The Da Vinci Science Center is thriving in its new home in downtown Allentown.

“The new 75,000-square-foot facility has three times the exhibition space of the old facility,” says Tamara Krizeck, director of marketing and sales for the Da Vinci Center. “We have had to hire a lot of new staff, about 40 full-time.”

Krizeck says the center had outgrown its previous facility near Cedar Crest College.

“We worked with the City of Allentown and found the Downtown Allentown Business Alliance (downtownallentown.com) to be a tremendous audience,” Krizeck says.

Increased space is not the only change for the new facility at the PPL Pavilion on Hamilton Street.

“We’ve had a shift from attendance at the old facility, where attendance was mostly elementary school age,” Krizeck says. “There has been a surge in the middle and high school age group. We are also seeing more visitors from outside the Lehigh Valley.”

A partnership with the Allentown School District provides dedicated classroom space inside the Da Vinci Center for ASD science classes to meet. Currently, secondary schools use the space on a rotating basis, while students from Central Elementary, the local school, walk to the Da Vinci Center regularly for their science instruction.

The partnership also provides free family memberships to the DaVinci Center for all families that have a student registered in the ASD. Families can activate the membership, by stopping at the Welcome Center in the Da Vinci Center. Questions about membership can be emailed to ASDmember@davincicenter.org.

The Da Vinci Center also has a program called Access for All, providing discounts on visits and memberships to SNAP, TANF, WIC, EBT and Access cardholders.

Coming this summer, Mission Astronaut will enable visitors to experience a day in the life of an astronaut. Next fall, the center hosts the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Exhibition, a touring exhibit currently at the Indiana Children’s Museum.

The Da Vinci Center also hosts the Little Learners Lab, with drop in hours for adults with preschool age children. Please check the DaVinci Center website, davincisciencecenter.org for all programming information and upcoming events.

The Da Vinci Center is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed most Mondays.