Up Close with Cathy Unruh; Glazer Children's Museum

This special presentation was produced in high definition by W. edu Tampa St. Petersburg Sarasota discover inspire and Madsen. Take a first look at the Glazer Children's Museum. Coming up next. The Glazer children's museum set to open in Fall 2010 will provide children parents and teachers with a rich environment for play and discovery. Located at the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in downtown Tampa this three story fifty three thousand square foot facility is projected to bring in 200000 visitors annually Al-Azhar is the president and CEO of the Glazer Children's Museum and welcome. Thank you nice to have you. To Bay Area has a long history of providing children with Museum scientific experience there's Mozy Museum of Science and Industry great explorations in St. Petersburg. Kid city that's the

original children's museum in Tampa. Which is now growing on the site that's right. So was this museum part of a long range plan. Well don't forget we have a wonderful do one of the best zoos in the country we have a great aquarium with again one of the great aquariums in the country and all of these institution all for tremendous additive learning experiences that children get in the school systems as well as they get it and the family environment and so on. What are children museum offers which is very unique and very different. On one hand we don't focus on one curriculum subject we don't focus on just science or just on aquatic life or animal but we really focus on the whole. Some the process of learning how children connect the world around them and how they can see the interplay between poetry and science and language and mathematics and engineering and art. But at the same time we're not we're not open for all ages really focus and recognize the need and the uniqueness of children ages

from birth to eight or birth to 10 because their cognitive skills their ability to learn their way of making the construct about the world around them is very different than teenagers let's say or sound kind of three month old come to the U.S. and absolutely will have all kind of programs for parents and young children on how to. How to grow together as a family how to develop their skill for parenting for all kind of tactile kind of experiments in early childhood activities that the children can do with Mom and with dad and a lot of programming that children's museum around the country in there some 450 of them around the country and many more around the world. There's lots of programs for the starters and for young children as not was the genesis of this particular museum when did the idea astrally the children museum temple was formed in 1907 it was incorporated 1987 based on some really grassroots volunteer work and desire to make a place for families with very young children. And it was modeled I think the volunteers that put it

together. They came from Boston from Minnesota which have great children's museum there. And they wanted to do one in here they put one in a mall Florida mall I think back in 87 and then they discussed with the city of Tampa to resurrect the old safety village the one that park. And they turned that into a good city and that operated for 10 years very successful a lot of people loved it. Great memories and people are very fond and attached to it. So that continued until the early 2000 and recognize that we really need to move into a bigger facility an indoor facility was a lot of challenges with operating at City. So the start the board started the capital campaign raising the fund coming up with the concept and where we are today which we have the building and ready to open that so groundbreaking was in March of 2009 about a year ago. And so the building is complete at this point. The building on the exterior complete and so you will see it as a complete part of critics

and park in the inside we still have a lot of work to do. Just finishing the interior of the building but then of course we have a very highly thematic and fun and quite intricate and complicated set of exhibits inside the museum that will be working on wants to building is pretty close to completion so by by April we will have the building pretty much substantially complete. We'll have all the major exhibits coming in and being installed. It takes a good six months to do that and then we will get into the training and doing all of the safety checks and all of the stuff to get it ready for for the for the public in September. 21 million dollars is the cost of the museum. Is that still it. Number Yes 21 million dollars is the overall Kabul campaign that does not include the value of the land which is prime real estate having it right in the park right on actually drive. And the Glazer family which of course is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stepped up with the big gift of five million dollars how do you get them interested.

They you know this is really interesting I was as we say the way they put it is that we didn't find them they actually found us they they are originally from Rochester so all of the entire family grew up there and they used to go to the strong children's B.S. I'm in Rochester and have some very fond memories. They still take a lot of the grandchildren and so the idea of the children museum was very appealing to them. So when we when we open the subject with them and discussed it with the family foundation with the brothers and Darcy Glaser It was natural and I think they said it you know it was it was an easy decision for them because they love children's museum they know what kind of impact it would have on families and can impact on downtown Tampa and what kind of. It will attract people but also what kind of impact will have on their life and on education. And we should say right now probably that although it's in downtown Tampa it will be regional. You certainly have to look really hard to reach that. The poll that we will have is certainly there will be a

very strong component from Hillsborough and Pinellas but we would relieve yourself as seven county organization with quite a quite appeal for tourists and for you know within Florida kind of traffic so absolutely the people children's and children museum is a very well established brand families and with young children look for children's museum to go to said they quite often when they go to a city they will they want to go and see a children's museum. We're talking about the fund raising on the economy did have some impact on your raising of that 21 million dollars had to delay the opening a little bit. The opening Initially we want to open in May and we had realized pretty quickly that we needed more time to really test the exhibits making sure that we develop all of our educational programs and not just rush it. That also gives us a little bit a couple more months to continue with the fundraising and sort of to recoup some of that. You know some of the slowdown that we had in all not profits in the area had down in fundraising so. This sort of it really was a double purpose for stretching the opening a little bit later.

And September is a hard date for opening middle to late September when it will coincide with the start of the new school year and it will be a wonderful time to welcome school groups and start of the tourist season here. Now let's talk about you a little bit because how you got here is certainly a fascinating story. I mean you're very qualified in a lot of ways let's say you're a physicist. You were the CEO of the side Port Discovery Center and Shreveport Louisiana that's still under construction when you arrived when you arrived there. So brag a little bit about what you accomplished with that project. Not very good at it but I mean a brick and I'll go for it. Yeah I ride there pretty much where we are with this project in terms of it was pretty much on paper. Construction has just started. And my job was to put all of the exhibits together put all the programs together of the IMAX theater it was a pretty large science center not quite as big as Mosey but pretty close to that and would really built into the community and it was a wonderful project that

attracted about two hundred twenty two hundred thirty thousand visitors a year in a very small community. We had a visitation rate of over 80 percent repeat visitation. People keep coming back to us it was very much viewed at the end of 10 years when I left as is really the community's place and they want to go there and it was their pride and joy. But some of the innovation that we did at psych ward not just the entire team that working with me there was really put the science center on the map as it was voted by Parenting magazine as one of the top ten science centers in the country. But it is the it must be really time to go to work to feel like you're playing while you're at work I feel guilty sometimes going to acquit is so much fun because you know you're doing you're really generating ideas you sort of looking into the future where you're generating enthusiasm you're generating passion among your volunteers your staff. But really more importantly the biggest reward is when when you're at the children's museum you see all these kids having a great time on the

great you know eyes are sparkling and open and want to learn more and want to make more discoveries and open and stretch their imagination but you are going to get your imagination all the time because your thought you know what. What can I do to make you also take it for granted that you know somehow children you know you they learn from you. You'll really learn from them most of them. They're very complex and wonderful sort of minds and abilities and kind of the abilities that if you don't harness it right now and if you work don't work on it right now. And I really don't believe in teaching I think our school system here does a great job of teaching and it you know imparting information to children. But I think what our children museum can do in a great science center can do an aquarium or zoo is the fact that we open the child's mind to open more to ask more questions to make more connections. All the stuff that they see around the world they can start becoming a better citizen a more intellectual citizen who can become a doctor but also can become the mayor and become the banker and

become the person who is qualified to be a great learner to be a great leader because one other thing. That you say is that you would rather people have more questions about the world around them then answer. I mean I think the answers will come after you're asked the questions. I mean I think if you. Quite often we we forget that curiosity as to is a beginning. That's what Einstein said it's curiosity is really the beginning for knowledge and and learning and becoming an informed person. And if we don't ask children to ask the right questions and to follow up with more questions and to be inquisitive and then you know the learning will be more of an accumulation of knowledge and we really want to encourage them to question things probe deeper and really look at the connections the interaction between all the things that they see around them quite often and that's used to be you know part of the great thinkers of the you know era of enlightenment and. The Renaissance people could think in multiple disciplines so they can link the arts with math and they can link science with literature. And

now we are so compartmentalize the science is here and an artist here and language is in a different space and the childer museum has the ability to bring them together. Well that raises the question. Some children as you know are more predisposed toward arts or languages or math or science. So let's say I'm just an English Literature person I want to read and write. Still go to the Science Museum. Absolutely because. Well the site you go to mosey because the science museum will have great activities to teach you about psis teach about technology and how that sort of. But my question is if that's not your natural interests it's not where you actually go not in the last and you might open your mind as you're speaking. I don't know how much you're naturally drawn to. Is it true. I think everybody inside is a is a learner. And whether you learn about astrophysics or oratory construction I think all of these things could be developed certainly in children's minds and could be very developed a few If you present it in the right way and if you present it in the sort of curious

environment that is friendly to learning but you don't you know you don't put all the fears around it our children want to go to an intermediate school they've already developed all kind of fears and stigmas about science and how hard it is and I think if you do it right and if you present it in the right way I think children will. Will become hopefully the geeks that we need them to be to become engineers and astronauts and great doctors and I think that's the thing that we need to do what the children museum could help you to do become a bigger better thinker especially we're talking with much younger children who have been quite ready to get into the sciences or they're just being introduced to scientific concepts. So back to your career path. What brought you to Tampa. So I was in Shreveport at a great science center a wonderful community and had a brand new baby then and I love to come to Tampa several times to pass on conferences and worked with some colleagues here in the area. So when they

knock on the door came and you know we need somebody to have this children museum. Let's have a brand new child fascinated by the whole idea of building Children's Museum versus just science centers which you know I've sent my career in. And in a great place I had always wonderful memories about just were just perfect test market your ideas on your child. Yeah absolutely I do I mean you know we are we practically live it mosey in the aquarium in the Sirius so I see him doing all of this stuff and he loves it and I think that's really part of the continuum of the kind of the experiences that you offer my child and ultimately building it for him and building it for all the children like him in the area. It's interesting you talk about the sparkle in the children's eyes as as they're learning and experiencing these things and as you talk about it now I can see the sparkle in your eyes part of it so if you really get excited you can see it in your ass and your background. There are some real darkness in your background and how how you got here.

Yeah. Tell us about your childhood oh my childhood was wonderful childhood I grew up in in Baghdad Iraq very learned mom and dad my my father was a doctor and my mom was a judge and just great wonderful childhood until. I was ready to go to college and all of the turmoil that happened in the country and Saddam and Saddam Hussein was coming at power and things were getting very difficult the Iran Iraq war happened so I was pretty much forced to to get away from the country like you know some 2 million people who left in the early 80s. And so I went to Canada and of course the country deterred it constantly since then from one war to the other to the Gulf War my parents passed away. They were killed. Well my father was in the front as a doctor and he was affected by what happened there my mother was passed away in one of the rages during the Gulf War and just had a massive heart attack and died. But there was just moms everywhere I mean just horrible circumstances. So we managed to get all of our

family out of the country. My brother and I of course love America and Canada so we we decided to come here and live here. But yeah Iraq has been in turmoil when every Iraqi with with Iraqi backgrounds you can tell you very terrible stories about the stuff that they had to live through and forgive me the diversion but it's impossible to ask how you feel about what's going on in Iraq now. Well hopefully this is a new beginning for the country I mean it just went through a horrible time and horrible time since mid 70s. I'm hoping that will stabilize I'm hoping that the country will have a democratic rule and that it will get rid of itself. The you know all the ethnic problems and all this religious fundamentalism when I was living in the country we never seen the stuff I mean I really never you know we almost always shy of or ashamed to go and say well I'm a Sunni and you're if you're a Christian and people live so well and harmoniously that I'm just as shocked as any American or

Canadian when you hear all the stuff that going in the country so I think Iraq has tremendous possibilities. And I'm optimistic but it's it's pretty bad. So your road from Iraq to conduct to the U.S. Your interest is science and you said we need more geeks. You call yourself a geek. Yes. Because you've done a lot of different things. Yes. Tell us about it. Different things were I mean well you worked in Ottawa. Yeah for 10 years at science Norris right. But you also do three languages play taught yourself to play the violin. So I played the violin and I was that came sort of almost like an accidental thing I was I wanted to do my Ph.D. in acoustical physics and they sort of told me you know what you should pick up an instrument I was very fascinated by the whole building the some of the great violins and how great coronary kind of violins are built so there was a program at Brown University at the time that Lee and I wanted to go there and want to do my Ph.D. program so suggestion Westerwelle pick up an

instrument and you know to get an idea for it. So I did that and I love classical music so that became a hobby for life and became start playing with orchestras and classical music and then you do 3-D computer animation. I did that I learned on my own primarily because I have all kind of ideas in my head and I wanted to design them and show them to people and build them so. So define what makes you what's a geek I'd really like to learn I like to do some new stuff so that's a geek. Well you know. You know a geek is really doesn't have a bad connotation came from Iraq. A geek is a really good geek that means you're successful that you are that you will have a prominent role in society that you have really good contribution to society. I think that used to be the 60s and here you know during the you know the the moon program and the space race and so on. A geek is a good thing and I think we need to get to that. Smart. Absolutely good in school to tell you're not shy about being smart in school the sort of things that are really sad.

OK so back to the day we recently visited the site of the Children's Museum and let's take a look at the Glazer Children's Museum is a not for profit educational and cultural resource. Its mission is to inspired children and families by creating learning opportunities through community creativity discovery diversity friendliness fun imagination and innovative play. We are at the entrance to the museum. The person Park is right here and the museum is as you see is in finishing stages we are right finishing all the paint. Finishing some of the electric work so we're about 80 percent into the process. Here this is where the climbing structure will go will start right from below that landing in here and you can see actually the workers are putting all the steel. Support beams. And. Children will be climbing on top of these platforms that look like tree leaves and in some cases they look like clouds and they can climb all the way up to the ceiling of the ceiling has a blue collar on it that sort of resembles a clock.

And when you come up to the second floor you'd have the circular space right around this opening right around the trees which make it a wonderful place for mom and dad and grandparents to go and watch their kids playing and have a great time. A museum is different than us because it is so geared toward children who talked about it scared eight years old pioneering years old yes. And how do you create that focus. Well there's a physical aspect to that from just the way you design your exhibits the way they are they're used physically by children you know that they're kind of their particular abilities tactile abilities we will use a lot more visuals and their written text etc. there's a lot more emphasis on that relationship between the parents and the child so you try to encourage them to work together. But really it's all of the subject matter approach from the from the eyes and the ears and the mind of a child in terms of how this child would perceive these things whether it's from building things to you know manipulating different aspects of an exhibit.

And it's really more about play children talk and feel and communicate through play. They don't they don't use abstract language there. They're not at a point where they can make some you know very eloquent sort of linguistic expressions. Some children's do of course and so we really want them to express themselves by play and plays I think plays a very serious thing in the museum in that we that's how the really the exhibits that we have is primarily the child itself. And we just give them enough tools and enough environment enough sort of guidance to they become the exhibit they become the experience and they they do the exploration. It's really little about the gear and the stuff that we have which will have some marvelous exhibits and marvelous example. For example there's lots of examples but one really cool example we have a an area is all about construction. Children see construction all the time. Bob the Builder and so on. So the idea is what WHY CAN'T children go in and actually become

builders. So the construction zone consists of a very large house just a small part to the child this is almost real real size. And they go there and they finish the house. The siding of the house is not there. The roof is exposed. The landscaping is not done. The bathroom is not plumbed completely electric. Electricity is not put together. We actually give them all the tools so for example they you know the plumbing give them all the PVC tubes and they go to the main lines and have to rearrange all the plumbing and hook the the bath up over the sink and you know when they turn the water actually air comes out there's something left and don't even think about they run their bath they float like a toilet. And of course these kids are growing up with we Twitter Facebook the Internet. How does that inform what you put into the museum building houses basic. It is it is great I mean I think the the the cyber child is important part of the education we need to get them to do that. I think at that age we also

got to be very conscience and very careful that they have a lot of things at the minute hand so they're not glued to a computer and not glued to a screen. There's a lot more tactile and cognitive skills that they need to acquire as well besides being in front of the computer and the lot of studies a lot of research is is available on the you know on the negative side of being too much TV too much computers too much but if you deal with this generation who's who's so engrossed in all that versus what you did 10 20 years ago has that changed how you decide what it what your exhibits are can you say oh you know I get to talk about my son and my my 4 year old could spend two hours playing with his train set and have a lot more freedom manipulating it and doing it because it's real in front of him and I think you know arguably at this age he can learn a lot more in terms of how he can explore and how it can manipulate and how he can sort of appreciate physical the physical interaction between the different pieces of the museum will really gear to his side. And just very briefly about the neighborhood you're going to be

neighbors with a 52 million dollar Tampa History Center the New Tampa Museum of Art and park will be open there for a walk is happening. Do you see that as a whole cultural renaissance thing. I mean I think I think it's really important to get the heart of downtown Tampa to be to again and to bring people that with a critical mass of cultural attractions are just extractions great park wonderful Art Museum History Center the aquarium of course that's been there and been very successful. And I think having all of the tied together is a great place for tourists to come here but more importantly the people in Tampa Bay that they want to come to Tampa downtown Tampa to see all these great attractions. You know we have a wonderful theater there. You know the Tampa Theater of course is another attraction. And I think we can work all together we're already talking about doing a lot of cross program cross programming promotions doing events together. And we have this fabulous park right in front of the museum where we can where we can do such a program. And it's our focus primarily on parents and children in our schools and children are it's really our two primary audiences

are families and children. And the second audience are school children. It really says a program that we are designing and developing for informal programs for families as well as more curriculum programming for schoolchildren as well as we are working very closely with child services provider here like the early childhood children board of county program. It's time to mark your calendars for September of 2000. And come from everywhere to play and learn whether you are a child or an adult. That's right. OK. Thank you very much. For more information on the Glazer children's museum you can call it 1 3 2 7 7 3 1 9 9. Or you can visit the laser dot org. This episode of up close in its entirety. Org. Thanks for watching

I'm Cathy Areu and I'll see you next time on.