Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — June 6, 2025 — The future Northeast Arkansas Children’s Museum (NEACM) shared a behind-the-scenes look at the project on Thursday afternoon during a community feedback meeting at the City of Jonesboro Municipal Center.

NEACM board president Jordan Carlow said the project was founded in late November of 2023 by her and NEACM board secretary Kristen Amick. NEACM will be designed with local interests in mind for children to have a space to learn and play.

Over the past 14–16 weeks, the NEACM Board partnered with the Roto Group, an exhibit design-build firm, to bring their vision of the museum to life. This phase included meetings and creative workshops, goals and vision development for the museum, space planning, initial exhibit renderings and a detailed cost analysis for the exhibits.

“We wanted to take some elements that we knew were going to be important and really vital for kids to learn about, such as our ‘Health Carnival and Brain Boost,'” Carlow said. “That’s a human body climber that’s going to be one-and-a-half to two stories high. Kids can climb inside the [human] body. When they climb past the heart, they’re going to hear the heart beating and slide down an artery. It will let the kids get inside.”

“Then, weather is obviously a hot topic here and [in the ‘Windy Wonders’ exhibit] they can stand inside of a tornado,” Carlow continued. “What we really wanted to do is bring in some education about it and take some of the fear out of it. When we were talking about the weather exhibits, that was a high priority.”

Other potential exhibits include:

  • ‘Woods and Wetlands,’ to feature sensory bins, rubbings, microscopes, footprint identification, and light tables.
  • ‘Arkansas Agriculture,’ to feature planting and harvesting, combines and tractors, and threshing and milling.
  • ‘Little Wonders,’ to feature soft spaces, busy walls, a cause-and-effect station, and plop zones.
  • ‘The Factory,’ to feature a section designed for working together, climbing, manufacturing, and a pretend play area.
  • ‘Wonder State,’ to feature a dress-up section, sorting and stacking, a pretend play area, and a hidden surprises area.
  • ‘Soft Spot,’ a feature as a vortex wall, bubble tubes, mirrors and effects, and a color wall.

Carlow said the building will include a “flex space,” which would be a large room used for summer camps, volunteer-led experiences and programs, and school groups, and more. It would accommodate any other activities the museum might need.

The facility itself will be around 20,000 square feet. Although a museum budget is in mind, Carlow said factors such as the exhibits not existing yet, make it too early to annouce anything concrete.

The museum’s location has been narrowed down to two possibly properties, of which Carlow said she hopes to finalize and announce one within the next one to two months.

“What we’re trying to gain from the community feedback meeting is to make sure that we hit all the elements that we think that our community wants to see, and then we’re able to make any tweaks before we go into our fundraising stage,” Carlow said. “We’re very intentional that we want to make sure we have visuals and renderings before we get into any sponsorship conversations because we want people to see exactly that they’re going to be funding.”

Once enough funding is received to begin the project, construction will take about two to three years, Carlow said.

A feasibility study, which showed positive results for the need of the museum in Northeast Arkansas, was funded through a $15,000 grant from the Department of Arkansas Tourism, which was matched by a grant from the City of Jonesboro A&P Commission. NEACM also received an $80,000 donation from Jonesboro Unlimited.

For more information the museum or to make a donation, click here. Those interested in sponsoring the museum can email neachildrensmuseum.org.