Feb 18, 2024 | Bloomsburg, Kids, News
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum, 2 West 7th Street, is pleased to announce its programs for March.
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum is open Monday through Saturday 10 am – 4 pm. For more information about these and additional programs, visit
the-childrens-museum.org
CLASSES
Music Together
March 1 and 8
10:15-11:00 AM
Register online: www.musictogetherofbloomsburg.com
Join Miss Kerry for this interactive music program.
Kids Culinary Corner: Breakfast in Bed
March 7
5-7 PM
Register online: https://bit.ly/bcm-kccbed
Join Miss Madi as we learn to make pancake muffins, cereal bars, and smoothies!
Wood Flower Workshop: Heart Board
March 23
1-4 PM
Register online: https://bit.ly/bcm-woodheart
Come make your own nautical rope heart board with Tiffany’s Trees & More! Choose your flowers and greenery! Dye your flowers any color you’d like.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Hak4Kidz at Bloomsburg University
March 2
10 AM – 4 PM
Register online: https://bit.ly/bcm-hak4kidz24
Ethical hackers, information security professionals, and educators will bring the benefits of white hat hacking to the children and young adults at the conference. The conference features guest speakers, workshops, and STEM workstations. Attendees have a chance to win prizes, expand their knowledge, and explore the world of hacks! General admission tickets are free to this event. There is a limited number of swag bag tickets that get you general admission and a swag bag! Visit https://www.bloomconhak4kidz.com/ for more information
Kitties with Kiddies
March 9
9:30-10:15 AM
Register Online: https://bit.ly/bcm-kitties24
Space is limited. Parents and children need to register. Proceeds benefit the Animal Resource Center
Rube Goldberg Challenge Team Meetings
March 6, 13, 20, 27
6-7:30 PM
Register Online: https://bit.ly/bcm-rube24
Students in grades 1-12 (grouped by age) design & build a ridiculous multi-step “machine” to perform one simple task. The machines will compete in the Rube Goldberg Challenge Saturday, April 6, 2024 at Central Columbia Elementary.
All Abilities Night
March 15
3-7 PM
Enjoy a reduced number of visitors, space, and freedom to explore at your own pace. We offer adapted exhibits, a quiet area, and an opportunity to network with other families with free admission.
Chick & Bunny Day
March 23
10 AM – 12 PM
Come see baby chicks and, this year – bunnies too! We will also have chick and bunny-themed activities. Included with admission!
8th Annual High School Art Show Reception
March 29, 5-7 PM
Register online: https://bit.ly/bcm-artshow8
Talented young adult artists from area high schools will be featured in this exclusive juried art exhibition. Prizes awarded to top-scoring artists
PROGRAMS
Winter Wednesday
10 AM – 12 PM
March 13th
Enjoy a special winter-themed craft with free adult admission until noon.
Toddler Time
March 14 and 28
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Join Ms. Ashley from Rohrbach’s Farm for this Pre-K program consisting of exciting stories and educational crafts to help build fine motor skills. It ends with a 30-min music & movement section to shake all those sillies out! Adult supervision required.
$2 Tuesday
March 19th
10 AM – 4 PM
On the third Tuesday of the month, there’s $2 admission all day! The Exchange will host hands-on Art Cart projects from 10 AM – 2 PM.
HOMESCHOOL HANGOUTS
March 6th
The history and cultural heritage of the Lenni Lenape with special guest Carla Messinger from Native American Heritage Programs
March 20th
H2O Investigations with Veolia Water
VISIT US OFFSITE
Saturday, March 2nd
Degenstein Library
10-11 AM
Tuesday, March 5th
Milton Public Library
4-5 PM
Saturday, March 9th
Green Free Library
10:30-11:30 AM
Saturday, March 9th
Knoxville Library
10-11 AM
Tuesday, March 12th
Benton N4C’s
5:30-6:30 PM
Thursday, March 14th
Priestly-Forsyth Library
6:30-7:30 PM
Tuesday, March 19th
Shamokin Coal-Twp. Library
6-7 PM
Thursday, March 21st
Orangeville Library
6-7 PM
Monday, March 25th
Trinity Lutheran School
10-11 AM, 1-2 PM
Feb 11, 2024 | Bloomsburg, Kids, News
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum is pleased to announce that 32 individual projects participated in the 9th annual science fair, which was held at the Bloomsburg Firehall on January 18th.
Representing 6 different schools, all of the students showed their creativity through their unique projects. Of the 32 projects entered, 19 students will be moving on to the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) Regionals held at Susquehanna University on March 9th. There the students will have a chance to move on to the PJAS State Science Fair, held at Penn State University on May 20th.
The students who earned first place are as follows. John Grosso (Montgomery Middle School), Blake Rothermel (Line Mountain Middle School), Isabelle Clinard (Montgomery Middle School), Ben Farwell (Home School), Amelia Shrimp (Montgomery High School), Anna Kremsler (Home School), Nathan Corbeill (Home School).
Earning second-place scores were Chris Farwell (Home School), Ben Kremser (Home School), Chase Waring (Montgomery Middle School), Glayne Gozum (Montgomery High School), Charlie Corbeill (Home School), Leni Farwell (Home School).
Finishing with a third-place award were Victoria Sleiman and Ariana McWilliams (Benton Area Junior-Senior Highschool), Emily Miller (Montgomery Middle School), Lily Gingery (Montgomery Middle School), and Jackson Gabrielsen (Home school).
Also moving onto the PJAS Regionals are Ethan Vincent and Cole Sorber (Benton Area) and Tim Farwell (Home School).
Brian Houser, Field Manager at PPL and current Museum Board President, remained a fundamental component through both the organization of the event and his help as a judge. Touching on the exciting futures of these students, he is eager to see what inspiring innovations are to come.
Houser said, “As the Children’s Museum Board President, I am impressed by the remarkable displays of creativity, curiosity, and scientific inquiry showcased at the science fair. The students who participated demonstrated their impressive dedication to their projects and overall scientific acumen. Their innovative projects illuminate the potential for bright futures and I am confident that these budding scientists will continue to make significant contributions in our communities.”
Kevin Haughan of Finishing Engineer, Kawneer and Arconic Company, has been a long-standing judge since the creation of the annual science fair. This being his 9th time as a judge, he had a very enlightening perspective.
Haughan said, “The first question I have always asked at the beginning of interacting with a participant is: Why? Why this? The first few years, the answers were mostly that it was seen on YouTube, and they wanted to try it. A few students would answer with honest enthusiasm for the topic, and they are typically the ones that stood out. Now most of the students give answers as to why with a personal connection, and few students not only want to understand what they are working on but the supporting science.”
Robert Everly, local Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Region 5 Director, oversees the fair and on multiple occasions has acted as a judge. He mentioned the importance of the annual science fair for both the students participating and the community alike. He also noted that students moving on to the regional competition should aim to convert their presentational formats to appeal to the differing format of the event.
Everly said, “I have attended (and helped as a judge) at each of the last few science fairs held at the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum and found the student projects both interesting and well done. I could clearly see that many of the students would do well at PJAS regionals. The big difference is that they need to convert their presentation from a Tri-Fold visual presentation to a PowerPoint presentation. In PJAS, each student has 10 minutes to present their work to a panel of judges, who then have 5 minutes to ask questions. Each student has their work scored by the judges based on a set of criteria. Those who score “First Awards” qualify to present at states. The State PJAS competition is held at Penn State University in mid-May.”
He continued, “At a time when student test scores are indicating that our country is falling behind many other countries in math and science, programs like these are so important!”
This event would not have been possible without the support of the PPL Foundation. Thanks go to Brian Houser and PPL for all they do to make the science fair a success.
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit overseen by a board of directors. This organization strives to offer unique, sustainable, and dynamic learning opportunities for youth through year-round interactive exhibits, programming, and community outreach. For more information, please visit https://the-childrens-museum.org/ [the-childrens-museum.org]
Jan 21, 2024 | Kids, News, Regional Arts Events, Theater
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome a contemporary puppetry/shadow puppetry ensemble, Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North, on Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.
The runtime for the performance is 80 minutes without an intermission and is suggested for ages 7+.
The performance is sponsored, in part, by Adriana Rojas and family in memory of Andrew.
Song of the North is a large-scale, cinematic performance combining the manual art of shadow puppetry with projected animation to tell the courageous tale of Manijeh, a heroine from ancient Persia, who must use all her strengths and talents to rescue her beloved from a perilous predicament and help prevent a war.
This epic love story employs a cast of 500 handmade puppets and a talented ensemble of nine actors and puppeteers, all of which come together to create a spectacular experience that advances the themes of unity, collaboration and experimentation through performance and story.
Song of the North, adapted from the Book of Kings (Shahnameh), challenges the Eurocentric worldview of art and storytelling through a contemporary multimedia experience of this classic Persian tale.
About Hamid Rahmanian
Hamid Rahmanian is a 2014 John Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of the 2020 United States Artists Fellowship. His work centers on theater, moving image, and graphic arts and has been exhibited in international competitions and publications. His films have screened at Venice, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, and IDFA film festivals and broadcast on PBS, Sundance Channel, IFC, Channel 4, BBC, DR2, and Al Jazeera.
Rahmanian undertook the task of illustrating and commissioning a new translation and adaptation of the tenth-century Persian epic poem Shahnameh by Ferdowsi, titled Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings (2013). The resulting best-selling 600-page art book, lauded by the Wall Street Journal as a “masterpiece,” is currently in its second edition (Liveright Publishing). In 2017, Rahmanian released an immersive audiobook version of Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian King, with an introduction by Frances Ford Coppola. In 2018, he released a pop-up book titled, Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King (Fantagraphics Books) in English and Frenc which received the Meggendorfer Prize for the Best Pop Up-Book and was hailed “Simply breathtaking” by Le Monde.
In 2014, Rahmanian shifted his focus to theater arts, working with shadows and digital media. To date, he has created four theater pieces: Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King (2014), Mina’s Dream (2016, Commissioned by the Onassis Foundation), UNIMA-USA award-winning Feathers of Fire (2016) which premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music and toured in 23 cities around the US and abroad to an audience of 100,000. In 2019, he was commissioned by Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble to create a video animation for the multimedia project, Heroes Take Their Stand. Most recently, Rahmanian created the full-length stage production, Song of the North. Song of the North was awarded a 2021 National Theater Project grant and will premiere in March, 2022 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
This engagement of Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North is made possible through the ArtsConnect program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Funded in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Foundation.
TICKETS
Tickets are $30 for adults, $24 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $20 for youth 18 and under, $20 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $20 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).
Youth groups are encouraged to attend this performance; receive $5 tickets by using code PERSIA at checkout, after selecting seats.
Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
Jan 14, 2024 | Bloomsburg, Kids, News
CLASSES
Music Together
January 12, 19, and 26, 10:15-11:00 AM
Register Online: www.musictogetherofbloomsburg.com
Join Miss Kerry for this interactive music program.
Shadow Puppet Workshop
January 13th, 10 AM – 12 PM
Register Online: https://bit.ly/bcm-puppet24
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum, in partnership with the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, presents this with Laurie McCants. We’ll make puppets and tell stories with them! Each registrant will receive 2 free tickets to the performance “Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North” on Tuesday, January 30th at 7:30 p.m. at The Weis Center.
Kids Culinary Corner: Cozy Winter
January 15th, 5-7 PM
Register Online: https://bit.ly/bcm-kikwinter24
Join Miss Madi as we learn to make snowman pizza and hot chocolate cupcakes!
SPECIAL EVENTS
Kitties with Kiddies
January 13th, 9:30-10:15 AM
Register Online: https://bit.ly/bcm-kittiesjan
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum in Collaboration with the Animal Resource Center, presents Kitties with Kiddies. We are excited to host this special story time with kittens from the Animal Resource Center. A themed craft is included in the program. Space is limited. Parents and children need to register. Proceeds benefit the Animal Resource Center.
SPECIAL EVENTS
$2 Tuesday
January 16th, 10 AM – 4 PM
On the third Tuesday of the month, there’s $2 admission all day! The Exchange will host hands-on Art Cart projects from 10 AM – 2 PM.
Science Fair
January 18th, 5-8 PM
Enter Online: https://bit.ly/bcm-9thscience
Our 9th Annual Science Fair will be held at the Bloomsburg Fire Hall. Students in grades 6-12 are invited to submit a project. Submissions are due no later than January 5th.
Butterflies, LIVE!
January 20th, 10 AM – 12 PM
Register Online: https://bit.ly/bcm-butterfly24
Join Folk’s Farm at the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum to experience a live butterfly enclosure. Learn all about the life cycle of these winged beauties with hands-on activities.
PROGRAMS
Winter Wednesdays
10 AM – 12 PM, January 17, 31
Enjoy a special winter-themed craft with free adult admission until noon.
HOMESCHOOL HANGOUTS
Wednesday, Jan 10th
11 AM – 1 PM
“ICE ICE BABY” SUPER COOL Chemistry Experiments! Parent/child activities are designed to complement concepts taught in the homeschool curriculum, grades K-12. $5/per person admission for Homeschool families.
VISIT US OFFSITE
Tuesday, Jan 2nd Milton Public Library 4-5 PM
Saturday, Jan 6th Degenstein Library 10-11 AM
Saturday, Jan 6th Green Free Library 10:30-11:30 AM
Tuesday, Jan 9th Berwick Teen Center 5-6 PM
Thursday, Jan 11th Priestly-Forsyth Library 6:30-7:30 PM
Saturday, Jan 13th Knoxville Library 10-11 AM
Tuesday, Jan 16th Shamokin Coal-Twp. Library 6-7 PM
Monday, Jan 22nd Elkland Library 4-5 PM
Tuesday, Jan 23rd Mt Carmel Library 4-5 PM
Thursday, Jan 25th Blossburg Library 4-5 PM
Thursday, Jan 25th Montgomery House Library 6-7 PM
Jan 14, 2024 | Bloomsburg, Kids, News
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum is pleased to announce it has received a $14,000 grant from the PPL Foundation. These funds will support many of the admission-free community events the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum produces each year.
Funds from this grant will be used to produce the BloomCON Hak4Kidz hacking conference (March 2nd , 2024), the Bloomsburg Maker Faire STEAM festival (April 20th, 2024), the Museum’ 6th-12th grade competitive science fair (January 18th, 2024), and the annual Juried High School Art Show (March 29th, 2024), and SWORD at the Museum annual battlebot tournament (July 27th, 2024).
“Our mission is to serve our community,” Dr. Ginny Weibel, Museum Director said. “The PPL Foundation makes it possible for us to meet this goal. The programs this grant funds serve over 12,000 people each year. We would never be able to produce free events at such a high quality without support from organizations like the PPL Foundation.”
About The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit overseen by a board of directors. This organization strives to offer unique, sustainable, and dynamic learning opportunities for youth year-round interactive exhibits, programming, and community outreach. For more information, please visit https://the-childrens-museum.org/
About the PPL Foundation
The PPL Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization formed to support community initiatives in the areas served by PPL Corporation’s utilities. Through strategic partnerships, the PPL Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that are engaged in innovative and groundbreaking work to create vibrant, sustainable communities; advance diversity, equity and inclusion; and support children’s success from cradle to career in both Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Learn more at pplcares.com. Learn more at pplcares.com.
Jan 7, 2024 | Bloomsburg, Kids, News, Regional Arts Events, Visual Arts
On Display at the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum:
Artwork by Fiber Art and Mixed Media Artist Juliet Doucette-Renner
December 2023 – March 2024
Juliet was born in Erie, PA to artist/art education parents and grew up in the local area. Creative encouragement combined with boundless opportunities to try new things allowed her to crochet, sew, draw (and everything else in between!) throughout her childhood.
After her retirement from the USAF, Juliet returned to her beloved roots here in PA – where she now combines her 20+ years of travel with endless inspiration from the natural beauty around her rural home/studio. She considers her life here as an artist her ultimate dream job!
Most of Juliet’s work begins with an upcycled element – often an ordinary household item, “trash”, or fibers from discarded clothing. She delights in working “green”, embellishing with beads and buttons, dyes and acrylics to give her handmade paper an opulent new persona! Her love of color, texture, and whimsy is apparent as she combines found items and unexpected technique to create a statement of joy in each project. Juliet spends anywhere from 10 to 800 hours on each piece.
All artwork displayed is for sale.
Please contact the artist directly if you have any questions: email [email protected], text 570-916-1373, or phone/leave message at 570-458-5471.
The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
