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Exhibiting potential
Topics: 2., and Charlie, 6, Jillian Fritch-Stump with children Jessica
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0 responses 1 comment The planned communities, the road projects, the shopping centers –– all are important new additions to Bakersfield as our population grows.
But Jillian Fritch-Stump wants to make sure that adults aren’t too busy looking ahead to look down.
“It’s the kids’ turn,” said Fritch-Stump, who’s been spearheading an effort to bring a state-of-the art children’s museum to Bakersfield since Cal State Bakersfield President Horace Mitchell put out the call for public-private partnership ideas last year. The idea behind the proposals is that CSUB would allow private, public or nonprofit organizations to build and run facilities on the southern part of campus along Camino Media on the condition the facilities benefit the university’s academic mission.
Two of the original six proposals –– Crisp & Cole’s University Towers and the Gregory D. Bynum and Associates office building –– have been conceptually approved, and three have been withdrawn or rejected. The learning center is the last proposal on the table and will be considered at the CSU Board of Trustees’ meeting in May.
The proposed $15 million, 35,000-square-foot Bakersfield Adventures of the Mind, or BAM, would serve children 12 and under and feature indoor and outdoor rotating exhibits involving space, science, art, and theater; a cafe; and an educational store, as well as a parent university; and year-round educational programming for kids.
“BAM is envisioned as part of a movement of children’s museums throughout the world combining specific learning objectives with play within an informal learning environment,” reads the BAM proposal, which goes on to describe BAM as an educational town square aligned closely with CSUB’s vision of excellence and partnership.
“This project promises a center for collaboration –– celebrating creativity, learning and offering Kern County the foundation for intellectual exchange among its students, parents, professors and social service organizations,” said Fritch-Stump, who said BAM would be a nonprofit institution.
A former sixth-grade Discovery Elementary School teacher, Fritch-Stump, 39, said her two children, ages 6 and 2, were the main motivation for the effort, especially daughter Jessica.
“We celebrated her sixth birthday party at Kidspace in Pasadena because it is one of her favorite places! We always search out children’s museums when we travel,” said Fritch-Stump.
“BAM is going to be a community thing and it’s going to get a lot of kids excited! It’s about all these fun things for the mind and we can have our own place where we don’t have to drive so far to get there,” said Jessica.
Fritch-Stump is an active volunteer who founded the citywide reading program One Book, One Bakersfield in 2001 after she had read about the success cities like Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago had with similar programs.
She’s basing BAM on children’s museums in other cities, as well, noting that according to the Association of Children’s Museums there are approximately 300 current and 65 start-up children’s museums in the United States.
“As a mother, I know what it’s like to live in Bakersfield in the hot summer and foggy winter and have no place to go with the kids. BAM will be an oasis,” said Fritch-Stump, who said a visit to the museum will also be an intellectual endeavor –– although one disguised as entertainment.
“The idea is that the kids will have so much fun they won’t realize that they’re learning,” said Fritch-Stump, who said BAM plans to coordinate its exhibits with schools’ standards and curriculum –– such as California history for fourth-graders. The Office of Kern County Superintendent of Schools has sent a letter in support of the museum.
Dave Parker, executive vice president of the Kern Community Foundation and part of the 15-member BAM Advisory Board, which includes Kern County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Larry Reider and The Bakersfield Californian publisher Ginger Moorhouse, is also a big fan of interactive learning.
“The whole idea of hands-on learning in an informal environment versus just staring at things on the wall just makes more logical sense,” he said.
Fritch-Stump said in addition to engaging children’s minds, BAM will provide physical exercise through climbing walls and water features.
Possible partnerships involving CSUB professors and students include CSUB students and families designing exhibits and special events centered on their field of study (i.e. geology, science, chemistry, nursing, art, and more) and education students observing BAM kids in a kind of “living lab.” As Fritch-Stump sees it, these types of hands-on learning experiences make CSUB more marketable to potential university students searching out unique opportunities such as working as an intern or docent during their scholarly pursuits. 
“BAM would also introduce children to the campus,” said Fritch-Stump, who noted that this partnership could replace the void left by the AYSO soccer teams being nudged off Cal State’s fields in order to allow for growth.
Fritch-Stump said the opportunity for intellectual exchange will extend beyond the campus and into the community. For instance, if the project is approved, Glenwood Gardens will bus over seniors to serve as museum volunteers.
“BAM isn’t for the community, it’s with the community,” said Fritch-Stump, who added that the No. 1 civic engagement tool in the world is children.
She’s also excited about the possibility of locating satellite facilities at BAM for Valley Oaks Charter School and for the county superintendent’s office.
Shirley Oesch, BAM Advisory Board member and principal of  Valley Oaks Charter School, which specializes in home-based learning, has been researching the possibility of bringing a science museum to Bakersfield for 10 years. Once she began working with Fritch-Stump, the concept evolved into a children’s museum with an emphasis on science.
“I’ve spent a lot of time traveling and studying museums,” said Oesch, who also said it’s too expensive for schools to bus students out of town on field trips to museums. “Our population has grown to the point where it’s something we really need.”
Oesch said Valley Oaks, which is currently located on Chester Avenue near the Kern County Museum, is “bursting at the seams,” and she hopes to use the space at BAM as a place to meet with families who live in the Southwest area.
Fritch-Stump said it is also a top priority of BAM to collaborate with existing institutions like CALM, the Kern County Museum, the Buena Vista Museum and the Bakersfield Museum of Art in ways that will invite children and families to enjoy programming that complements –– not competes with–– existing ones. Special consideration will be given in terms of scheduling so that events don’t overlap each other, she said.
Jeff Nickel, assistant director of the Kern County Museum, said the Lori Brock Children’s Discovery Center, which opened in 1976 to offer hands-on museum experiences for children, is one of the most popular parts of the facility and sees 400 to 1,000 visitors a day. He said he isn’t very familiar with the BAM details, and that he’d have to see what types of exhibits BAM offered before he could comment on what impact it might have on Lori Brock.
Fritch-Stump feels there’s room for more than one interactive children’s museum in town.
“Bakersfield is growing at such a rapid pace that there is definitely room for all of these groups to thrive in offering our very best for the children of Bakersfield.”
Unlike the Bynum and Crisp & Cole proposals, BAM will not create cash revenue for the campus.
However, Fritch-Stump noted that similar institutions across the country make great fiscal contributions to their local economies by creating a community destination for families.   According to studies, she said, each year more than 30 million people visit children’s museums worldwide, and nonprofit art institutions, including children’s museums, are considered a cornerstone for tourism with data reflecting an average of $22.87 spent per person, not including the price of admission.
“BAM is projected to be a lucrative endeavor, acting as a magnet for not only visitors but as an arena for the private sector seeking partnerships,” said Fritch-Stump, who added that BAM would tie in donations with exhibits, giving the example of Allstate Insurance, which sponsored an exhibit about natural disasters at a children's museum in Chicago.
Mike Neal, vice president of business and administrative services for the university, declined to comment on the BAM project until it goes before the CSU Board of Trustees in May.
Fritch-Stump said when and if final approval is given, the next one to two years would be spent raising money through a combination of private and corporate donations and grants. An executive director and director of donor development would be hired, and the doors would open in two to three years.
Fritch-Stump said the community reaction so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and she promises a facility that will be a major bonus to Bakersfield.
“Having cultural institutions that focus on children is a quality of life issue that helps make a city a place where people are proud to live and call their home,” she said.
Or, in other words, “It will knock your socks off.”

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Comment From: dweaver3

A children's museum would be popular with local families and students as well as out-of-town visitors. Interdisciplinary contributions from the university would be exciting and encourage younger students to pursue a university education. The addition of children’s museum would enhance the university and all of Bakersfield. I hope this proposal is accepted!