BREC is asking the state for $5.5 million to help fund the planned Knock Knock Children’s Museum in City-Brooks Community Park, the Division of Administration says. That’s $500,000 more than a 2007 request that would have required a $5 million local match; that request was approved, although most of the money was appropriated in a low-priority category and wasn’t spent. A spokesman says the request for fiscal year 2012 indicates an estimate of $13.5 million for the project and proposes an $8 million local match. BREC, which recently finalized a partnership agreement with the museum, says it will put up $3 million.
Melissa Bell, the project’s fundraiser and administrator, refused to discuss the possible state funding and would not say how much additional local money has been raised through the “silent phase” of the fund-raising campaign. She says some donors have made commitments, grants are possible, and a process to select a lead architect is ongoing.
Knock Knock is the only Louisiana affiliate for “Raising A Reader,” a nonprofit that says it promotes “evidence-based literacy programming for young children.” Working on reading programs with local teachers and libraries is a logical form of community outreach for the museum project because early childhood literacy is part of its mission, Bell says. The museum’s target audience would be birth to age 8, although it will be designed to be enjoyable for older children and their families as well, she says. To see tentative exhibit designs for the museum, click here. For a Business Report story about this project and other children’s museums, click here. —David Jacobs
