A popular children’s museum based in Chapel Hill is setting its sights higher, aligning the early stages of a major expansion with a rebranding.
The Kidzu Children’s Museum is officially now the North Carolina Children’s Museum, as announced Friday with its opening of a new makerspace in Boxyard RTP in the Research Triangle Park. After being forced to scale back its operations in the wake of a water main break and flooding of its Chapel Hill space last year, the museum is ramping up efforts to design and build its new permanent home on Mt. Carmel Church Road.
Kidzu, which has operated in town since 2006, has always sought a permanent space for its “cradle to career” programming and philosophy of learning. According to its website, the board of directors for the nonprofit rededicated its search in 2015 for a bigger, permanent space after moving to University Place mall. And similar to that long-standing effort, Chief Executive Officer Jamie DeMent Holcomb says the museum has long had a broader vision for the children and families the museum could help educate.
“We’ve already been offering resources for the entire Triangle area, and our visitor [numbers] were just growing and growing,” she told 97.9 The Hill. “Especially during COVID when we had a virtual platform, we had [online] hits from all over the state and nation and even some from outside the country. So, we knew that our scope was growing and as that grows, we started to think our scope was big enough to serve the entire state of North Carolina.”
Holcomb said the North Carolina Children’s Museum’s expansion site was officially set in January 2024, when the organization bought a 47-acre farm property near Mt. Carmel Church Road’s intersection with Old Lystra Road. Even with plans to preserve more than 40 acres, there is plenty of space for the museum to develop a state-of-the-art facility featuring amenities not possible in its prior Chapel Hill homes — like event spaces, a café and several rooms dedicated to different parts of STEM/STEAM education. But Holcomb adds that the property itself will be equally featured as a draw to visitors.
“We want to be able to have as much programming outdoors as we do indoors,” she said. “One of the questions I get asked in all of these interviews is, ‘what is your biggest, most important exhibit?’ The land will be that — because we’re going to program every single inch of it… There’s just so much that you can do when you have an important piece of property like that.”
An aerial map of the potential layout of the future North Carolina Children’s museum. The plans include a multi-wing learning facility, a central lawn and learning gardens, amphitheaters, adventure trails and ropes courses, eco-friendly parking lots and more. (Photo via the North Carolina Children’s Museum/Gensler.)
A design concept for the entrance and approach for the museum, which would have its early-learning exhibits and teenager-focused makerspaces in separate wings. (Photo via the North Carolina Children’s Museum/Gensler.)
Despite still being in the earliest stages of fundraising and master planning for the property’s building, Holcomb said the North Carolina Children’s Museum hopes to begin putting the land to use for programming as soon as this fall. She said the goal is to initially install hiking trails on the site before expanding to hold camps and outdoor events while the new facility is constructed. Once the new museum is finished, Holcomb described it as being able to offer learning experiences and attractions for all ages of children.
“There’s a space that is built around the services that we currently offer at The Nest in Chapel Hill,” said the CEO, “for our earliest learners — 0 to 5 year-olds. And then you go into what people historically think of as the meat of a children’s museum, which is the 5 to 10 year-old space. And then there’s space for teens and tweens, and that space becomes something totally different. It’s makerspaces, it’s woodworking shops, it’s digital recording studios, it’s outdoor adventure trails and ropes courses, and outdoor classrooms, and amphitheaters and natural pavilions.
“It’s such a big and comprehensive project,” Holcomb added. “It’s certainly something that’s going to take years to come to fruition, and we are just at the beginning now. But we’re incredibly excited and can’t wait for what’s to come.”
The Makery and Mobile Museum
While that larger effort moves forward, the North Carolina Children’s Museum is not slowing up its learning activity and opportunities for children. With its Nest early-learning operations using space at Binkley Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, the leadership team set out to find a new option for its popular makerspace — “the heart” of the old Kidzu, says Holcomb —to offer STEAM learning experiences. That resulted in the partnership with Boxyard RTP, which features a variety of vendors in an indoor-outdoor space constructed partially from retired shipping containers. Holcomb described the location choice as a “first, obvious, and beautiful step” for the museum as it expands its footprint further and attracts young families from across the Triangle.
“In that maker space,” she said, “you can bring your own projects you’ve been working on at home. Like, if you’ve been working on a quilting project or woodburning, but you need more space or equipment — you can bring those in. You can use our scrap exchange wall, and there’s all kinds of products there… everything from yarn and construction paper to scrapped wood and metal. There’s a wall of 3D printers, there’s a place for you to do sewing, woodworking… all kinds of stuff. And we’ll offer programming in all those spaces throughout the year.”
Supporters gather outside The Makery at Boxyard RTP to prepare for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new space on Friday, April 11. (Photo via the North Carolina Children’s Museum.)
A staff member help to woodburn some crafts for visitors to The Makery. The space features several other hands-on options for children to create items, like a scrap exchange, robotics and 3D printers. (Photo via the North Carolina Children’s Museum.)
Additionally, the North Carolina Children’s Museum wants to build its ability to program pop-up events and exhibits across the state in anticipation of reaching a broader audience. The nonprofit will get an opportunity to try it with its new Mobile Museum — a redesigned truck that Holcomb describes as a science exhibit on wheels. The vehicle’s interior has been redesigned to provide STEAM concept learning opportunities for its visitors, geared toward North Carolina’s science curriculum standards for 4th through 6th grade.
“The idea is that you go into [the vehicle], you see these new, exciting science concepts, and then you’re free to fly [into the world] when you’re done,” said Holcomb. “And there’s this very sweet part when you first come in that shows people from North Carolina that ended up with NASA-related jobs. That’s to inspire the students and families that come in that, no matter where you’re from, the universe is yours.”
The North Carolina Children’s Museum’s mobile “See, Try, Fly” exhibit will be hitting the road throughout the rest of 2025. (Photo via the North Carolina Children’s Museum.)
Those science, technology, engineering, arts and math concepts are embedded throughout all of the museum’s efforts — and as it begins to embark on this new journey, Holcomb said she believes it is more important than ever to ensure children have access to such learning resources.
“At a time when we’re not quite sure what public education is going to look like in North Carolina and across the country, we need to make sure that our informal learning spaces are filling every single gap we can possible can,” Holcomb concluded. “And, we’ve got to make it fun — if we don’t make it fun and cool and interesting, then we’re going to lose everyone’s attention. It’s so important that when we’re creating these spaces, they’re lovely and fun and innovative…but that they are also things that engage your brains and help take you to that next level.”
Currently, registration is necessary for any programming and open play at The Nest in Chapel Hill. Tickets can be purchased on the old Kidzu website until it transitions to the North Carolina Children’s Museum website. The Makery at Boxyard is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Featured photo via the North Carolina Children’s Museum/Gensler.
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Kidzu Announces Name Change to North Carolina Children’s Museum Alongside New Locations, Expansion Efforts Chapelboro.com.
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