By Heather Matthews
Staff Writer

Michelle Carignan, left, and Karen McCormack will open the first children’s museum in the Concord area at the end of July. Carignan and McCormack said they wanted to create a place for children to learn through fun hands-on activities. (Mirror/Heather Matthews)

Pink, yellow, blue, green, violet. From the moment anyone steps over the small South Main Street location’s threshold, a brilliant array of colors and vibrant patterns enchant and mesmerize the visitors to the Kaleidoscope Children’s Museum.

The museum, set to open at the end of July, will celebrate its grand opening Aug. 4 to 6. It will be the first of its kind to the Concord area, helping local children learn about science, creativity and math concepts.

Karen McCormack and Michelle Carignan, mothers and New Hampshire-certified art teachers, created the museum after finding nothing in the area that allowed children to explore their creativity. The Kaleidoscope Museum will feature several hands-on exhibits to engage young learners.

“There’s nothing in the area that isn’t a scheduled class like dancing, swimming or tumbling,” Carignan said. “Well, there’s always the movies, but I didn’t want my daughter to learn from a screen. I want her to have hands-on, imaginative play ­ something that was more than, “These are the characters; this is the plot.”

While it had been a longtime dream of both women to build a location for children to enjoy learning, the project didn’t get set into motion until McCormack met Carignan and they realized they had the same plan.

“It’s been really great having the same creative vision and working together,” McCormack said. “We’ve been able to support each other and push each other through this.”

The two women started brainstorming right away, but it wasn’t until May that the pair found the perfect location ­ 8 S. Main St. ­ and the museum really got its start.

“We’ve been steamrolling our way through,” Carignan said.

Since then, in just two months, the women have gathered volunteers and hired a construction crew to create a magical world for youngsters, featuring a tree house, castle, pirate ship and fire truck, plus a miniature Main Street.

The Main Street exhibit includes a bakery in which children can learn about measurements and comparing and contrasting; a brick-oven pizzeria where they can learn about fractions; an automotive shop to learn about gears and cause and effect; a fire station for fire safety lessons; a vet’s office with pet X-rays to learn about anatomy; and a hair salon with a working hydraulic chair to teach children about sorting.

The museum’s Jamming Musical Tree House will store many rich, ethnic musical instruments that the children don’t have access to at home or school, including drums from Cuba and a baliphone, a type of bamboo xylophone.

In addition, the castle provides the museum’s visitors with a place to play dress-up and reenact their favorite fairy tales ­ either on the castle’s stage or in the puppet theater. There will also be a classroom area where McCormack and Carignan will teach art classes for summer camps, birthday parties and field trips to the museum.

While these are the permanent fixtures, Carignan and McCormack plan on constantly updating and changing as much as they can.

“We’re going to keep it fresh,” McCormack said. “We’re going to keep adding new things so the people who come in don’t get bored with it. We want them to be excited every time they come in.”

Working on a project like this, Carignan said, brings out their inner child, but organizing the museum in just a matter of two months has been a lot of hard work and long days.

“I’m even getting tired of shopping,” she said.

But the women haven’t been alone during the process, McCormack said. Many of their friends and family have volunteered to help make their dream a reality. Even their bank, community members, contractors and the floor tile installer have been there to push McCormack and Carignan when they felt exhausted.

“The people coming in and getting excited about what we are doing invigorate us,” Carignan said.

The community response to the museum has been overwhelming, McCormack said. Every day, people walking past the museum will pop their head in and ask when it’s going to open. The women have already scheduled three birthday parties, and they don’t even have a calendar in their office yet.

“We’re doing something good for the community,” McCormack said. “It’s just so energizing to know other people needed this, not just us.”

For more information, visitwww.kaleidoscopechildrensmuseum.net or call 229-4526.