After nearly four decades of inspiring young minds, Great Explorations Children’s Museum is dreaming bigger.

The beloved St. Petersburg institution, located at 1925 4th Street North next to Sunken Gardens, is searching for a larger home to keep pace with its expanding programs, growing preschool, and community impact.

Founded in 1986 as The Hands-On Museum, Great Explorations has evolved into a 24,000-square-foot center for imagination and discovery.

Children can shop in a mini grocery store, role-play as doctors, build, tinker, and experiment, all while learning through play.

In 2013, Angeline Howell joined the museum as its CEO.

A year later, the museum became the first mid-sized children’s museum in the country to earn accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, an honor that few children’s museums have achieved.

But as the museum’s reach and preschool enrollment continue to grow, so has its need for space.

“We love this current location, but we have outgrown it. Our preschool alone has a waitlist of 300 kids,” said CEO Angeline Howell in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

The first step in the museum’s growth is creating a Discovery Center, a new space where kids can explore STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) through hands-on learning.

Howell envisions the center as a space where children of all ages can explore, question, and build confidence through interactive experiences.

For younger visitors, exhibits would emphasize imaginative play and problem-solving. For older students, programming would lean toward career exploration with experiences in chemistry, space, architecture, robotics, and 3D printing.

“We would first need to find a building to open a discovery center, as kids truly learn through hands-on education,” Howell explained. “The vision is to keep the preschool and museum here [on 4th Street North] until we can eventually move everything to the larger location.”

Ideally, the discovery center would encompass at least 10,000 square feet with room to grow into a larger campus over time.

Since opening nearly 40 years ago, Great Explorations has moved several times, from its original site on 4th Street South in 1987 to the St. Pete Pier in 1998, and finally to its current home on 4th Street North in 2003.

In 2007, it became the first children’s museum in the nation to establish an on-site preschool, which served 28 students in its first year and has grown exponentially since.

City leaders recently praised the museum’s contributions during a St. Petersburg City Council meeting.

Council Chair Copley Gerdes said he’s continually impressed by the museum’s ability to evolve while maintaining its wonder for kids of all ages.

“Whether my children are two or now eight, they are just as excited as they were the first day they ran into Great Ex,” Gerdes said. “I’m so thankful we have such a cool thing like Great Ex in St. Pete.”

Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz called the museum “a jewel in our city”.

She suggested that a future Discovery Center could be incorporated into the city’s plan for the Historic Gas Plant District in downtown St. Pete, noting that “these are the types of things that make sense in a city that is growing.”

While the vision is clear, finding the right home for the Discovery Center poses a financial challenge.

“It’s difficult as a nonprofit to look at buildings that are priced from $5 million to $10 million,” Howell noted. “That’s something we can’t afford. We would have to launch a capital campaign to acquire the building and for interior buildout.”

The museum has already taken steps toward its future.

When a children’s discovery center outside Chicago closed, Great Explorations acquired a collection of science-based exhibits, now in storage, waiting for their new home.

For now, Great Explorations remains as imaginative as ever.

The museum continues to introduce new exhibits and partnerships, such as a recent collaboration with Tampa Bay Water to teach children how wetlands filter and protect the region’s aquifer.

On December 31st, Great Ex will host its annual New Year’s at Noon celebration, where kids can make their own party hats and noisemakers before heading to the disco dance room to show off their moves. The countdown to noon ends with a burst of confetti canons.

The museum is open Monday, Wednesday through Saturday from 10:30 am to 4 pm, Sunday from 12 pm to 4 pm, and closed on Tuesday.

Visitors can learn more by visiting Great Explorations’ website or following them on Facebook and Instagram for updates.