Saturday, April 30, 2022 marked the official groundbreaking for construction on the first of our eight-building Campus plan: The Bay Gallery & Labs. Led by Executive Director Aragon Burlingham on the unceded land of the Ramaytush people, CuriOdyssey Board Members, partners, donors, staff and friends gathered in acknowledging the Ramaytush (pronounced rah-my-toosh) ancestry, the only original people of the San Francisco Peninsula region. Cata Gomes, a Ramaytush elder and Founder of the Muchia Te’ Indigenous Land Trust, gave a brief history of the Ramaytush people and provided their ancestors with a generous offering of food provided at the ceremony.

We celebrated the end of Phase One of our CuriOdyssey Campus Campaign with the construction of the Bay Gallery & Labs but it is actually just the beginning. We are building our campus with phased construction, raising funds at each stage and remaining open during construction. The campus we have envisioned will have eight buildings including an Otter Exhibit for one of our favorite Ambassador animals, our North American River Otter, Gunner. Phase One began with the completion of Whooosh! our Physics-in-Action playground last November and culminates with this our first building, the Bay Gallery & Labs which is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2023. The Bay Gallery will feature 3,000 sq. feet of exhibit and classroom space, and a recording studio, all with spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay. Our mission and values are carefully reflected in our evolving new campus project. 

After brief remarks by Board Chair Laurel Miranda, both Laurel and Aragon grabbed shovels and posed for photo opportunities while digging up the first mounds of dirt. This has been a remarkable journey made possible with the help of so many people, organizations and generous donors, including TomKat Foundation, our board, Sares Regis, Whiting-Turner, and San Mateo County Parks as well as the City and County of San Mateo.