How would you like to experiment with a giant interactive sculpture five stories high? Where would you find such a thing if it existed?

Why, at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, of course!

While most teens would be intrigued by such a structure, they might not be as intrigued with a visit to a "children's" museum. Since they do not view themselves as children, many figure The Children's Museum contains nothing of interest to them.

Museum attendance bears that out.

"We do a very good job with young children, let's say preschool through age 10, 11, 12, and after that, the number of visits start to decline as they become teen-agers and go on to high school," said Jeff Patchen, president and CEO of the museum.

One of Patchen's goals is to make the museum a place where people of all ages can find something interesting to do. While the five-story interactive structure is still in the dream stage, he's investigating other ways to keep museum visitors coming back.

"There are lots of things for people to do that compete for leisure time, leisure dollars," he acknowledged.

One way to increase attendance is to renovate existing galleries.

"In the Compton Gallery, the gallery with the carousel, we're adding a whole new section," he said. "There's going to be a mirror maze, a garden of play, a treehouse and a transportation wall with all kinds of transportation toys from our collection."

Renovation of the Compton Gallery should be completed by Thanksgiving weekend.

Another gallery to be renovated is Passport to the World, which should be completed in June 2002 under a new name, Global Perspectives.

"The idea is to reach out to children and families through what we call cultural immersion experiences -- where you'll be able to actually experience a culture. For instance, if it's a culture of Japan, you'd wear a kimono, participate in a tea ceremony, cook and eat Japanese food, and even learn how to speak Japanese," he explained.

Patchen also feels that the museum should expand its programming in astronomy and outer space.

"That's an area that I think youth have lots of interest in, and that other than the planetarium, we haven't developed as fully as we could," he said.

But his biggest challenge is finding programs that attract teens to the museum.

"We have to provide more and better exhibits and opportunities and emerging experiences for adolescents age 10 to 18," he said.

Teens need in-depth experiences, Patchen said, "not just something in a book, or something to read, or something to watch on a video or computer screen, but actually being involved and interacting -- living the experience."

One area where he believes this could happen is the Lilly theater program.

"If you've ever seen the productions, I think they're really outstanding. So I'd like to see more opportunities for teens to get involved with putting on plays, writing plays (and) directing their own plays."

Another way to attract visitors is to increase the number of alliances the museum has with other corporations and institutions, Patchen said. Some alliances will be forged with groups where teens gather, such as Boys & Girls Clubs. Others are aimed at children not yet born.

"We're talking about creating alliances with area hospitals and pediatricians so that expectant mothers, before they have their baby, are thinking about The Children's Museum as a resource," he explained.

The museum is also trying to increase programming for school groups.

"We have to find ways to improve our relationships with teachers so that if there are connections for what they do in the classroom, then kids will come with their parents on the weekend," he said.

Another partnership is with the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. The museum recognizes that access to information through technology is a pressing need to children of the community, so it is building a 3,000-square-foot library in the museum, which should be completed by the end of the year.

"It will be open not only during museum hours, but from 5 to 8 (in the evening)," he said. "It will have 16 or 24 computer stations in the library, and there will be computer kiosks in every gallery" that will link users to resources in the museum library as well as in the public library system.

All of these changes are not easy to plan or carry out.

Patchen's job -- of "helping to define the vision and the future of The Children's Museum" and "helping to raise the funds and find the resources and support" it needs to flourish -- can be an exhausting one.

When he feels the pressure getting to him, Patchen knows it's time to take a walk.

"All I have to do is walk out to the core and see all the smiling faces, or (I'll go) down to the lobby where I see kids crying on the way out the door.

"I know we've done our job if the children don't want to leave."

REPORTERS: Chris Reissaus, 11, and Katie Turner, 12.