Stay curious: SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity opens along Sacramento riverfront
The SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, an interactive and exploratory STEM celebration in Sacramento’s River District, has at last opened its doors.
State and city government leaders christened the state-of-the-art center, also known as MOSAC, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning, one day before its public grand opening.
“As I stand here, I look around and here are the voices I hear: ‘I want to be an astronaut,’” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “‘I want to be an inventor. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a scientist. I want to fix the planet.’”
Steinberg and others spoke to the importance of fostering scientific interest, particularly as the world faces a climate crisis and remains entrenched in a pandemic.
“We need to be educating the future innovators who are gonna help solve these problems,” said Michele Wong, the museum’s executive director. “Not just things like the pandemic and climate change, but how to feed the world. How to do things more sustainably.”
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District earlier this year announced plans to transition to zero-carbon status by 2030. CEO Paul Lau said MOSAC is the first building SMUD has attached its name to, other than one of its own, and that he could think of nothing more fitting than a science museum to be the first.
“Science and curiosity have taken a few punches lately,” said Rob Kerth, a member of SMUD’s board of directors. “And it’s time to start a next round to remind people just how desperately we need science and curiosity as time goes forward.”
Wong announced Friday that MOSAC has submitted for LEED Platinum certification, the highest accreditation given for sustainable construction by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
The $83 million museum is a public-private partnership between the city, the state, the county’s education office, Powerhouse Science Center and SMUD, which secured naming rights in 2020.
UC Davis, another partner, will work closely on exhibits and educational courses. The university also has naming rights to the museum’s 120-seat UC Davis Multiverse Theater, and will name a planned health gallery featuring exhibits centered on technology in medicine.
Stakeholders also pointed to MOSAC as an important step in revitalizing Sacramento’s riverfront and nearby downtown railyard areas, helping it become a more attractive economic hub.
“It’s gonna be the jewel of the region,” said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento.
The new museum replaces the much smaller science center on Auburn Boulevard near Del Paso Regional Park, now closed.
Local leaders also praised MOSAC as a testament to perseverance. Steinberg noted that plans for the museum have been in the works since around 2005, more than a decade before his tenure as mayor.
The concept persisted through the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic to become a reality. The MOSAC building itself was converted from an old powerhouse built in 1912 that’s been vacant for more than a half-century. The museum was designed by Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture and built by Otto Construction of Sacramento.
The 50,000-square-foot “exploratorium”-style museum includes upstairs and downstairs galleries housing interactive exhibits, each focused on an area of science or technology. Areas include health innovations, nature, water, energy and climate, space exploration and astronomy, robotics and engineering.
Wong told The Bee her favorite exhibit is one intended for young children called “Nature Detectives,” an interactive gallery with live creatures including a beehive.
“It’s just about exploring — using all of your five senses to explore the world around you.”
If you go
General admission tickets range from $12 for children to $15 for adults, and are available at visitmosac.org.
MOSAC uses timed ticketing and has limited capacity, so the museum recommends guests reserve tickets in advance.
MOSAC is open to the general public daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will be closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 4:00 PM.
