An iconic Saskatoon landmark, the Mendel Art Gallery, closed its doors in June of 2015.

On Friday morning, just over four years later, those doors re-opened as a children’s discovery museum, the Nutrien Wonderhub.

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Saskatoon Children’s Discovery Museum renamed Nutrien Wonderhub

“The building is a beloved part of Saskatoon,” Wonderhub executive director Amanda McReynolds said. “Like anything that is well loved, there is a bit of [elbow] grease that needs to go into getting [the building] into shape.”

“It was a labour of love, absolutely,” Wonderhub board chair Tammy Van Lambalgen added. “I would say it was incredibly difficult, there were many challenges along the way. We wanted to ensure that it was safe for the children, and that we made it accessible to all children.”

Not only is the Wonderhub fully accessible, it’s also received help to make sure that it was open and available to all schools.

“We have some fantastic groups that have supported our access program,” McReynolds Doran said. “[The program] allows schools that are community-based, or don’t have the funds to do a field trip, to come here for free, including transportation.”

Once students, parents, or any visitor for that matter makes it into the museum, there is one exhibit that many want to see.

“For me, it’s that climber,” Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark exclaimed. “I mean, the colourful nature of it, the sort of really unusual shape and design of it.

“It’s an out of this world type of experience that I can’t believe we have in Saskatoon.”

“The vividness of the colour of that play structure, it was amazing,” van Lambalgen agreed.  “So, it’s the one that I keep going back to.”

Nutrien Wonderhub is open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. CT Monday through Sunday.

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