Bright Spot on the Riverfront

The Luminarium, Omaha’s first ever Science Museum, opened on April 15, 2023. I went on the day it opened along with my mom, dad, and younger sister.

Driving up to it, you could see it from pretty far away. Its at the new Gene Leahy mall, at the 345 Riverfront Dr, Omaha Nebraska. When we got there, we had trouble finding parking, which made us park a little while away from the actual building. With the new trolley opening in Omaha soon, that hopefully won’t cause too much trouble in the near future.

Walking in, there was a lot of things that I noticed right away. It was cool, because almost everything was an exhibit. The pipes on the ceiling were turned into a thing you could talk into and it would echo. Everything in the museum als

o had instructions and information in English and Spanish, making it more inclusive for all the families in Omaha, especially our large Spanish-speaking population.

The Luminarium had a lot of exhibits, such as shadow, magnetism, light, sound, echo, and home crafts, every single one of them being an opportunity to learn, which I really liked, but also a nice way to have fun. This way, while older kids were learning, the younger kids had fun watching how things worked, or seeing cool stuff around the Luminarium. 

There were a lot of different things, which were very organized into sections, which I appreciate. There was a biology section, that had genetics, cells, and fun things to learn about that, which was a favorite of mine, but there were also a lot of sections, such as geology, plants, energy, light, sound, and architecture, and a crafts area more targeted towards elementary school-aged kids. There was an area with a map of Omaha, as well as a thing that would teach you how teens work, population statistics when it comes to moving up in class, a large indoor playground, and a wall where the

re were many digits of Pi, and you could search for numbers in there. I also appreciated that most of the activities at the Luminarium were pretty quick, so no one had to wait too long in a line, and you were able to go around the entire Luminarium within about 2 hours. There was very good space management as well, because although there were a lot of people in the Luminarium, there was hardly a crowd blocking the way of things.

Overall, the Luminarium is a place where I would go just for fun on a free day, or on occasion, or just bring my younger cousins when they come visit Omaha. As it claims, it really is fun for everyone, and is a fun place to go if you’re in the mood to learn something new.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Kennedy Petersen