Imagination, Building Buffalo, From
Farm to Fork and Rooftop Garden.
Moving Water
Explore & More’s New Canalside
Home is Almost Ready!
E
xplore & More’s new build-
ing is up at Canalside, and
the first exhibits are starting
to arrive this month, making the com-
munity’s vision of bringing family
friendly activities to the waterfront that
much closer to reality.
Explore & More - The Ralph C.
Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum is built
on the historic footprint of the Prime
Slip, at the crossroads between canals
and bridges that have become year
round community destinations, with
ice skating and paddle boating depend-
ing on the season. The museum is the
perfect place to learn about the region’s
roots as an innovative port at the turn of
the last century and its critical role in
America’s expansion west, while using
hands-on play to spark the imagination
and unlock the unlimited potential of
our next generation of great minds.
The four-story, 43,000 square foot
museum features seven educational
play zones offering hands-on exhibits
that tell the story of Western New York
— the importance of our waterways,
community, cultures, traditions, archi-
tecture, agriculture, sports, industries
and innovations.
In addition to four floors of fun
with great views of the waterfront, a
16 WNY Family December 2018
rooftop terrace with sweeping views of
the city and the perfect place to watch
the Bison’s Friday night fireworks, the
building will also house a retail space
and café that will be open to the public.
The café will be on the lower towpath
level with patio chairs and tables along-
side the canal for ice cream in the sum-
mer and hot cocoa in the winter, in ad-
dition to fresh lunch fare with plenty of
seating. There will also be a party rental
space in the Celebration Room, an art
studio and working kitchen galley, as
well as events on the terrace.
The seven main zones include:
Moving Waters, Being Good Neighbors,
Playing Together, Lighting Buffalo’s
Natural and human forces have
shaped the Buffalo waterfront, while the
dynamic ports, canals, and harbor fueled
the engines of prosperity and innovation
that powered our great city. An iconic
two-story waterfall will cascade down
into a water table where children of all
ages will learn about the Erie Canal,
how locks work, and how electricity is
produced. A large visitor-powered water
wheel will illustrate that moving water is
power as visitors compare the amount of
energy they can produce individually to
the power of the falls which can light up
an entire grid map of Buffalo.
Being Good Neighbors
This child-friendly neighborhood
has three homes that look similar from
the outside, but when you go inside
these homes you see that their traditions
are very different. Each house celebrates
a different culture, which will rotate in
the future. The Buffalo Niagara area
is filled with a diverse mix of cultures
and families and here children can learn
more about their neighbors and neigh-
borhoods. This exciting zone will also
feature a city bus for children to hop
aboard and an immersive colored pencil
cityscape where children are invited to
color a vehicle, scan it in, and “drive”
it through a large scale digital town and
print it to create a 3-D paper car to take
home.