There's No Place Like Knowville

The year was 1872. In Mallet Creek, Ohio, James R. Holcomb started his namesake company as an educational products and school teacher's resource store. They sold everything from school supplies to musical instruments. Holcomb's has continued to evolve over the years -- the employee-owned company has inspired teachers so much, that many of them in local Northeast Ohio will tell you, "If Holcomb's doesn't have it, you don't need it." Well, batten down the hatches, because the company is transcending art supplies, games, early childhood items and teaching aides again... and they've collaborated with another Northeast Ohio company to do it.

One thing is certain, your kids are gonna love it.

This weekend, Holcomb's and design company Vision Into Visibility (V2V) are gearing up to launch Knowville, a fully interactive kids village with activities and explorations geared to children in grades K-8. A 15,000 square foot space, Knowville is a play off of Holcomb's KnowPlace identity with their retail stores and it's built like something out of a cartoon set or pop-up book. What's more, the miniature town has features that will be regularly changed every quarter to keep the environment fresh and inviting. Kids will be able to do everything from physical fitness exercises and games, to those everyday activities that we all used to do in school before they fell by the wayside when Ohio teachers were strongarmed into teaching to the test.

"It's hard to find a place to take kids and teach them life skills without making it feel like school or a chore," Holcomb's Knowville "Governor" Kathy Balogh told Cool Cleveland this week. "We feel that Knowville takes the school experience to the next level. At Holcomb's we know that for every 1 teacher we serve, there are 20 kids that they serve... but teachers are teaching more to the test every day, and as a result, everyday life skills are suffering."

"We’re offering kids a great place to hang out and have geared it to be a place where they want to be," added Balogh, who also serves as Holcomb's Merchandising Manager. "Knowville has everything from a science lab and weather station, to a little newspaper office where kid reporters can ask the others about the best parts of that day. And it will all change from time to time. At the end of the day, kids won’t even realize how much they are learning because they're bringing the space to life with their own creativity and imagination."

"Unlike some of our clients, Holcomb's had been working on developing something new for their business for months and really knew exactly what they wanted," V2V's Ryan Gerber told Cool Cleveland this week. "They really had developed their ideas, did their focus groups, research and due diligence -- all to support the vision they had. They knew it would work, but needed to know how it was going to take shape, which is where we got involved."

Gerber told Cool Cleveland that Holcomb's really knew what they wanted and V2V really helped "put Knowville into a scale of reality, with a very modular layout and an easy to change out design." Gerber and his company put pen to paper, digits to keyboards and mice and came up with a design that was user friendly with maximum flexibility for achieving Holcomb's goals. In the end, Gerber is just as blown away by the facility as Balogh; both seem proud by the accomplishments that the collaborative effort of two local businesses have yielded.

"I truly believe that all of Holcomb's resources from their past 100-plus years of business has just been unleashed in living color to a space where children, parents and families can have a brilliant, hands-on experience," Gerber said. "It truly is mind-blowing, even from an adult's point of view, and we hope it is a motivating place where simplicity drives imagination."

"You really have to see it to believe it," Balogh agreed. "Because even though it sounds exciting, it really can be hard to explain it to people."

See it for yourself. Holcomb’s Knowville is an amazing place that features an incredible use of imagery and color. It's a Cool Cleveland Kids interactive play dream for sure... and it celebrates a "Grand Opening" this Sat 4/28 from 9AM-9PM. Radio Disney's Street Team drops in with some cool tunes from 1-3PM. Knowville is located at 701 Beta Dr. #25, Mayfield Village. Visit Knowville at http://www.knowville.com, Holcomb's at http://www.holcombs.com and V2V Design at http://www.v2v-design.com.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com
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