Lexington’s Explorium Children’s Museum has been a downtown fixture for more than 30 years. Budget constraints followed by a pandemic led to a difficult period for the downtown facility. Colby Ernest has been the director for about a year. He updated City Council Committee members last week. Ernest says there have been a number of renovations to existing galleries and exhibits.
“Our sketch pad for example. We did a pretty big renovation in that space to allow a much better environment for an open art studio for children. We put a lot of time and money into our bubble room, which is very popular,” said Ernest.
Ernest said the children’s museum was built to light a creative spark in children, expand offerings in STEM areas, and increase interactive and engaging space.
The director of Lexington’s children’s museum said he’d like the Explorium to be the best in the country someday. Colby Ernest said that should always be the goal. He noted he couldn’t rule out considering moving from the Short Street location at some point.
“We wouldn’t want to confine ourselves to strictly saying we’re going to be in the space or we’re not. As you know how leases go, we’re going to go through the process of re-negotiating and see where that takes us but we want to make sure that we keep all of our options open” said Ernest.
The Explorium Museum opened in 1990 at the Short Street site.
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