Sydney Martinez, Campus Carrier news editor

The Children’s Museum of Rome, a separate entity from the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, is a nonprofit that began in June 2023 and is set to open in May 2026. The museum’s board leased a space in the Mount Berry Mall in late September and celebrated the beginning of the museum’s construction with a “construction commencement” event on Nov. 14.

“We were able to walk people who attended [the event] through the space to kind of say ‘this is where our healthcare exhibit will be, there is where the classroom will be,’” Jenna Bosarge (14C) president of the Children’s Museum of Rome said. “[The event] was really to give people the interactive experience of what we’re starting to build.” 

A local children’s museum in Florida inspired the idea of founding a similar museum for the kids of Rome and the surrounding area.

“We were visiting family in Florida and went to a children’s museum that highlighted the businesses in that community,” Bosarge said in a post on Facebook.  “It was amazing to see our girls interact with the exhibits and really get a hands-on learning experience.” 

So far, the museum has raised $167,000 with 445 supporters and 11 fundraisers.

The Children’s Museum of Rome is targeted to children ages two to 12 and will offer a variety of programs that will change monthly or quarterly.

“We’re going to have programming that changes maybe monthly or quarterly where we offer different things that will be targeted at certain age groups,” Bosarge said. “We’ll have [kids] that range from eight to 12 where they’re not as into imaginative play as seven and under.”

Bosarge said that a few of their programs and exhibits will include stations that mimic jobs to introduce children to careers they could become interested in.

“We are filling that space full of community-based exhibits, so there will be a wellness wing where there’s healthcare exhibits and dental exhibits, different things relating to wellness,” Bosarge said.

The mission of the museum is to provide “a hands-on learning environment where families can learn, grow and explore together,” according to their website.

“Our core values include interactive play, community partnership, educational environment and being accessible to children of all abilities, because we believe that those values are very important to us and the facility that we are building,” Bosarge said. 

The museum has partnered with community groups and will continue doing so once they open their location. They recently partnered with Junior Service League and Noon 
Optimist Club.

“Some of the Rome City Schools College and Career [Academy] students are helping us with some of the different elements that we’ll have in the exhibits,” Bosarge said.

With fundraisers, percentage nights at restaurants and the help of local community members’ donations, the Children’s Museum of Rome was able to rent a 7,000 square-foot space in the Mount Berry Mall that will be the future, and temporary, location of their museum. 

Bosarge and her team have raised funds to rent their location within the mall through a multitude of partnered community events. Their largest fundraiser to date was their “Touch-a-Truck” event. Kids were invited to touch fire and construction trucks and approximately 750 people from the Rome community attended.

As the Children’s Museum of Rome continues to grow and raise more funds, the executive members hope to be able to move to a larger location.

“The dream is to have a freestanding building, like other museums,” Bosarge said. “Like the Children’s Museum of Atlanta and the Chattanooga Creative Discovery Museum.”

Bosarge said the board toured various locations and found the Mount Berry mall property group helpful and open to working with a children’s museum. 

“We, as a board, toured various locations,” Bosarge said. “The mall property group was really willing to work with us.”

Bosarge said that the mall is a great starting opportunity for the museum because of its location with plenty of space inside. The mall also has plenty of parking for large groups to visit.

“[The Board] thought that it’s a good fit right now for us as we’re growing into a bigger organization,” Bosarge said. “Schools go [to the mall] on field trips all the time right now, so we thought that would be a great space.”

Bosarge said the museum will always need help from volunteers to run the exhibits or join them for community events, something Berry students can help with.“We are always looking for volunteers,” Bosarge said. “We do a lot of community events, so we’re always looking for volunteers for that. Once we open the location, we will be looking for volunteers for the staff, as well as some paid positions too.”