Thanks to collaborations with other museums and science centers like San Francisco’s Exploratorium, the Museum began offering large, world-class traveling exhibits that open visitors to new worlds of learning. Static displays were replaced by interactive, hands-on exhibits like DinoDig®, ExploraZone® and KIDSPACE®.
As a result, the Museum’s popularity has increased dramatically. Attendance nears 1 million annually. But five decades of service has taken its toll on the Montgomery Street building, and the Museum continually needs more space and facilities to meet demand. Thus, in May 2006, the Museum unveiled plans for its new building: an innovative work of architecture that blends with neighboring institutions and features a sweeping plaza and campus-like environment at the south end of the Cultural District. The new building will face the Will Rogers Memorial Center to the east and opens onto a broad plaza that will connect the museum more closely to its neighbors, both the Will Rogers Center and, in particular, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.
Construction began in the fall of 2007. The Omni Theater is back, better and brighter than ever! Museum School continues to offer its stellar learning programs for children in a temporary village just south of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, thanks to a generous loan of portable buildings from the Fort Worth Independent School District.
