Ever since the U.S. put men on the moon, outer space has captured the imaginations of generations of children, inspiring make-believe missions, moon bases and spacecraft bound for distant worlds. At the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, that fascination has a new place to take off.
Cosmic Contact, the museum’s newest permanent exhibit, puts children in the pilot’s seat, with opportunities to build spacecraft, test their creations, experiment with gravity and take on missions of their own. It’s less about following instructions than seeing what happens when a child has an idea—and the freedom to try it.
Cosmic Contact officially opened to the public Tuesday, August 11, and is included with regular museum admission.
For children, the adventure begins with a simple question: What can you build?
At Meteor Impact, young engineers can construct a spacecraft or structure and then put their designs to the test against a simulated meteor strike. After watching the impact replay in slow motion, they can make changes and try again.
It’s a small lesson in persistence wrapped inside a very big space adventure.
“Through play, children are empowered to experiment, ask questions, and think creatively,” states Maggie Lancaster, CEO of Play at GRCM. “This exhibit provides an opportunity for families to collaborate, test their ideas, use their imaginations, and discover that there isn’t just one right way to build or solve a challenge.”
Elsewhere in the exhibit, children can take on the role of space explorers at Mission Control, where glowing light tables and colorful translucent bricks become tools for creating cosmic designs. A large mural by local artist Jack Edison adds another bit of wonder to the space station setting.
Then there’s the Star Gate, which leads young visitors into the Research Station and a place where gravity seems to play by different rules. In the Gravity Workshop, children can experiment with building on walls, overhead and at unexpected angles, discovering what it might be like to create in space.
For the youngest visitors, SpaceScapes offers a more approachable introduction to the theme, with a DUPLO building area where little explorers can stack, build and experiment at their own pace.
And in the Cargo Bay, children can gather materials for their next invention before putting their creations on display. They can also contribute to an ever-growing collaborative mural—a project that changes as new visitors add their own ideas.
The exhibit was created by the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum in collaboration with award-winning design studio Gyroscope and local fabrication company Meta4mat, with Edison contributing the large-scale mural. The collaboration also offers a glimpse into where the museum may be headed next, as Gyroscope works with GRCM on a visitor experience plan connected to the museum’s exploration of a future location for its STEAM Lab project.
“The best ideas happen when people imagine together. Cosmic Contact is the result of a love of LEGO, deep listening, and the extraordinary creativity of Grand Rapids children, bringing art and science together in ways that spark curiosity and wonder,” states Tim Phillips, Chief Creative Officer of Gyroscope. “This new exhibit is an exciting preview of the bigger project we are working on together, a shared vision to create not just a new version of the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, but a new model for children’s learning.”
That spirit of imagining together may be the heart of Cosmic Contact.
A child might arrive intent on building a spaceship and leave having discovered something about balance. Another might come ready to play astronaut and find themselves testing a theory. A caregiver might start out watching from the sidelines and soon find themselves recruited into a mission.
There is no single destination.
That fits naturally with the mission of the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, a nonprofit downtown institution focused on hands-on, play-based learning for children ages 0–10 and their caregivers. The museum gives children room to follow their curiosity, make something, take it apart, change their minds and start again.
At Cosmic Contact, even a failed spacecraft is useful.
It just means it’s time to rebuild.
Plan Your Visit
The Grand Rapids Children’s Museum is located at 11 Sheldon Avenue NE in downtown Grand Rapids. Cosmic Contact is a permanent exhibit and is included with regular museum admission.
- Regular admission: $12 per person
- Ages 65+: $11
- Teachers, healthcare and frontline workers, and active military members: $10
- Museums for All: $1.75 per person for EBT and WIC cardholders, for up to 12 people per card
- Museum members and children under 1: Free
Summer and school-year hours vary. For current hours, admission information and visit planning, visit grcm.org.
