Museum's official opening slated for fall

Theo Schultz's eyes grew wide and his grin expanded as he ran his wee 3-year-old fingers over fossil-shaped tiles.

"Is this a spider?" he asked.

His mother, Carolyn Schultz, confirmed his identification.

"Is this an alligator?" he wondered.

"No, that's a leaf," his mom replied.

The Schultz family visited Helena's ExplorationWorks! Thursday morning during an event highlighting the progress on the interactive science and culture museum. If Theo Schultz learned that much in the under-construction little boys' room with a fossil theme, just imagine how much he'll dig the place when it opens in November.

And not just the kids dug it, either.

"This is the coolest bathroom I have ever been in. I wish I had these in my bathroom," his mother said.

The tiles in all of the museum's restrooms were created by local youth. The girls' room next door to the fossil room is quite a contrast from the bone-hued boys' facility. Vivid colors depicting animals and insects adorn the walls.

While board members and other Helenans were given a sneak peek of ExplorationWorks!, a construction worker continued mixing concrete. The building is still mostly hollow, but soon it will be home to traveling exhibits as well as permanent ones, including a student project display and a communications center equipped with a television news set and a recording studio.

Two exhibits planned for the museum's first year are: The Healer Within, a traveling display showing the human body's self-repair systems through the inner workings of the human heart, bones and muscles; and Explore the Air, which will combine traveling and local displays showing the use of wind power through the construction of kites and other hands-on activities.

The Great Northern Center building itself displays local artists' work in its doors and metal railings, which show spacescapes with planets and stars.

Tom Cladouhos, chairman of the ExplorationWorks! board, said the front doors -- towering pieces of art constructed of etched glass, wood and metal -- were installed a few days ago. The two polka-dotted doors were constructed by high school students and local crafters.

"This fall, these magnificent doors will be open to the public," Cladouhos said proudly.

Once the doors were pulled apart Thursday, visitors were shown the progress on the nearly 14,000-square-foot museum, which will include classrooms and a rooftop garden.

Although the museum has yet to officially open its doors, hundreds of children have already participated in ExplorationWorks! summer camps. Many of the students were on hand Thursday to show off their creations, including rockets, Lego robots and zucchini bread.

Siblings Justin and Mariah Johnson giddily discussed baking zucchini bread in a solar-powered oven, which the culinary camp built.

"I am excited to eat the bread when it's done," said Justin Johnson, 10.

His sister agreed. Mariah Johnson, 12, explained that she and her brother previously knew how to make zucchini bread because their grandmother shared her recipe with them.

But, the brother and sister learned how to make new dishes like spring rolls during the camp's Chinese feast, which was both of their favorite undertakings during the two-week camp.

"It was great. We got to deep fry everything," she said with a giggle.

Another dish on the top of the siblings' list was the pizza they made using ingredients from the Exploration Garden in the backyard of the YMCA just down the road from the museum.

Other camps offered this summer included Mysteries of Flight and The Art of Nature.

The museum itself also will use the sun's rays for power, with a hydraulic solar panel that tracks the sun and solar panels lining the roof.

The building is designed to use 60 percent less energy than other commercial buildings of its size and has been constructed with as many local and environmentally friendly products as possible, including the installation of carpet that is 90 percent recycled and straw bales for insulation.

The facility has been a work in progress for about seven years, past board chair Ellen Feaver said.

"It's at least once a week that I'm asked, 'When are you going to open?" she said.

Feaver said her response has been to tell people to contribute funds to the museum and it will open sooner.