Last week, the state announced that the museum was the recipient of a $500,000 two-year grant as part of its Market New York program, which was established to help strengthen tourism and attract visitors to the state.

The grant — titled “Turning Twenty: Trails, Trolls & Tourism” — will help to fund a slate of special events, trail expansion and marketing initiatives, according to Nick Gunn, the Wild Center’s marketing director.

“It’s a testament to the work that the Wild Center does and the trust that the state has in the work that we do,” he said. “We’re really grateful. It helps us continue to operate, promote and let people know about the work that we’re doing. … It certainly is something that we spend a lot of time on.”

Gunn said the museum was glad to see its grant-writing come to fruition. He said it took about eight weeks to complete the proposal.

“It’s a very long process for us,” he said. “It requires us to do some marketing planning a couple years ahead of time, as well as budgeting, promotional tactics and laying out a(n events) calendar years ahead of time.”

Gunn said the trails aspect of the grant will go toward finishing the Loop Trail, which he said will extend Fen Trail, which was completed last year.

Named after the surrounding wetland ecosystem along the Raquette River, the Fen Trail features several ball runs. Similar to marble mazes, the structures incorporate the museum’s natural surroundings to form long ball-tracks along the trails. Gunn said the grant will help enable the museum to add several more runs along its trails, which he said have been popular amongst kids.

Gunn said the Wild Center is also planning to expand its “lit programming” next winter.

As for the “Turning Twenty” aspect of the grant, Gunn said the Wild Center will host a variety of special programming in 2026 to commemorate the anniversary.

“We’re going to do a year-long celebration, with special programming specifically in the summer including live concerts, speaker series and some other pop-up accessible events,” he said. “That money will help fund all of those programs, and we’re really excited about that.”

Martin Sexton — who played at the museum’s opening festivities in 2006 — committed to returning in 2026, according to Gunn.

This grant’s impacts also extend to special programming this summer, with the Wild Center scheduled to host the Corning Museum of Glass’s mobile hot shop, which facilitates glass-blowing programs for guests. Gunn said there will be some additional special programming to mark the completion of the Loop Trail this summer.

Gunn said a major focus of this grant is promoting the museum on a statewide and regional level.

“It helps us to do all of the marketing stuff that we want to do,” he said. “This support helps us punch above our weight a little bit. With an organization the size of ours — with a relatively small marketing team — it allows us to operate like a much larger organization for sure.”

Gunn said the Wild Center’s marketing will attempt to capitalize on Tupper Lake’s status as a terminal of two tourism coordinators: the Adirondack Scenic Railroad — which extends south to Utica — and the Adirondack Rail Trail — which extends east to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.

“We’re working with partnerships with the Adirondack Rail Trail and the Scenic Railroad to make sure that people who are utilizing both the rail trail and the scenic railroad will have opportunities once they’re in Tupper Lake to check out everything that there is to do in Tupper — including the Wild Center and all of the other businesses in town,” he said.

Gunn said the “trolls” component of the grant will be publically announced soon, but added the programming is scheduled for 2026 and will be physically “gigantic.”