Charity: Water Debuts Brand-New Experience Lab

Charity: Water’s immersive exhibit in The Factory at Franklin aims to make philanthropy more accessible and engaging. The brand-new Experience Lab gives Tennesseans a hands-on opportunity to learn about the global water crisis and impact the lives of affected communities. 

“The goal is that the Experience Lab will provide clean water for 1 million people over the course of the next five years or less,” says Scott Harrison, founder of Charity: Water. 

For over 18 years, Charity: Water has brought clean water to 29 countries, raising a billion dollars from supporters worldwide. The organization seeks to find interactive ways to involve onlookers in issues that may not directly affect them.

While living in New York, Scott spearheaded a water walk experience in Times Square. “Instead of asking people to walk on a catwalk, we would ask them to carry 40 pounds of water, to walk in somebody’s shoes and feel just how unbelievably difficult it is for the women and girls who are hauling dirty water every single day,” says Scott. 

When creating the Experience Lab, Scott channeled Charity: Water’s past work and his inspiration from interactive exhibits like Meow Wolf, Color Factory and the Van Gogh Exhibit. “I’ve been to many of these multimedia spaces and saw how positively people responded,” says Scott. “They wanted to crawl around. They wanted to try out new technology.” 

The Experience Lab is just that  — a chance to give back through creativity and exploration. “Before we were even open, we had made more than $1.7 million in donations and commitments coming through the lab,” says Scott.

When entering, guests are ushered in by holographic images of children in Uganda, whose stories are told throughout the exhibit. Participants can watch virtual reality films emphasizing the organization’s human impact in a Dolby Atmos theater. One such video focuses on a girl named Esther, who is shown drinking clean water for the first time. 

Each part of the lab is designed to hook the senses and evoke empathy. “We have a dirty water bar where people can look under the microscope at slides and videos of parasites, micro-organisms and bacteria that we are seeing in the water in communities we serve,” says Scott. “They can also look at water from the Cumberland, Harpeth, Percy Priest or Radnor Lake and consider what that water would look like if they had to drink it unfiltered.”

The experience also features a re-imagined water walk, where guests enter a heated room, step onto a treadmill and put themselves in the places of women and girls who lug 40 pounds of water daily. 

Charity: Water seeks to not only inform people about the water crisis but also urge them to take part in its remedy. “We just had an 11-year-old kid who came to one of the previews,” says Scott. “He came back six weeks later with $10,000 in cash that he had collected.” 

Since the lab’s opening, locals have shown up for the cause, with many returning multiple times. “It’s certainly to raise awareness,” Scott says, “but it’s also to make a difference and construct water projects that bring life-saving water to people in need.” 

To learn more about the Charity: Water Experience Lab, visit www.charitywater.org/experience.