BENTONVILLE —The holiday season’s been bright for the Amazeum as it recently received acts of support from the Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau and the city .
The Amazeum, formerly known as the Children’s Museum of Northwest Arkansas, will be at 1009 Museum Way.
At A Glance
Museum Projections
The Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau pledged giving the Amazeum $50,000 each year for the next six years. It’s estimated the museum will receive between 140,000 and 160,000 visitors a year and attract people from places such as Joplin, Mo., Springfield, Mo., Tulsa, Okla., Little Rock and Hot Springs, said Sam Dean, executive director.
Source: Staff Report
The Advertising & Promotion Commission, the governing body of Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau, approved entering into a financial partnership with the Amazeum, giving it $50,000 per year for the next six years for a total of $300,000. The decision was made when the commission approved its 2014 budget at its Dec. 12 meeting.
The Amazeum will be given $4,200 each month from January to October and $4,000 in November and December of 2014, according to the A&P budget.
Partnerships like these are “substantial” for the children’s museum, said Holly Hook, Amazeum capital campaign director.
“At the end of the day, community support is what is going to make us survive and thrive,” Hook said.
From a leisure standpoint, the Amazeum will be another attraction for the community to promote and advertise within Bentonville. From a business aspect, it will have amenities for corporations to do team building and leadership training, said Kalene Griffith, Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau president.
Griffith explained how the Amazeum staff will be an asset as they will be able to create plans that meet a corporation’s specific needs when they use the museum.
As a family attraction, it will also raise Bentonville’s recognition as a tourist destination, she added.
Children museums are often thought of as a place where parents can drop their children off and pick them up in a couple hours, Sam Dean, Amazeum executive director, told commissioners.
“(But) children museums are a critical part of the community,” he said. “They’re places for kids and families to go to learn and investigate.”
The Amazeum can be thought of with three “C's” – creative, curiosity and community, Dean said.
Amazeum officials also received approval from the Planning Commission earlier this week regarding a conditional use permit and its development plan.
The permit allows for the museum to be built on 5.09 acres at the northwest corner of Northeast J Street and Museum Way, which is zoned as single-family residential.
The project’s development plan also was approved by the commission.
The plan included a waiver request so the museum’s exterior could be constructed with material to compliment those used at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art— natural zinc cladding, cedar wood and finely finished concrete, according to a Planning Commission staff report. City ordinance requires primary building material, excluding glass, be 75 percent brick, textured concrete block or natural stone.
Plans show the 44,500-square-foot museum with 173 parking spaces, mostly to the west. An outdoor classroom, play area, picnic area and community garden will be to the south-south east of the building.
Landscaping throughout the property will include 17 types of perennials, shrubs and grasses and 11 types of trees, according to plan documents.
Officials expect to break ground on Amazeum in 2014 and have it open in 2015.