• By ED CULLEN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 20, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Whether flying an airliner over Dalrymple Drive, piloting a riverboat on the Mississippi or doing a stand-up comedy routine, young visitors to a children’s museum in City Park will be in a place ranked among the best in the United States, say planners of Knock Knock Children’s Museum.

About the size of the Kohl Children’s Museum in Chicago, the 30,000- to 35,000-square-foot educational play land will cost $7 million to build, $3 million to furnish with exhibits and $1 million a year to operate, said Kelli Stevens, the 41-year-old mother of two children whose public affairs work has included the Children’s Museum of Houston.

Kohl is 46,000 square feet, but much of that is in office space. Kohl’s 18,000 square feet of exhibit space is roughly the same as the proposed Knock Knock’s.

“(State) Sen. William Cassidy put $250,000 in House Bill 1 for planning, if the governor signs it,” Stevens said.

The museum was among the items in the bill that Gov. Jindal vetoed.

“If we don’t get the $250,000, we will apply next year, but we will continue moving forward,” Stevens said. “We’re about to launch the capital campaign anyway. The $250,000 would have been welcomed.”

Stevens is optimistic that a capital campaign, which begins this fall, can raise the money needed within two years. In addition to the land, BREC Supt. Bill Palmer said he hopes the recreation and park commission will make a “substantial contribution” to the museum.

“We’ve got the lawyers working on it,” Palmer said. “We’re looking into it. We believe they’ve done their homework.”

The proposed museum’s board of directors, which is chaired by Stevens, includes a registered nurse, early childhood development consultant, a lawyer, a volunteer fundraising consultant, business people and community volunteers.

“We’re optimistic because talking to potential donors and philanthropists we have strong indications that they want to support this,” Stevens said.

The proposed museum’s design firm, Haizlip Studio of Memphis, interviewed 120 people in nine parishes about what they’d want in a children’s museum. The people interviewed included an ethnic mix of teachers, child-care professionals, business leaders, parents and grandparents.

“There’s a disparity in school entrance skills among children in this area,” said Emily Smith, 55, who has three children and is about to become a grandmother. Smith is an early childhood education consultant and a volunteer on the Knock Knock project. Among children from poor families, but not exclusively low-income children, there’s a limited knowledge of the world outside their neighborhood, Smith said.

“The museum will be a field day destination for low-income children, but it will attract professionals who are looking for this kind of thing for their children.”