Youngstown, OH

To see a list and map of all Voyage Communities, visit the Community Network main page.

Emerging Site Since: March 11, 2021
Opening Date: TBD
Exhibition Type: Mark II

Lead Institution:
OHWOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology

Partner Institutions:
YSU Ward Beecher Planetarium
Youngstown City Scape
Eastgate Regional Council of Governments
City of Youngstown

Proposed Location: stretching from Central Square to the YSU campus


Overview

Youngstown, located in Mahoning County, NE Ohio, was strategically founded along the Mahoning River in the late 1700’s. The U.S. Census Bureau (2018) estimates Youngstown’s population at 64,958, the 9th largest city in Ohio. A report by the Brookings Institute by local NBC affiliate WFMJ-TV in November 2020 indicates that Youngstown has the highest poverty rate in the country at an estimated 49.7%.

Our community has an unparalleled sense of resiliency which plays a huge role in committing to the redevelopment and revitalization of the area. This includes developing and expanding working partnerships, as evidenced by a number of significant investments throughout the Valley in recent years: a Center City Youngstown Hilton Hotel, Amphitheater, Bike Trail, a Riverfront Park, and OH WOW! These attractions have brought significant crowds to the Mahoning Valley urban core, and the Voyage exhibit will build on this success.

Voyage Youngstown is a unique partnership between local non-profits, the City of Youngstown, and the Ward Beecher Planetarium at Youngstown State University. Voyage Youngstown will provide visitors a powerful understanding of the nature of our existence on a tiny world in a vast space, and will be one of many Voyage communities across the country that focus on bringing STEM education experiences to outdoor spaces. It is modeled on the original Voyage exhibition permanently installed on the National Mall in Washington DC between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument, in front of the Smithsonian Museums.

Set in the heart of our downtown, Voyage Youngstown will enrich our urban environment, and bring together OH WOW!, Youngstown CityScape, the City of Youngstown, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and Youngstown State University/The Ward-Beecher Planetarium as partners in the venture. We continue to seek other partners, especially k-12 schools. Voyage Youngstown will foster experiences and programming that are: 1) strategic – addressing our community’s educational goals in STEM education, 2) systemic – addressing the curriculum across local school districts, and 3) sustainable – providing content and resources on an ongoing basis.

Th exhibition’s thirteen stanchions will be found along a path extending 2,000 feet (600 m). The Sun and inner Solar System will be located in Central Square in central downtown. The dwarf planet Pluto will be located near Ward Beecher Planetarium on the YSU campus. The exhibition will be publicly accessible to visitors downtown, to children and families at OH WOW!, and the general public.


Preliminary Site Maps

To explore the maps below at high resolution, first click on the map, wait for it to load as a pop up window, then drag the pop up window image to your desktop to download. Once downloaded, Zoom in to view at higher resolution.

The Inner Solar System orbits out to the Asteroid Belt.

The Outer Solar System orbits from the Asteroid Belt out to Pluto.

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