Refreshed and Refurbished: Phelps Youth Pavilion Open During Busy Summer Months | Local News
WATERLOO – With loud mechanical noises and a few thuds, the floor of the time machine rises, shakes and lowers.
Time travelers step out from behind the curtain and find themselves “transported” from the 21st century Phelps Youth Pavilion to ancient Egypt. Here they can send secret messages in hieroglyphs and learn to weave on a loom.
A short distance away, children romp and stom in “Dinosaur Ruckus”, explore prehistoric Earth through various activities including art projects, and marvel at real fossils on display. Elsewhere in the pavilion, children laugh and shout at each other as they climb up and down the two-story Phelps PlayScape, a climbing structure – always a hit with young visitors.
Ariana Osland, 8, drives a tractor simulator at the newly reopened Phelps Playscape at the Waterloo Center for the Arts in May.
Chris Zoeller
This summer promises to be busy at the Phelps Youth Pavilion.
After being closed for 15 months during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a welcome change, said Kent Shankle, executive director of the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Although there is still ongoing construction and exterior upgrades outside its front doors, the facility is now fully open to the public.
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Phelps Playscape reopened earlier this spring and the “Dinosaur Ruckus” exhibit, which had just opened when COVID hit, is finally reaching its audience.
“No one wanted or expected to be closed for 15 months, but we decided to take the opportunity to evaluate our exhibits and make updates and repairs and change or swap less popular exhibits. Some of the older exhibits weren’t as polished as we would like, so we took the opportunity,” he said.
Kent Shankle, Executive Director of the Waterloo Center for the Arts, stands next to the Hieroglyphics activity at the newly reopened Phelps Playscape in May.
Chris Zoeller
“We wanted to give the kids something new, fun and refreshed when they return to the Pavilion.”
Caylin Graham, manager of Phelps Youth Pavilion, said the variety of updates and repairs required would not have been possible during normal hours. There are around 40 hands-on exhibits, plus activities ranging from drawing and painting to high-tech adventures and gallery exhibits designed to spark kids’ creativity and imagination. “It’s hard to close or separate areas to make these kinds of changes with kids coming in,” she explained.
A talented artist, Graham has also brought out her paints and brushes to create new murals for several exhibitions. The Pavilion’s beloved Tap-Tap Taxi, which gives visitors the experience of riding down a bumpy Haitian street, has also had a facelift.
“Children love the taxi and it is used a lot. I thought it needed repainting and decided to amp up the colors,” Graham said.
A section of the pavilion rooted in Iowa agriculture has also been refreshed. There’s a tractor kids can ride on and take a virtual spin through a Grant Wood landscape, a chicken coop to collect and count eggs, a one-room schoolhouse, and a red barn where kids can ‘milk’ the cow – another delight for the public.
“We wanted the exhibits to be more authentic,” Shankle said. In addition, a classroom where customers can hold children’s birthday parties has been dug into the digital art studio.

Large bongos will be part of the new musical instrument park that will be installed outside the Phelps Youth Pavilion this summer.
COURTESY PHOTO
Later this summer, several Kaleidoscope Planter sculptures by RC Anderson and a musical instrument park will be installed in the plaza outside the pavilion. “We wanted to take the Youth Pavilion experience outdoors,” Shankle explained. Interactive, perfectly tuned sound instruments will allow people to create hands-on musical experiences, including larger-than-life bongos, cymbals, bells, and glockenspiel.
The pavilion, located at 225 Commercial Street, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 per person; $2 with the EBT card; and free for members and children under 1 year. Tuesday is reserved for tour groups.
Treasure Chest of Wonderful and Weird Objects at Cedar Valley Museums and Galleries
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Waterloo Center for the Arts curator Chawne Paige holds ‘Running Jaguar and the Mystery of the Cob’, created by Jacobo and Maria Angeles of Oaxaca, Mexico, a piece from the centre’s permanent collection.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Sculptures stored in the permanent collection of the Waterloo Center for the Arts.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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“I Have Loved the Unloved” by Marvin Cone is exhibited at the gallery of the Waterloo Center for the Art.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Waterloo Arts Center Curator Chawne Paige and Registrar Elizabeth Andrews unbox a new addition to the centre’s collection.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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Julie Huffman-Klinkowitz, collections manager at the Cedar Falls Historical Society, pulls out a stallion skin coat from its storage box April 21 in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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The coat, which belonged to Mathias Sadler, a German who arrived in the United States in 1895, is part of the permanent collection of the Cedar Falls Historical Society.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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A three-speed women’s bicycle made by John Deere and dating from 1972 to 1978 was recently donated to the historical society.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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A storage area in the Cedar Falls Historical Society.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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A clothing storage area in the Cedar Falls Historical Society.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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University of Northern Iowa Art Gallery Director Darrell Taylor removes a lithograph by Robert Rauschenberg, titled “Post Rally, 36/42 Edition,” from an archive shelf on April 8 at Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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University of Northern Iowa Art Gallery Director Darrell Taylor unveils a piece from the gallery’s collection April 8 in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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University of Northern Iowa Art Gallery Director Darrell Taylor talks about new additions to the gallery’s collection April 8 in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER Personal Mail Photographer
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Engraving by Rembrandt at the UNI Gallery of Art.
BRANDON POLLOCK
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John Dabour pastel on canvas on board-UNI Gallery of Art. Photographed Thursday, October 8, 2020 in Cedar Falls, IA.
BRANDON POLLOCK
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Gregorian Vellum and Ink – UNI Gallery of Art. Photographed Thursday, October 8, 2020 in Cedar Falls, IA.
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George Grosz watercolor and ink on paper-UNI Gallery of Art in Cedar Falls.
BRANDON POLLOCK
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Nicholas Erickson, Registrar of the Grout Museum of History and Science, pulls a doll out of a toy box belonging to Diane Broessel, who grew up in Waterloo in the 1940s.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Nicholas Erickson, registrar of the Grout Museum of History and Science, wields a rifle from the museum’s collection.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Nicholas Erickson, Registrar of the Grout Museum of History and Science, guards one of the museum’s storage rooms.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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One of the storage rooms in the Grout Museum of History and Science.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Nicholas Erickson, Registrar of the Grout Museum of History and Science, returns a boxed quilt to a shelf in one of the museum’s storage rooms.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Emily Drennen, Curator/Registrar of the Hearst Center of the Arts, holds a watercolor by Marjorie Nuhn titled ‘Atalya Hill, Santa Fe’, a piece from the center’s permanent collection.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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A storage room at the Hearst Center of the Arts contains many pieces from the center’s permanent collection.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Emily Drennen, Curator/Registrar of the Hearst Center of the Arts, looks at Ruth Hardinger’s “Tres Tiempos,” a new acquisition for the center’s permanent collection.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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