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$500,000 gift to support Strong Museum of Play expansion

Rendering of Wolk Admission Area
museumofplay.org
Rendering of Wolk Admission Area

The Strong Museum of Play has received a $500,000 gift from the Louis S. and Molly B. Wolk Foundation.

It will help with the Strong's 90,000-square-foot expansion. The new guest admission area, part of a state-of-the-art welcome atrium, will be named the Wolk Admission Area.

Strong President and CEO Steve Dubnik said the atrium will serve as a gateway to all of the museum's exhibits, including a new high-adventure ropes course, and two large-scale exhibits focusing on the impact of video games.

“Strong Museum has an opportunity to grow our annual attendance from approximately 600,000 last year to a million, with many of those new visitors coming from out of state,” he said. “And the economic impact will be over $130 million annually to this community, which is many jobs across our entire geographic area."

The expansion will be the centerpiece of the all-new Neighborhood of Play, something the museum calls a world-class destination to live, work, dine, shop and play.

The Wolk Foundation, established in 1984, focuses its efforts on health care, education, culture and children's needs.

It distributes $1.5 million annually in Monroe County.