Western Virginia Foundation for the Arts and Scien, 1 Market Sq SE, Roanoke, VA 24011, US

HistoryThe Museum was created in 1970 by a small group of teachers and community volunteers that recognized the need for an informal educational facility to motivate and assist students in learning about science, especially the natural sciences. This group secured a small amount of space in a multi-cultural building in a residential neighborhood called South Roanoke and soon set about collecting and exhibiting specimens, mostly in a diorama format. The second phase of the Museum's history began in the late 1970's when the city of Roanoke and a small group of civic leaders considered reviving Roanoke's downtown market district--which had succumbed to urban blight--by renovating a large five-story warehouse as a multi-cultural center. When it opened at Center in the Square in 1983, the Museum featured professionally designed and fabricated galleries and has continued to grow and change through the years.SpecialtiesThe Science Museum of Western Virginia specializes in offering visitors the chance to explore STEM subjects through interaction and creativity. Our mission is to inspire a curiosity in a subject that creates a desire to learn more, and for our younger visitors to follow a promising career path that excites them. Southwest Virginia is home to many institutions that develop innovative research every day, and the Science Museum of Western Virginia offers a public platform the 36,000 students who come through our doors to experience this research. The museum boasts 12 hands-on exhibits, including the newly renovated Hidden Garden that focuses on Food Science and Horticulture and different methods of growing edible produce.