00:09 - Hello and welcome to Whitaker Center for science and the Arts.

00:12 - I'm Mary Olivera, president and CEO of this amazing institution here

00:16 - in our capital region.

00:17 - We're located in downtown Harrisburg,

00:19 - and we are the center, the hub for arts and science for our capital region.

00:23 - We invite you to join us on a tour as we take you through our science center,

00:27 - our digital cinema, our performing arts theater, and our innovation zone.

00:30 - So come along with us.

00:50 - Hey, my name is Cole.

00:51 - I'm the events manager here at Whitaker.

00:53 - We're currently standing in the AMP lobby, which is the very first place

00:57 - you're going to walk into.

00:58 - As soon as you come out from Market Street, right there.

01:00 - We are at the crossroads right here in AMP that connects us to the Science Center

01:04 - to the right and Performance theater to the left.

01:06 - We are also directly under the digital cinema and lobbies.

01:09 - Our lobbies are close to 60 200ft², so we can have plenty of rental space

01:14 - for you.

01:15 - We have wedding receptions, fundraisers, and also some book signings,

01:20 - if you want.

01:20 - So very open to whatever you want here.

01:22 - Let's go take a look at our theater.

01:36 - Welcome to the Sunoco Performance Theater here at Whitaker Center.

01:39 - My name is Jennifer Paul, and I'm the director of entertainment and events.

01:43 - The theater that you see behind me has 698 seats.

01:46 - When this theater was built, it was built to,

01:50 - by the same people that designed the New Amsterdam Theater

01:53 - in New York City, which currently houses the Aladdin musical.

01:56 - So it's, similar in design.

01:58 - We're obviously a bit more modern than that theater, but,

02:02 - there is no seat that is more than 65ft from the stage,

02:07 - which is unique to two performing arts centers.

02:11 - We have a 62 seat pit.

02:13 - We have 354 seats in the orchestra.

02:16 - We have 148 seats in the mezzanine and 154 seats in the balcony.

02:21 - Another wonderful feature of this theater is that we have 14 boxes.

02:26 - So on each level

02:27 - there are box seats, to accommodate any guests or special requests.

02:31 - And, also, the nice thing about the boxes,

02:34 - you can move the seats around and be very comfortable.

02:36 - The stage at the Sunoco Performance Theater,

02:39 - is a very large stage,

02:43 - and we can house so many different types of entertainment on this stage.

02:46 - The proscenium, which is the front masking area,

02:50 - is 39.5ft wide, which is conducive for a lot of different types of shows.

02:55 - The stage itself is 80ft wide and 45ft deep.

03:00 - So we have a lot of space.

03:01 - We also have a fly rail system, which, allows us to bring lights

03:06 - and curtains and screens and props and scenery in, like, no time.

03:11 - The Sunoco Performance Theater, houses very many shows

03:15 - of all different varieties.

03:16 - We do comedians, we do concerts.

03:20 - We do, we've done Cirque shows.

03:23 - We've done believe it or not, ice

03:24 - carving shows on our stage where they bring their own ice.

03:26 - So pretty cool kids shows. We do musicals.

03:30 - The Whitaker Center is proud

03:32 - to have three resident companies that we work with regularly.

03:36 - Theater Harrisburg, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and Market Square concerts.

03:41 - Market Square Concerts also offers shows to adults as well as children.

03:45 - So we do a little bit of community outreach and bring kids in

03:48 - that might not have have seen the types of concerts that they have.

03:52 - Theater Harrisburg does their two very large musicals here, every year.

03:57 - And Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet has all the does the beautiful, ballets,

04:03 - most famously The Nutcracker, George Balanchine's Nutcracker here.

04:07 - So very proud to work with our theater companies and offer,

04:11 - a touch of the arts and a touch of concerts

04:14 - and a touch of everything else out there that people want to see

04:18 - and bring the community in through our doors.

04:35 - My name is Kristen James.

04:36 - I'm the education and science center manager here,

04:39 - and we are standing in the lower level of our science center.

04:41 - Behind me you'll see our S.O.S.

04:43 - or science on a sphere.

04:44 - But it's only one of our many exhibits we have down here.

04:47 - To my right, we have our Forces of Nature exhibit.

04:49 - To my left, we have our traveling exhibit.

04:52 - This whole level is the lowest level of our building, and it houses

04:55 - a lot of exciting things for families, kids, students, everyone to enjoy.

04:59 - Some things are permanent.

05:00 - Some come and go throughout the year.

05:02 - We got a lot of cool exhibits to check out, so let's go see em.

05:13 - I'm standing in front of our touch a tornado exhibit.

05:16 - You can see as you look through here.

05:17 - This is a perfect way to experience a tornado in a safe way.

05:21 - If you look as a guest, you can come put your hand inside

05:23 - and feel what a real tornado feels like with all the steam and the gas

05:27 - that's moving and spinning around, you can even see the shape a little bit.

05:38 - This exhibit here is called Top of Box

05:40 - and is part of our Forces of Nature permanent exhibit here at Whitaker Center.

05:44 - In front of you, you'll see a pile of rice and different colors.

05:47 - And these different colors represent the topography of a mountain range or volcano.

05:52 - And what topography is, is it's a detailed map

05:55 - that shows the elevation of natural and artificial features in the area.

05:58 - So if I use my hand to come in and move around some of this rice,

06:03 - you can see that the topography or those different elevations changes.

06:06 - And because this is Whitaker Center and we love science, we even made this

06:10 - be a volcano.

06:11 - So you can stick your hand on top, give a little fist or a shout,

06:14 - and then you can see some lava coming out of the top of a volcano.

06:18 - Kids love this one because not only is it hands on,

06:22 - but they get to play while learning about science, learning about our earth,

06:26 - and getting to experiment a little bit with some fake mountains.

06:39 - So this funnel here represents a black hole.

06:41 - As you can see from our signage, black holes are areas in space

06:44 - where gravity is so strong, nothing can escape, not even light.

06:48 - So each one of these blue balls represents matter.

06:51 - And this matter and space gets sucked out into a black hole.

06:54 - This is a really big favorite of kids when they're visiting our science center,

06:58 - because it's super fun to try to see as many of these pieces of matter

07:01 - that you can get flowing around to the center of the black hole.

07:13 - Welcome to the Stem Design Studios here, Whitaker Center.

07:16 - This is also on our lower level, and it's the most renovated section

07:19 - of our science center.

07:20 - 2019 it got a complete remake.

07:23 - It's bright, it's colorful, and it's a multipurpose

07:25 - space used for lots of different things that we do here at Whitaker Center,

07:28 - like summer camps, classroom activities for field trips,

07:32 - among with having

07:32 - a bunch of different stations that are exciting and fun for our guests

07:35 - to play with,

07:36 - lots of engineering challenges, trying to build it, and problem

07:39 - solving are all things that we try

07:40 - to encourage our guests to do when they visit us here at,

07:43 - especially when they visit the Stem Design Studios.

07:46 - 000, here at Whitaker Center, we're all about Steam.

07:50 - So science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

07:54 - We try to incorporate all of those different parts into everything we do

07:57 - here, including our stations here in the Stem design studios.

08:00 - I'm right now sitting at one called Coding Critters,

08:02 - which are these little tiny creatures here.

08:04 - And it's a great way for kids and guests to get introduced to these new fields,

08:08 - like coding that they may never have known about.

08:10 - There's lots of career opportunities in the future for things like coding

08:14 - and in tech and science, engineering, arts and math.

08:17 - So it's great for us to get to expose students and guests and families

08:20 - to those things through fun, like playing with these coding critters.

08:23 - So you can see there these pieces represent the coding the blocks.

08:27 - And this little guy is following the path to go along his little trail.

08:44 - Can you build it?

08:45 - This is another station in our Stem design studios.

08:48 - Here you can see I built myself a nice little cube.

08:50 - Guests and students,

08:52 - when they come in here, they can either use one of our scripted options here,

08:56 - or they can use their own imagination to create a design.

08:59 - This is a great example of engineering, which is taking thoughts and ideas

09:02 - and problems and creating 3D modeled solutions to fix them.

09:06 - So anything from our guests wildest dreams in their brain, they can try to create

09:10 - using these different connectors and these different straws.

09:13 - And this is just one of the many examples of the ways

09:15 - that we try to get hands on examples of steam.

09:18 - When you visit us here at Whitaker Center.

09:26 - All right.

09:26 - We are standing here at the entrance

09:28 - to the Galleria mall Wine Gallery, and here at Whitaker Center.

09:31 - This is our traveling exhibit space.

09:33 - So right now, Po's welcoming you into our current traveling exhibit,

09:36 - which is called Animation Academy.

09:38 - So it's everything about animation.

09:40 - It's great to represent the A, the arts and steam here for us at Whitaker Center.

09:44 - And it takes guests on an exploration from designing a character

09:47 - to storyboarding all the way to creating a final product.

09:50 - But this is not the only exhibit we host here.

09:52 - Throughout the year.

09:53 - We have bunch of different traveling exhibits that come to us.

09:55 - So when you come visit us at Whitaker Center,

09:57 - you're always going to get something different.

09:59 - For example, before this, we had a space exhibit and a dinosaur exhibit.

10:02 - So it's always fresh, it's always

10:03 - changing in the old wine gallery, which is right behind us.

10:07 - So as we wrap up our tour of the lower level of the Science center

10:10 - with Forces of Nature in the Stem design studios and this gallery

10:13 - here as well, we're going to head upstairs and check out the upper floor

10:16 - of the Science center.

10:32 - All right.

10:33 - Now that we're upstairs

10:34 - here, we're in our carnival of health and moving into our kids place exhibit.

10:37 - This is the perfect spot to take your little tiniest of learners.

10:40 - So let's go in and check it out.

10:52 - We are here in Midtown Market, one of the sections of Kids

10:55 - Place, which is in the upper level of our science center.

10:58 - You can see around me here.

10:59 - We've got a little simulated market, which is great

11:00 - because here in downtown Harrisburg, we're very close to Midtown.

11:03 - So it's a perfect segue.

11:05 - It's a great chance

11:06 - for kids to learn different skills about being a citizen and age appropriate

11:10 - things that will help them

11:11 - as they grow up and become members of the community here in Harrisburg.

11:15 - So we've got some different fruits, some different veggies, a taco here,

11:18 - lots of different things for kids to explore

11:20 - and kind of role play with their family and friends who come and join them

11:24 - when they visit us at the science center.

11:36 - A favorite pastime of many people in Pennsylvania is fishing.

11:38 - And lucky for us, here at Whitaker Center, we have fishing indoor

11:41 - in the upper level of our science center, here at our fishing pond and kids place.

11:45 - It's a perfect way for kids to learn a little bit about their environment,

11:48 - learn a little bit about fishing, but also try their hand at learning motor

11:51 - skills that are crucial to learning and development at the age of six.

11:54 - And under that Kids Places is designed for.

11:56 - You can see I caught two.

11:58 - The kids are really good to catch them as well.

12:00 - Another favorite here.

12:01 - Lots of fun.

12:17 - This year is Pinball Falls.

12:19 - So as you can see, guests take the blue balls.

12:21 - They stick them into the cannons and they shoot them up into the pinball

12:26 - like area representing

12:27 - some of the coastlines we see here along the river in Pennsylvania.

12:31 - So this used to be a set of stairs, but it was actually repurposed into this

12:34 - fun and engaging exhibits.

12:35 - And it's been a really big favorite for kids because it's loud, it's exciting,

12:40 - and it's really, really fun.

12:41 - So this is, again, this part of kid's place in our upper level.

12:44 - And we'll just shoot a few more here to end.

12:48 - You can see it go all the way.

12:55 - All right.

12:56 - I am standing here with Mickey, the infectious clown in the Carnival

12:59 - of Health section of our science center at Whitaker Center on the upper level,

13:03 - and icky right here is a great example of a safe way to learn about your body.

13:08 - So we've got a bunch of different diseases,

13:10 - like strep or ringworm or chickenpox that our guests can learn about in a safe way.

13:14 - But this whole Carnival of Health area is all about you.

13:17 - So the human body learning about reactions, illness,

13:20 - calories, your heart rate, how your brain works.

13:23 - You can leave here learning a little bit more about you.

13:26 - So it's a great place to visit for all ages.

13:29 - Here at Whitaker Center.

13:36 - I. All right.

13:45 - We are here inside the ambulance, indoors in Kids Place here.

13:49 - Newly redesigned when we partnered up with UPMC.

13:53 - So it's looking nice with a new fresh coat of paint.

13:55 - This is a favorite for kids to learn how to explore careers in medicine.

14:00 - Like maybe being a driver or an EMT or a doctor,

14:03 - but it's also just really fun to,

14:04 - you know, pretend you're driving while you're inside.

14:07 - So this wraps up our Science center tour.

14:09 - I appreciate you coming along with me to explore the science center

14:12 - that I have such a great time working at, and I'm going to pass it off for you

14:15 - to explore the rest of our awesome building.

14:31 - Welcome to the PNC Innovation Zone at Whitaker Center.

14:34 - My name is Mike.

14:35 - Ring a buck.

14:36 - I'm the vice president of development

14:37 - here at Whitaker Center for science in the Arts.

14:40 - The PNC Innovation Zone is one of the first purposeful

14:44 - gaming studios in the United States that is designed to teach kids.

14:49 - 21st century computer skills.

14:51 - This includes teaching computer programing,

14:54 - game design, graphic design, and exposing a wide range of our community

15:00 - to the 21st century skills that are needed to thrive in today's economy.

15:05 - We are so looking forward for you to see it.

15:07 - Why don't you come in and join me?

15:16 - Here in the PNC Innovation Zone.

15:18 - We have 24 state of the art terminals that have a variety of different programs.

15:23 - Autom that we use for different educational purposes.

15:26 - An example would be Minecraft for education,

15:28 - which has hundreds of different lessons on it

15:31 - that take complex computer science topics and distill them down

15:35 - into simplified games that students can understand.

15:38 - It allows them to learn in a fun and interactive way.

15:41 - And ultimately, that's our goal here in the PNC Innovation Zone

15:44 - is to offer flexible learning, but to keep it fun for all the students,

15:48 - all of our learners, and all of our guests.

16:00 - Now we're at the Select Medical Digital Cinema.

16:02 - My name is Heather Woodbridge.

16:03 - I'm the vice president of operations here at Whitaker Center.

16:06 - This is the largest screen in Central PA.

16:10 - It's 38ft wide and over 70ft tall.

16:13 - And that's a four story building.

16:16 - We have an amazing opportunity here in this space

16:19 - because back in 2014, we converted the cinema to digital.

16:23 - You may recall it used to be called an Imax, but now

16:26 - it's a digital cinema, which means we have a full range of movies, television,

16:31 - live broadcasts, presentations, gaming, anything digital.

16:35 - And that content can be projected onto our four story screen.

16:40 - So it's a really immersive experience.

16:42 - Surround sound, as is every seat with is over 200.

16:46 - It's a great seat in the house for a wonderful show.

17:17 - Thank you for joining us.

17:18 - We hope you've enjoyed this virtual tour of this crown jewel of Harrisburg,

17:22 - Whitaker center for science and the Arts.

17:23 - But we'd love to see you in person.

17:25 - We're open to the public Friday through Monday, 10 a.m.

17:28 - to 5 p.m.,

17:29 - and you can learn about all the great things

17:30 - happening in our building at our website, Whitaker center.org.

17:33 - We hope to see you soon.