POCOMOKE – New leadership and exhibits and better organization are just a few of the changes visitors to the Delmarva Discovery Center and Museum can expect as 2015 begins.
The Discovery Center welcomed Stacey Weisner as its new executive director in November. The former director of the Delmarva Zoological Society already has a variety of ideas for the riverfront facility.
“There’s a lot of direction we can take it in to make it even better,” Weisner said.
Weisner said she was eager to join the staff at the Discovery Center, a place she admired for its array of interactive exhibits celebrating the Eastern Shore.
“It’s such a great resource,” she said. “It’s a remarkable place.”
The Discovery Center, which opened in 2009, is a 16,000-square-foot building full of exhibits depicting the human and natural history of Delmarva. The expansive building houses a 60-foot steamship, a 14-foot sailboat and a number of interactive displays illustrating the life of a waterman through the years. Visitors can also appreciate local wildlife with the life-sized beaver lodge, aquarium tanks and resident snapping turtle and bullfrog.
“Not many kids get to hold a bullfrog,” Weisner said.
She says she has spent the past two months at the Discovery Center working to improve efficiency. One of her first tasks was adding the word “museum” to the center’s name. She said the change made it easier to discern the facility from other non-profits and reflected its true purpose.
“We are a museum,” she said.
Weisner has also been working on developing a youth advisory committee for the Discovery Center. She has put together a group of children, ranging from kindergarten students to teenagers, that will meet monthly to share their thoughts on the facility and its exhibits.
“We want honest, critical feedback on how to make it better,” Weisner said. “We’re really looking forward to that.”
As for exhibits, Weisner said Discovery Center staff members were working on getting approval to bring a river otter to the facility.
“We think we’ve got a great opportunity to show off river otters in their natural environment,” she said.
Although that project is still underway, the Discovery Center will be hosting a free reptile festival on Feb. 21, sponsored by the Community Foundation.