During the grand opening of the Second Story and Beyond children’s museum on Saturday, June 22, 2024, a confetti cannon was brought in to celebrate this long-awaited moment at the Paul A. Biane Library in Rancho Cucamonga. (Photo by Stan Lim)
After over 10 years in the making, Rancho Cucamonga’s Paul A. Biane Library has opened its doors to children and their families for its brand-new second-story interactive children’s museum. Children and families in the Inland Empire now have something new to add to their family outings! There was a delay in the building and opening of this endeavor due to design issues and proper funding.
On June 22nd, 2024, the Biane Library opened the doors to the second floor where guests will find a playful, interactive space that promotes learning and literacy. The museum will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday at the Biane Library at Victoria Gardens, 12505 Cultural Center Drive. According to Library Director Robert Karatsu, incorporating this museum into the community allows for it to reach the littlest ones.
The themes will change at the children’s museum every nine months to correspond to the new literary concepts. The first design pushed forward was a space theme with hands-on activities that led to discovering space and exploring the solar system. Per the museum’s website, some activities that children can partake in include working together to build a satellite, engineer stomp rockets, and discover distant galaxies with giant kaleidoscopes. There is also an area called the Adventure Zone, which is a pretend play station where children can dress up like astronauts on a space mission. Other areas that are included are a climbing wall, a digital art space, and a sensory room.
This is something that started as an idea over 10 years to complete but the biggest question has been why?
The idea came into existence over 10 years ago, but the project has been broken down into phases. The first phase is the 13,500 square feet of space that includes an early-learning space, art room, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics lab and classroom. The original grand opening date was supposed to be October 2023 but construction complications involving the installation of a modern elevator in a shaft built over a decade ago caused this project to come to a halt.
Rancho Cucamonga’s Assistant Library Director Brian Sternberg said that they had to go back to the drawing board to work through some of the design challenges to see how they could build the elevator most properly and safely possible. Although this project took a little longer, Sternberg mentioned that the delay gave them more time to further develop what the programming was going to look like.
Another factor in the delay of the second story children’s museum was the financial aspect. The first phase of the museum cost about $2.2 million which was funded by the Library Reserve. The library department also received three grants from the California State Library, Southern California Edison, and the Gas Company for over $70,000 which would make it a no-cost or low-cost to the public. The project also received a $1 million donation from NASA that came to the library in March 2022 to aid in their first theme being space-related. There was also funding from San Bernardino County Supervisor 2nd District and Randall Lewis.
The long-awaited children’s museum located in Rancho Cucamonga is now open after over a decade of designing, planning, and finding the proper funding. This new endeavor is something that will benefit many children. Although it is now open to the public, ideas like this should take priority over other ideas because it is the children who will one day lead the way. Many children share disparities in having access to education or are given very minimal educational experiences.
More information can be found at https://www.secondstoryandbeyond.org/tickets where general admission, field trip, and membership prices are listed. The website also provides a monthly calendar that includes days of operation and time.
