Eight Waves to open children's museum in Winter Garden

Sara Meyer, the founder of Eight Waves, can envision children playing in an adventure series dreaming of being pilots or painting a manatee structure together as a communal art project or creating their own characters out of recyclables. 

She can see children learning through playing in a children’s museum that will be the first of its kind in the area.

Meyer’s vision of building this museum for Winter Garden children is one step closer to coming to fruition after the Winter Garden City Commission unanimously approved a 30-year ground lease with Eight Waves Corporation to allow the nonprofit to improve, develop and operate on the city-owned property at 971 E. Plant St. 

The commission also unanimously approved the relocation of the home at 996 E. Plant St. to 971 E. Plant St. Eight Waves will use the 2,707-square-foot home that was built in 1926 as its launching point for the children’s museum.

The home will be the first phase of making I AM Children’s Museum a reality. 

“This has been literally a dream come true,” Meyer said. “It’s taken about two-and-a-half years to get here, and we’re just really excited.”

THE VISION

Meyer said the idea for the museum, which will be for children ages 2 to 12, stemmed from wanting to be a resource not only to the under-resourced communities in Winter Garden but to all children. 

“A lot of kids are struggling with reading and confidence and having a safe space to learn and thrive in,” she said. 

As a result, Meyer had staff members along with two Eight Waves students conduct research into 35 children’s museums around the country. The research showed that children’s museum programs with literacy components “are changing communities as a whole.”

The research also showed there was not a similar museum in Central Florida in which children can learn through play with a focus on literacy. 

“Literacy is the core of this museum from the website that will be built to the guests leaving (the museum), every exhibit will have something to do with literacy, making reading fun,” Meyer said. 

The three-story museum will include 17 different zones. Each zone will build upon literacy and teach children real-world skills. Each exhibit will have seven to nine jobs associated with them that will help children explore various career opportunities. 

One zone will be a travel area where children can pretend they’re a pilot or they’re exploring a surf shack. 

Another zone will be the wonder and wacky art workshop with a communal art project. 

A character celebration zone, which will be a social-emotional exhibit, will allow children to go through a three-step process to develop book characters out of recycled materials that can help them define and connect to their emotions. Then the characters can be scanned into a digital platform to make their characters come alive and interact with each other. 

Meyer said the museum is called I AM Children’s Museum as a way for children to think of all the things they can be in their futures. 

“It’s a very affirming name that mattered to our core team,” she said. “I think the biggest question is, ‘Why is it not being named Eight Waves?’ It’s because this will fall underneath Eight Waves, but it is a separate entity that is such a big entity that it needed its own name.”

The museum also will be an “extremely low-tech facility,” Meyer said, as children spend an enormous amount of time looking at screens. The idea is cardboard boxes are better than iPads, giving children the opportunity to imagine and dream while playing, she said. 

“We are developing all these exhibits ourselves right now,” Meyer said. “There’s not a third party. This has been within our core team, so it’s saving lots of money from that regard. However, what we are about to do is open up the opportunity for families, teachers and educators to speak into the exhibits.”

Obtaining input from families and educators within the community is crucial to Eight Waves as the development of the museum moves forward, Meyer said. The nonprofit will work with Orange County Public Schools to gather input and create partnerships so the museum can be a place for students to go on field trips. Input will be needed on everything from the colors of the museum to its mascot to what the exhibits will entail.

“This is built for the local community; it needs to be built by the local community,” she said. “I cannot take the weight of this on myself. This is an absolute community-wide project. We’re gearing up operationally to start focus groups with grandparents, teachers and young parents.”

There will be focus groups scheduled in September and November. 

STEP BY STEP

The first phase of the museum will be the rehabilitating the 2,707-square-foot home on Plant Street. Meyer said the first phase will cost about $1 million and will take about six months. 

During the first phase, Eight Waves will be offering free enrichment opportunities within the community to build up the children’s museum, its team and support for the museum. It can be used to host special trips for schools. 

The $22 million second phase of the museum will be the construction of a 23,000-square-foot building expected to open in 2030. The phase will include parking and exhibit builds. 

It will be followed by an additional 20,000 square feet in the third phase, and Eight Waves will begin the capital campaign for this phase in 2032. 

For phase four, there is a trail system planned to provide outdoor classrooms through green space. The fifth phase, which Meyer said is 10 years from now, is to build 5,000-square-foot community partnership hubs in Parramore and Clermont. 

Once the museum is open, admission will be $14 and reservations will be required. 

Meyer expects the I AM Children’s Museum will have at least 30,000 visitors per year. Eight Waves currently serves 1,500 students.