By Serena Guentz,

Noozhawk Staff Writer

The Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum broke ground on its future site in Buellton on Oct. 7 in a groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting event, with the goal of opening in summer 2022. 

Founder Ashley Jenkins has been working toward this point, and toward the opening of the outdoor museum, for about four years. To build awareness of the project, the museum held free monthly Discovery Days for children and families last summer at the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden, with activities such as building fairy homes, making adobe bricks or playing with bubbles. 

“It is so magical seeing [the museum] come together,” Jenkins said.

The Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum will be almost entirely outdoors, with several sensory-based activities for children of all ages and all abilities.

“One of the reasons I’m so passionate about the museum and decided to hop on board was the goal of accessibility to every family and child in the community,” board member and volunteer Gerri Massey said. “Not just the child who doesn’t have any needs, but children that have a variety of needs and families, too, that have needs. There will be wheelchair accessibility, bathrooms will have handicap accessibility, and that is something I think is so important and needed in this community.”

The site plan diagram for the future Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum.

The museum has a fundraising goal of $1.5 million for construction costs and to fund the first year of operation, and it already has the support of several city organizations, such as the Buellton City Council, the Buellton Chamber of Commerce, the City of Buellton Arts & Culture Committee and many more, along with at least 29 individuals and families, according to a list of donors that was on display during Thursday’s event.

The children’s museum also was granted the land for its site, which is on the former Willemsen property, from the City of Buellton. 

The museum has received about $41,000 in monetary and in-kind donations and is awaiting approval for three grants that could total another $400,000, Jenkins said.

Jenkins said an art piece will be installed at the museum commemorating each donor. She said the piece will include a field of sunflowers, with each petal dedicated to the name of a donor.

“We are excited to have so much momentum this early on in our development, and it would not be possible without the contribution of so much time, talent and resources from our community,” said Carolyn Dorwin, program director for the Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum.

The groundbreaking event included a tour of the site as volunteers described the different features that will be built in each area.

The children’s museum will be built in three phases, with the goal of having all programs running by the third year.

The first phase will develop the top portion of the property, with a key exhibit being a recirculating water feature with a shallow wading area.

“One of our cornerstone exhibits that we’re going to put in is this rain gazebo that will have a little riverbed flowing to a small pond, and then it’s going to cycle the water back,” Dorwin said. “It will replicate the water cycle for kids.”

Other features in the first phase include a native plant and herb garden, culturally themed playhouses, a mud kitchen, a spare parts play station and a mini Tonka Truck zone.

In the first phase will also be one of the only interior structures in the museum that will be used for a reading zone and rotating activity tables. The other interior structure will be a small office and check-in kiosk.  

The second phase will develop the lower portion, with slides going down the slope and climbing stations to get back up the hill, as well as more playhouses.

The third phase will develop any more land on the lower portion and have all programs running, with the possibility of creating a curriculum for school field trips.

The Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum also will include a pre-teen and teen program in the evenings, with less structure and more of a safe space for them to hang out, watch movies or create clubs.

Jenkins said the teen and pre-teen program hopefully will start with a couple of nights each week.

“We’ll be providing that safe space for them to just ignite their curiosity,” Jenkins said.

She added that the museum will provide a club system and structure; however, it will allow the older children to drive the focus of the clubs.

The Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum will be located at 202 Dairyland Road in Buellton and aims to open with the completion of the first phase in summer 2022.

More information, including information about donating and supporting the museum, can be found on its website at syvchildrensmuseum.com/.

“It’s coming to life,” Jenkins said. “It’s really exciting.”

Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com.

The post SYV Children’s Museum breaks ground, aiming to open next summer appeared first on Santa Ynez Valley Star.

By Serena Guentz

Contributing Writer

Over the last four years, Ashley Jenkins has set out to open the Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum, an outdoor museum that will allow children and families to learn and play together.

Jenkins, executive director for the children’s museum, is a local mother of three boys who she describes as “high energy.” She also used to teach at Acorn Village Forest School, an outdoor preschool and kindergarten program in the Santa Ynez Valley.

About four years ago, Jenkins noticed that there wasn’t much to do around Buellton, particularly when it comes to outdoor spaces suitable for young children.

“The accessibility to nature is something that historically people are privileged to have,” Jenkins said. “We’re wanting to create a small, accessible version so that anybody from the community that speaks any language, of any ability, gets to come play outdoors.”

The children’s museum will be almost entirely outdoors, with all sensory-based features.

Jenkins said that a water feature will be included with a gazebo, which will periodically produce a rainstorm with thunder and water falling to flood a small water basin. The water basin will create a shallow river that children can wade and float boats in.

Another feature of the museum will be playhouses themed to different cultures found throughout the valley, such as a cowboy-themed house and a Danish-themed house.

The children’s museum will also include rotating science and art exhibits, as well as slides, climbing stations and a community garden.

“It’s all getting kids and their families and their caregivers and schools out in nature touching things, doing things, manipulating things, learning by doing,” Jenkins said.

While the children’s museum was originally intended to be targeted toward children, Jenkins said that she has recently begun considering how to use the space for pre-teen and teen programs in the evenings.

“It’s going to be less arts-and-craftsy and less directed and more like an open, safe space for them to hang out,” Jenkins said, mentioning that this could allow older children and teenagers to use the space and create their own clubs.

Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in July 2020 and its search for its own permanent location has apparently been successful.

During the special May 15 Buellton City Council meeting, the children’s museum requested part of the Willemsen property, which the City of Buellton purchased last May, for its outdoor location.

Buellton Mayor Holly Sierra said at the meeting that having the children’s museum at that location seemed like a “no-brainer.” And, at the June 24 Buellton City Council meeting, the council voted in favor of granting a portion of the Willemsen property to the SYVCM.

During its effort to secure the location, the museum has been holding free activities for children the first Saturday of every month at the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden.

On Saturday, June 5, children and their families were invited to decorate and create fairy doors and gnome homes for a fairy village at the botanic garden. That event attracted about 180 people throughout the morning and over a dozen volunteers.

Future events include giant bubbles on July 3, paint and art in the garden on Aug. 7, and five senses exploration on Sept. 4.

“I think people are realizing magic is possible with your imagination,” said Legend James while making a gnome home with his son, Tristian, during the June event. “It’s good for the children to be out in nature.”

Jenkins said that she has encountered “overwhelming community support” and has formed partnerships with the Buellton Recreation Center and the City of Buellton.

The children’s museum also recently received a grant to fund its events from the Buellton Arts and Culture Committee.

“I’m a teacher so I want to support this as much as I can,” said Demory Fordyce, who attended the June event at the botanic garden with her two daughters, Drea and Demi. “I would love to have a children’s museum.”

The Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum hopes to create a space for all ages to play together in nature, from young children to parents and grandparents, as well as invite schools throughout the year to observe how the land changes over time.

Jenkins said that once a location is secured for the museum, the Santa Ynez Valley Children’s Museum will open in phases, with the aim of a soft opening of the first phase in May 2022.

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