Exploration Place breaks ground on outdoor expansion. Here’s what’s coming when

Matthew Kelly
·2 min read

Exploration Place broke ground Wednesday afternoon on an amphitheater by the Arkansas River designed to host drone shows and other outdoor events.

The 1,500-capacity amphitheater overlooking the Keeper of the Plains is expected to open this fall in time to host the Drone Light Festival from Sept. 20-22.

Exploration Place is coming off its highest-attendance year on record as it enters the final stage of a $22 million fundraising effort to support upgrades, including an outdoor playscape and a new education center.

So far, the science museum has raised $15.2 million with another $3 million gift pending, Gayle Malone, chair of the Exploration Place executive committee, told the Sedgwick County Commision on Wednesday.

“I saw your slide on who all has donated but I didn’t see the city of Wichita,” Commissioner David Dennis said. “We gave $2.5 million from the county and I would hope that the city of Wichita would match that.”

That 2023 donation was in addition to the $2.2 million in annual funding the county provides for museum operations.

County Manager Tom Stolz said he spoke with City Manager Robert Layton on Monday and that Wichita plans to contribute just over $1 million in support infrastructure for the project, including streets and curbs.

Dennis said in his estimation, that’s not enough.

“I would be very disappointed if the city of Wichita didn’t think about matching what the county does,” he said.

Exploration Place has doubled membership since 2019, hitting 10,000 family memberships for the first time in 2023, when 403,543 visitors came through the museum doors. Malone said once upgrades are complete, Exploration Place expects to draw over a million visitors annually, increasing its economic impact from $21 million a year to $66.7 million.

The amphitheater project will include a new stage, pedestrian pathways, an electric vehicle charging station and aesthetic landscaping along the river.

The next phase of development will be a six-acre, $17 million outdoor playscape, designed by Denmark-based artistic playground firm Monstrum, which will replace the existing playground to the southeast of the museum. That attraction is expected to open by fall 2025 and include 10 individual playgrounds, including an aviation playgrove, sensory gardens, a sunflower meadow, a spider climber and a water play cascade.

The six-acre, $17 million playscape will consist of 10 individual playgrounds, replacing the museum’s existing playground to the southeast of the building.
The six-acre, $17 million playscape will consist of 10 individual playgrounds, replacing the museum’s existing playground to the southeast of the building.

Exploration Place President Adam Smith told the commission that the museum’s 25-year-old building is experiencing a number of maintenance problems, including HVAC, sewer and electrical issues, as well as a leaky roof.

“The biggest issue is we’re going to need to replace the entire roof of Exploration Point at some point,” Smith said.

He said the museum is facing about $10 million in maintenance needs, which will be funded through an existing endowment. Smith said repairs over the next decade will not require additional public money.