From Toon Town to a Cosmic Commotion, take a sneak peek inside Saskatoon's Nutrien Wonderhub

The long-awaited reopening of Saskatoon's newly renamed and vastly expanded children's museum is right around the corner.

"We've waited for this for over a decade," said Amanda McReynolds Doran, the museum's executive director, of the June 28 opening of Nutrien Wonderhub — previously the Children's Discovery Museum — in the Mendel Building.

"There's been hours upon hours of love and sweat poured into this effort and this is the culmination of a lot of volunteers."

CBC was given a sneak peek at the 11 exhibits that make up Wonderhub.

"Children's museums are based on the idea that kids learn through play," McReynolds Doran said, adding it was important to make sure it is a museum like no other.

"It's a place where nothing is under glass — where children are not only allowed, but encouraged, to touch everything, move everything, try everything. See where their curiosity takes them," McReynolds Doran said.

Wonderhub is not only fully interactive, but it's also all about the province, she says.

"Every gallery here reflects that Saskatchewan experience," she said.

"Really this is an ode to the children of Saskatchewan, a love story for what we've all grown up experiencing around us."

The main gallery is Toon Town, an ever-changing townscape that features a school, construction house, café, vet clinic, bank, theatre, farm and hospital. Above Toon Town is a Northern Lights exhibit.

Other galleries include North Woods, which has a storytelling area and a boat kids can fish from, and Little Bridges, an area geared toward younger children.

There's also Discovery Mine, which offers a playful "kid-centric" mine environment, and an exhibit called Blast Off, which has air cannons that shoot air at targets.

One gallery that is already creating a lot of buzz is Cosmic Commotion, a climbing structure that is a handcrafted piece of fibre art created by Canadian artist Toshiko Horiuchi. Kids can climb through the web-like surface or swing from dangling crocheted pods.

McReynolds Doran says the museum is a great place for kids to interact with each other because there is no pressure.

"This is a place where a kid is going to push a button and something is going to make a sound, and four or five other kids are going to run over and go, 'How'd you do that?' This is a place where you don't even have to speak the same language to play together."

She hopes the museum becomes part of every kid's childhood experience in the province.

"I want to see kids come in here and be overwhelmed by how fun and exciting this place is," she said.

"If a child walks out of this building with some new ideas of who they might become, that's a win for me."

McReynolds Doran said there are more than 300 children's museums in U.S., but this is only the ninth in Canada.

Having Wonderhub in Saskatoon is going to help create the next generation of museum-goers, she said.

"Kids who feel at home and comfortable in their children's museum become children who feel comfortable in art museums. They become adults who enjoy going to the theatre and become strong supporters of the cultural sector."