Discovery Place

Educational programs, experiences and exhibits: Discovery Place, Inc. Operates four museums serving over 672,261 guests annually including nearly 95,400 through an economic accessibility program called the welcome program. Since 2019, we have grown the welcome program by 30,000 visits.significant progress was made on one capital facilities project in fiscal year 2023: the construction document phase was completed for the new Discovery Place nature facility scheduled to open in mid/late 2026. During fiscal year 2023, we recognized restricted contribution revenue related to the future construction of Discovery Place nature and incurred incremental expenses to support the development efforts of capital facilities projects. Additionally, Discovery Place invested in a renovation and upgrade of our imax theater which was completed in early 2023. These activities are reflected in the overall revenue and support. Marvel: universe of superheros: 24,466discovery Place opened marvel: universe of superheroes in may 2023. This is the first large scale traveling blockbuster exhibition hosted since 2018. Since it opened in may, we welcomed over 24,000 visitors to this show featuring original art, costumes, and artifacts from the marvel universe. Imax: 59,211in fiscal year 2023, Discovery Place operated the accenture imax dome theater featuring imax laser projection, a 12-channel sound system, and digistar 7 planetarium solution. This year the attendance more than doubled. The programming included first-run hollywood films, documentaries, and alternative content such as mesmerica. We continued to see these offerings attract new audiences, especially adults.outreach/youth development/summer camps/workshops: 65,999outreach and the digital studio programming served over 27,967 students in fiscal year 2023. Beyond school day programs, this was a strong year with multiple afterschool contracts allowing us to serve youth in our community with stem hands-on learning over multiple visits, which provides a deeper dive for students. Youth development programming in fiscal year 2023 included several programs targeting youth in middle - high school. The stem apprentice program was able to onboard 280 volunteers to assist with camp and museum programming, including 2 mayors youth employment interns. Girls day out successfully served 632 female students over 12 engagements through on-site programming focused on careers in stem. Club code offered 10 students the opportunity to build and code their own video game. Hackathon offered 45 middle school students the opportunity to build and program robots. Youth development served over 967 students during fy23. Lego Discovery through design programming included community outreach with community partners and their students, in addition to impacting visitors to Discovery Place museums. Through this grant 34,935 youth and 1,072 adults were served in the community outreach branch. Participants participated in professional development training, afterschool workshops, field trips to Discovery Place science and Discovery Place kids huntersville, and a culminating showcase. Summer camps served 1,058 children across three Discovery Place locations - science, nature and kids. It was another successful season of learning with weekly themes for children in prek-8th grade. Science on the rocks: 6,114in fiscal year 2023, Discovery Place relaunced science on the rocks in january 2023. This is a program designed for individuals 21+ years of age. Science on the rocks is an evening program which features access to museum exhibits, hands-on science experiences, live shows, live music, imax offerings, workshops, food and beverage and more. The event has allowed us to reach new adult audiences and has been sold out since its return.discovery Place kids special programming : 1,654in addition to our daily programming, both Discovery Place kids relaunched some of our signature events. These events include countdown to kindergarten and noon years eve. Countdown to the kindergarten is a kindergarten readiness event that occurs in partnership with our local school systems. It provides a great opportunity for our rising kindergarteners to meet their teachers and see a familiar face on the first day of school. Both Discovery Place kids locations were able to serve over 1,262 guests. Discovery Place kid-huntersville also launced a new sceince themed halloween event called ghouly gala. This inaugural event served 392 guests.