The Oregon Center for Creative Learning (OCCL) which operates the Southern Oregon Children’s Museum is getting $1.5 million in support for their expansion into the former Mail Tribune building in Downtown Medford.
The Medford Urban Renewal Agency held a signing ceremony on April 14 for the funding. There will be nine additional preschool classrooms, therapy and sensory rooms, a workforce training space, an outdoor play space, a rooftop and community area and more. Being an old newsroom, the old Mail Tribune building also offers a production space, where educational and promotional content can be made.
During a press conference MURA Chair and Medford City Councilor Kevin Stine said the city supports the ongoing work of OCCL which provides needed childcare and early childhood education for the community.
Executive Director Sunny Spicer said she and staff and participants at The Children’s Museum love their current home at the Carnegie Building, but an expansion is necessary.
“We have been bursting at the seams since before we even moved in there, we don’t have room for staff, we don’t have enough space for families that want to be there. We have a wait list that is at least 300 families long since the day that we’ve been there. And we found this building and it has worked out kind of perfectly,” said Spicer.
Spicer said it’s convenient to have both buildings so close together and they are hoping to welcome families in the new building in about a year.