Metro Council Approves Mayor Greenberg’s $250,000 for Portland Museum Campus Expansion with AHOY Children’s Museum
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Press Release
Today, Metro Council unanimously approved Mayor Craig Greenberg’s proposal to dedicate $250,000 in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget toward the Portland Museum’s transformative children’s museum expansion, Adventure House of You (AHOY). As a cornerstone of his Thrive by Five and early learning agenda, this investment leverages more than $2.3 million already secured from community and philanthropic partners to deliver immersive, play based learning right in the heart of the West End’s Portland neighborhood.
Recognizing a longstanding gap in family-focused destinations, the Portland Museum turned community feedback into action and envisioned Louisville’s first children’s museum in the West End. After touring play and learning spaces across the region, Director Danny Seim saw how much Portland’s children were missing—and, together with fellow Director Katy Delahanty, conceived AHOY Children’s Museum. On track to become Louisville’s first dedicated children’s museum, AHOY will be housed in a historic, long-neglected Victorian mansion immediately east of the Portland Museum. The mansion will be restored and physically linked to the existing building by a connector with an elevator and a sculptural tunnel shaped like a prehistoric fish, inspired by Tiktaalik’s brave journey from water to land. Visiting children will embark on their own adventure, transitioning from the traditional exhibits of the Portland Museum into creatively designed spaces that teach local history through exploration, experience, and play.
“There is so much momentum in Portland right now—from the brand new PlayPort and Waterfront Park expansion to the upcoming AHOY Children’s Museum,” said Mayor Craig Greenberg. “By investing in projects like AHOY, we’re strengthening early learning opportunities and supporting families where they live.”
“AHOY’s exhibits won’t just entertain — they will spark imagination, resilience and collaboration,” said Portland Museum Executive Director Katy Delahanty in a May editorial for the Courier Journal. “Each environment will draw from the Ohio River’s rich history, blending folklore and fact in ways that engage and empower.” Exhibit designs were recently completed by various firms such as Weber Group, Wolfgang & Hite, and our kids’ advisory council called Catfish Club, and are currently on display at the Portland Museum. Delahanty is also collaborating with Wales’ Adventure Playground visionaries—where the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child declares play a human right—to establish similar standards back home. The museum is spearheading that partnership to transform its backyard into a loose parts, nature based adventure playground—an open ended, child led landscape of natural materials and recycled elements that encourages risk taking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving.
The AHOY project is currently moving forward thanks in part to local partnerships: the Kentucky Science Center is donating pieces from its collection to AHOY’s exhibits; Stewart Design is preparing branding for the expansion; PACE Contracting, through MSD’s Community Benefits Program, relocated a 50foot shrimping boat to the project’s outdoor play yard; and the Weber Group is finalizing construction documents for the building’s restoration and connection.
If progress continues at its current pace, the expansion will be ready for exhibit installation by fall 2026. Portland Museum extends its gratitude to Mayor Greenberg, Metro Council members, and the citizens of Louisville Metro for supporting this essential investment in the children of the West End.
For additional information or request for comment please reach out to the Portland
Museum via email at info@portlandky.org or phone at (502)776-7678 during operating hours
noon to 5PM Wednesdays through Fridays and noon to 4PM Saturdays.