Portland Museum

LOUISVILLE'S FIRST CHILDREN'S MUSEUM IS NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Make AHOY part of growing up in Louisville. 

YOUR FAMILY'S PLAY DATE WITH AHOY IS NEARLY HERE! A $20,000 lead gift is on it's way to support AHOY! This Give for Good Louisville, we're inviting you to build on that generosity. Your donation will help complete construction and create immersive, educational exhibits that spark curiosity, encourage play, and, most importantly, bring joy. Give what you can, and help open the doors for children and families across Louisville. 

The Portland Museum, a cornerstone of cultural heritage and education in Louisville's West End, is quickly approaching the opening of its long-awaited, ambitious project: AHOY - Adventure House of You. Earlier this year we alongside our partners at the Weber Group began restoring and expanding the long-abandoned Victorian mansion set to house AHOY, and every day since has been a tidal wave of progress! With your support, we're saving the historic charm of the house and preparing for it to be occupied by innovative, interactive exhibits grounded in our local history, such as:

Image by Wolfgang & Hite, Architecture and Exhibition Design

A room based around Devonian-era fossils, forever a part of our city's famous Falls of the Ohio! Imagine larger-than-life skeletons of the extinct creatures that long before us called Portland home, ceiling and walls covered in prehistoric flora, and a decommissioned fireplace with secrets inside waiting to be discovered!

Image by Wolfgang & Hite, Architecture and Exhibition DesignHow about a place where visiting children can become a part of the exhibit themselves? Look no further than our Squallis Puppeteers inspired theater room, where costumes, lights, props, and hand-painted backdrops will draw impromptu shows from the imagination of every child! Even those less inclined to perform will find avenues for fun in the always-open backstage.

Image by Wolfgang & Hite, Architecture and Exhibition Design

There's more to an adventure than just the destination though, simply moving from one of AHOY's rooms to another will bring with it its own challenges and surprises! To get to AHOY's second floor one could take the historic spiral staircase, or ride the ADA-accessible elevator, or vault from one floor to the next via a giant climbing net. Designed after our beautiful Ohio River, kids will be able to "swim" up its flowing curves and raging rapids as if ascending a waterfall!Image by Wolfgang & Hite, Architecture and Exhibition Design

Behind every door in AHOY will bring with it the start of a new journey, including ones into history! This is a children's museum after all, so expect educational objects and authentic artifacts to be weaved directly into the fabric of every exhibit. Kids will be able to get up-close-and-personal with pieces of our shared past and experience them in a more impactful and memorable way than from within the panels of a display case. Image by Wolfgang & Hite, Architecture and Exhibition Design

AHOY isn't all just hustle-and-bustle though, with the building's mezzanine set to be a space for kids to relax and reflect on everything they've experienced in the Adventure House of You. Cuddle up among a sleeping herd of life-sized plush American Bison, taking a break on their historic buffalo trace, and grab a book!

Image by Wolfgang & Hite, Architecture and Exhibition Design

After a refueling upstairs, the fun continues outside in AHOY's outdoor play-yard! Head down the steamboat-inspired staircase, make like a hamster inside the building's paddle wheel, then run your hands along the mosaic scales of our resident Tiktaalik! This isn't even to mention the restored historic shrimping boat kids will be able to climb aboard onto:

And believe it or not, this is just the beginning. There are even more rooms and surprises we've yet to share, and we can't wait for you and your family to experience them all once the doors to AHOY are open for all! We need your support to make that happen though, so please consider donating to Portland Museum this Give For Good! 

Want an even closer look at AHOY? Come visit Portland Museum on Saturday, September 26th for our Portland Art and Heritage Fair, where alongside live music, local vendors, and new exhibits we'll have areas of AHOY ready to be previewed, with help of course from Weber Group. Thank you for your support, and long live AHOY!