Nebraska’s new tourist attraction: Kiewit Luminarium on Omaha’s riverfront is to open Saturday

OMAHA — Three years in the making, Nebraska’s newest tourist magnet is set to open Saturday: 82,000 square feet of interactive science museum on the edge of Omaha’s riverfront.

The Kiewit Luminarium, whose roughly $100 million price tag was privately funded, is key to redefining a downtown landscape, along with the tri-park revamp and planned $600 million Mutual of Omaha skyscraper.

It’s viewed as a boost to building a workforce in a labor-starved state, with more than 120 exhibits designed to inspire lifelong interest and careers in science, technology and engineering.

But among the Luminarium’s highest values, said CEO Silva Raker, is providing a space where people of all backgrounds connect, open their minds to different ways of learning and break down barriers.

“There aren’t that many places where people can intersect with folks who already aren’t in their circle,” Raker told the Nebraska Examiner during a sneak peek event for news media on Tuesday.

Raker noted that almost all the Luminarium exhibits are designed for social interaction and an exchange of thoughts.

Take the “pothole” station (many displays reflect Omaha-centric issues and feature local personalities).

Paper, pencils and a question encourage visitors to describe thoughts and post them on a wall for all to see. “What would an Omaha without potholes be like?” 

To that, one respondent wrote: “We will never know.” Another said, “They make this the holiest city in the country.”

Also in the exhibit, a day-in-the-life video of a real-life city pothole-filler explains the science behind the craters and his role in fixing up to 20,000 in a month.

Raker said adult nights will be held at the Luminarium on certain topics, maybe even on potholes, and people can share further ideas.

“You will never look at a pothole again the same after you do these things,” she said. “It’s about finding the science and the technology in the everyday, and it’s also finding the humanity in it.”

Inside the Luminarium’s steely exterior is a cafe, a gift shop, meeting rooms. Raker expects the museum to be a headquarters for influencers such as educators, to gather for professional growth.

Teachers, she said, are “multipliers of what we do” and will impact thousands of kids over the course of their careers.

Sections within the airy Luminarium are devoted to areas such as math and geometry, natural phenomena and physical science, financial literacy, engineering and the built environment.

To be sure, it’s a hands-on learning environment.

Take the geometry playground, where one can enhance the “brain’s spatial superpowers” by stacking, packing and fitting together objects in just the right position.

A compost station invites visitors to “feel the warmth.”

A turn of a knob at another display sends sound waves splashing through water in a tube.

On Tuesday, Elijah Mitchell — who is among the 60 students on the 100-person Luminarium staff — was laughing with his co-workers as each tested how quietly they could walk through a bed of rocks in one of the science-of-sound exhibits.

Mitchell, 21, said he wasn’t exposed much to museums while growing up. He sought the part-time Luminarium job, while studying business at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, in part to pass on some life lessons to young visitors.

“I’d like to help break that barrier for kids who don’t like math or science or think they don’t understand it — this is hands-on learning, and it can be fun.”