Carlson Educational Studio opens to help expand programs for Museum visitors

The Carlson Educational Studio, a multi-purpose facility at the Ontario Museum of History & Art, is now in full operation through funding provided by the volunteer Museum Associates.

Money raised by a successful Associates fundraiser six years ago honoring local builder and philanthropist Randall Lewis was directed to significantly upgrade the room that has been limited in its uses in the past.

The new room has a video screen, new tables and chairs, improved acoustics and a kitchen to support a variety of activities. Students and adults on the many tours to the Museum now have a comfortable place to do artwork there as well as hear presentations and learn about the facility’s many historic and artistic elements. It will also be open during special events at the Museum.

“This is a real upgrade for our Museum, an institution whose mission focuses on education,” explained Marissa Kucheck, director of the Museum. “It gives us our own space for lectures and talks as well as places for visitors to do artwork and other activities.”

“It is what has been needed for some time,” explained Associates President Cherry Dobbs. “A nice room, light and airy with good acoustics where we can celebrate so many activities and exhibits we have for visitors at the Museum.”

Dobbs is the presiding officer of the Associates board, the group of community volunteers who support the activities of the Museum, especially for its educational activities.

The room has been known as the Carlson Gallery since 1981 when it was planned to be a learning center dedicated to the late Elinore Carlson, an Ontario Realtor and original founding trustee of the Museum of History and Art, Ontario. Much of the funding for that room when it opened was provided by Carlson’s family following her death.

Interestingly, the Carlson family also provided the financial support for the nearby exhibit in the median of Euclid Avenue that recalls the city’s mule-powered trolley. It was sponsored in memory of their son Donald, who was killed in the Vietnam war.