Spark!Lab celebrates one year, boosts Holland Museum attendance

By Kate Carlson, Holland Sentinel Reporter
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HOLLAND — The interactive Smithsonian Spark!Lab at Holland Museum turned one year this month, and the exhibit’s success was celebrated with cake on Wednesday.

Since the exhibit opened in August 2018, there have been 74 new Holland Museum members, and family memberships increased by 23 percent. The museum has a two-year agreement with the Smithsonian for the hands-on exhibit, said Holland Museum Executive Director Ricki Levine.

“The plan is to keep it going because it has been very adaptable,” Levine said.

Activities are changed out regularly, Levine said, and the space also offers additional space for the museum to display artifacts that are changed out quarterly. The bright, quirky room is next to the main historical gallery in the museum, with different problem-solving stations for children to collaborate and experiment.

The “birthday party” for the Spark!Lab on Aug. 14 was mostly for museum members and donors, but there were still some children and people of all ages tinkering around at the various activity stations.

For three-year-old Vivian Maines, it was her first time visiting the exhibit, said her mother, Kristi Maines, but she was really excited.

“We get a lot of repeat visitors,” said Lexi White, education and volunteer coordinator at the museum. “Kids come to the museum and run right to the Spark!Lab, they know the drill.”

Schools often visit the Spark!Lab for field trips, but museum staff can also take some of the activities to classroom, and elsewhere in the community, Levine explained.

“We would love them all to come to the space, but the cost is more accessible for us to bring activities to classes,” Levine said.

Museum staff members receive additional Spark!Lab training from Smithsonian staff; and a Smithsonian Spark!Lab employee also visits each Spark!Lab location on an annual basis. On Tuesday, Nyssa Buning, a Spark!Lab National network coordinator, was at the Holland Museum’s exhibit.

“This exhibit is about engaging not just as the Smithsonian on a national level, but on a local level in communities across the country,” Buning said.

Michigan is the state with the most Spark!Labs in the country. Other than Holland, there are also Spark!Lab exhibits in Detroit and Midland. Michigan has a rich history of invention, Buning said, making it a great place for the experiment-focused activities Spark!Lab focuses on.

LEARN MORE about Holland Museum’s Spark!Lab Smithsonian