roanoke and Charlottesville on day-long outings. Then they traveled to Baltimore. “I was fortunate to be able to drive my children around — the ‘learning by doing thing,’” Doyle said. “In every museum we visited, I’d say ‘Lynchburg needs one of these.’ “I had heard that many other Junior Leagues had started children’s museums, and I talked in detail with the museum director in Richmond. I also talked to Tom Ledford [administrator of the Lynchburg museum system] and he was very supportive of the idea of a children’s museum in Central Virginia. I spent a year researching on my own, visiting museums and talking to staff and volunteers. I had no idea what I was undertaking.” The idea of a children’s museum dates back to the earliest planning stages of the Lynchburg Museum system, said Ledford. “But there just wasn’t enough money to do everything. We did have an Explore Museum, developed with the Junior League, back in ‘78. It was housed in the old library downtown. When that facility moved, there was not room to re-locate it, and the idea went dormant. “Then along came Mary. She’s a whiz. And she’s a good listener. You know, she didn’t just chat with a few local people about an idea. She traveled all over the country, listening and learning. That’s how you get a project like this growing.” When members of the Lynchburg Junior League voted to make a children’s museum one of their projects, nobody was more surprised than Doyle, she said. The League, explained Mary Byrd Denham — Doyle’s sole partner in the project to date — had genuine concerns about the hugeness of the project. “But the museum was something Lynchburg needed,” Denham said. “More than 20 people signed up to work with us. It was one of the biggest Junior League projects in several years.” “All of a sudden I had a committee,” Doyle said with amazement in her voice. “I had all these warm bodies eager to help me continue my research.” Sue McVeigh was not a member of the Junior League but was recruited — by Doyle — to serve on the first board even before Amazement Square had been granted independent status. “That woman has been the driving force behind this museum,” said McVeigh. “She was out spending her own money to investigate museums all over the country long before she was certain there was going to be a museum here. She is a person of tireless energy.” Doyle’s next step was to survey local teachers to determine the educational support of a children’s museum. She went to James McCormick, superintendent of Lynchburg’s schools, for help. “He came from Indianapolis,” Doyle said. “They have a wonderful museum there, so he knew what we were talking about.” Rather than mailing the surveys, McCormick saw to it that they went into every teacher’s and principal’s in-school mailbox, Doyle said. “We got them all back,” she said with delight. Then there was a public forum held at the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center. Tom Ledford, Stevie Dovel (Director of Tourism for the Greater Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce), Central Virginia Community College president Belle Whelan, and Paula Gucker of Parks and Recreation were joined by Nan Miller, the director of a children’s museum in Johnson City, Tenn. Examples of possible exhibits were borrowed or — in some instances — created for the event. More than 300 people came — and listened — and asked questions — and offered overwhelming support. Once the Junior League established need and community support, the idea of a children’s museum in Central Virginia blossomed into a reality. Status as a not-for-profit independent corporation was granted, a Board of Directors was named and searches began for a building, a director and money. Doyle stayed with the project long enough to attend the Association of Youth Museums conference in Baltimore where she was provided with more basic information about how to build a successful program. She stayed long enough to be a part of the 1995 purchase of the historic J.W. Wood building where renovations are now well underway to house the museum. The board had interviewed — without success — its first round of director candidates, Doyle said, when her husband, a banker, was transferred to Richmond. “I went into mourning,” said Doyle. “I still haven’t fully recovered.” In November, 1997, the board released preliminary drawings of exhibit designs for the museum. Mort Sajadian had only recently been found and asked to come from the Seattle Children’s Museum to serve as executive Director of Amazement Square.“The files are full of Mary’s work,” said Sajadian. “She played such an important work in obtaining Junior League support of that first feasibility study. And then she was applying for not-for-profit status, raising money, writing grant proposals — all that behind-the-door work that gets an organization on its feet. “Mary not only planted the seed for Amazement Square. She’s also been sensitive to its growth and evolution. You know, not everybody is comfortable when their projects begin to have their own lives. Mary is always positive, so productive. Her ideas are always constructive. “Even though she has now moved to Richmond — a town that has its own Children’s’ Museum — she’s still loyal to and active in this project,” Sajadian continued. “She continues to serve on the board and on the Capital Campaign committee. We correspond regularly by e-mail.” The capital campaign, led by Diane Walker and James Candler, has since raised slightly more than $3.5 million toward a $5 million goal. The facility’s name has been amended to “Amazement Square: The Rightmire Children’s Museum,” to honor a million dollar gift from the late Maylia Green Rightmire, whose affection for Lynchburg and its people were developed when she was a Randolph-Macon Woman’s College student. Amazement Square will be a reality in only a year — a flower in full bloom because one mother took her children on an adventure and, through their eyes, saw the potential in a dream for everybody’s children — and the children in everybody. |