Children’s museum aiming for August 2015 opening

FARMINGTON – The Western Maine Play Museum appears to be off and running, with a board member informing the Mt. Blue Regional School District directors Tuesday evening that the museum is aiming for an August 2015 opening.

Lori Lewis, a former Mt. Blue teacher and museum board member, told the school board that the group had a property, located in Wilton, in mind and was working to acquire it by the end of the month. The property in question was a house, Lewis said, which had been donated to the museum. Josh Wojcik of Upright Frameworks LLC had offered to undertake the renovations at cost.

Lewis was at the meeting to update the board on the museum’s progress.

Since last July, a group of area residents has been working towards opening the Western Maine Play Museum. A feasibility study was conducted, a 13-member board of directors was created in the fall and the organization has incorporated as a non-profit organization.

The board’s president, Angela McLeod of Wilton, became interested in the idea of a children’s museum in western Maine after taking her son to Boston’s children’s museum. She sponsored an online survey to see if others in the area felt the same way, and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Several people joined McLeod in conducting a feasibility study that, in part, researched three small regional children’s museums, in Augusta, Rockland and North Conway, N.H., and concluded that western Maine is capable of supporting a children’s museum.

Revenue to run the museum would include grants, fundraising, and donations. Tourists are a potential market, according to the feasibility study, that could benefit not only the museum, but the entire community.

More information about the Western Maine Play Museum can be found on the group’s Facebook page.