Five years after the WONDERtorium closed, a new effort is building Stillwater's next children's museum
StillWonder's free spring pop-up series kicked off March 5 — and its roots trace directly back to the museum that came before it
A 3-year-old colored in a paper flower Thursday at Stonecloud Patio & Taproom while the adults around him worked to bring back something Stillwater hasn't had in five years: a children's museum.
StillWonder, a nonprofit founded in 2023 to fill the void left by the Oklahoma WONDERtorium, hosted the first of three "Spring into StillWonder" pop-up learning events Thursday, March 5, at the taproom. The free events use hands-on STEAM activities — science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics — to demonstrate community demand as the organization pursues grants and a permanent location.
The WONDERtorium opened in October 2011 at 308 W. Franklin Lane after a decade-long effort led by Stillwater mothers Dena Cornforth and Kandi Speer, who founded the nonprofit in 2001. The children's museum offered 10,000 square feet of interactive exhibits and drew more than 325,000 visitors over nine years. Its outreach programs reached more than 10,000 children in rural Oklahoma. The museum closed Dec. 31, 2020. Executive Director Gay Washington announced in late 2020 that the organization was suspending its capital campaign and discontinuing operations — a decision that came as the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the in-person attendance and community fundraising a small nonprofit children's museum depends on.
In its final act, the WONDERtorium board donated its remaining funds to The Botanic Garden at OSU to support a Horticulture Education Center — a last bid to keep its youth education mission alive. That gift now anchors StillWonder's flagship programming, a thread of continuity that Sara Brown finds meaningful.
"One of the reasons we moved here was because the Wondertorium existed," said Brown, StillWonder's volunteer executive director. "When we were choosing a place to live, the fact that it had a children's museum here and we had a three-month-old, it was perfect."
Brown arrived after the WONDERtorium had already closed, so she never experienced it firsthand. That absence, she said, is exactly what drove her to start StillWonder.
Without a permanent location, the organization runs free pop-up events to build the case for one. Our Daily Bread, a regional food and resource center in Stillwater, partnered with StillWonder for the March 5 event, teaching children how to sow sunflower seeds and sending them home with marigold seeds to plant themselves.
"I love seeing kids be excited about plants," said Jess Richmond, garden manager at Our Daily Bread. "I think most kids enjoy an excuse to put their hands in the soil and play around in the dirt."
StillWonder's "Future First Responders" event at the Horticulture Education Center at The Botanic Garden at OSU gave children ages 3–10 a hands-on introduction to lifesaving skills — practicing basic first aid, exploring bone models and clay at a skeleton station, learning proper handwashing technique, and dressing up as firefighters and medics. The event is part of StillWonder's monthly pop-up series held the fourth Saturday of each month at the Botanic Garden, where interactive STEAM activities are designed to build curiosity, confidence, and community.
For Seth Bays Sr., the event carried its own layer of continuity. He used to volunteer at the WONDERtorium and was quick to sign on when he heard what StillWonder was trying to build.
"It was a cool spot, so they want to do like, 2.0? I'm down for that," Bays said. "I would reckon most Stillwater people that are by Stillwater, for Stillwater would feel similarly."
His son, Seth Bays Jr., was the 3-year-old coloring the paper flower.
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The Botanic Garden partnership has also drawn in OSU senior Samantha Heath, who began volunteering in October 2024 and later secured an internship with the organization. She said she plans to stay involved after graduation.
"I believe so much in this, and I believe it's so needed in this community," Heath said. "I think it is really necessary, and I want to help in any way I can to make it happen."
Art runs through StillWonder's programming alongside the science and engineering. The organization has partnered with the Stillwater Public Arts Program, which recently ran a citywide electrical box art competition, and Brown said creative thinking is core to the mission.
"It's where we just build our brains to think differently," Brown said.
The next two spring pop-ups will feature partnerships with Prairie Arts Center and the OSU Museum of Art. The April 9 event and the May 14 finale are both scheduled at Stonecloud Patio & Taproom in Stillwater.
Harris Adams, a supervisor at Stonecloud, said the brewery hosts events like this for the same reason StillWonder runs them.
"I think that is essential for community development and growth, and especially keeping the community together," Adams said. "We're excited to see what the future holds."
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