Minnesota Children's Museum

Minnesota Children’s Museum is a non-profit community organization located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. The Museum mission statement is “providing children with a fun, hands-on and stimulating environment to explore and discover”[1] The Museum, in operation since 1981, embraces these core concepts: Early learning is the foundation for lifelong learning. Families are our children’s first teachers. All children deserve a time and place to be children. Diverse perspectives enrich children’s lives. Play is learning[2]

Location and hours

The Museum is on the corner of 7th and Wabasha Streets in downtown St. Paul. Admission for all ages is $9.95. The museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museum is also open on Mondays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

History

On December 12, 1981, the first children entered the original Children’s Museum, known as “Minnesota’s AwareHouse,” in downtown Minneapolis. Attendance grew to 80,000, and the Museum quickly outgrew the original space in downtown Minneapolis. In 1985, the Children’s Museum moved to an old blacksmith’s shop in Bandana Square, transforming dirt walls into 18,000 square-feet of galleries. By the early 1990s, the Museum’s visitors and exhibits again outgrew the space in Bandana Square. Plans to build an even bigger museum began. The doors to Minnesota Children’s Museum in downtown St. Paul opened with 65,000 square-feet of gallery and program space in September 1995. Three of the most popular exhibits moved from Bandana Square to Minnesota Children’s Museum in downtown St. Paul: Habitot®; the Crane, which moved to the World Works gallery; and the Maze, which moved to Earth World and became the giant anthill. Today, more than 6 million children and their families have visited the Museum.[3] The Museum is currently planning a $26 million expansion [4]

Galleries

•Our World connects children to people and places in their community as they role play “grown–ups” in a child-size environment.
•World Works encourages creativity and problem-solving through investigation and experimentation.
•Earth World immerses children in lifelike Minnesota habitats to nurture an understanding of the natural world.
•Habitot enables infants and toddlers to safely explore four developmentally designed learning landscapes.
•Rooftop ArtPark brings nature and art together in an outdoor gallery on the museum’s fourth-floor[5]
•Two special galleries offer traveling exhibits from around the world. Interactive programs, such as Story Time, Big Fun! and live animal programs happen daily.

References

  1. ↑ "History & Mission of the Minnesota Children's Museum". Minnesota Children's Museum.
  2. ↑ "History & Mission of the Minnesota Children's Museum". Minnesota Children's Museum.
  3. ↑ "History & Mission of the Minnesota Children's Museum". Minnesota Children's Museum.
  4. ↑ "Children's Museum chooses design architect". Star Tribune. September 8, 2012. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Permanent Exhibits of the Minnesota Children's Museum". Minnesota Children's Museum.

Coordinates: 44°56′52.48″N 93°5′48.52″W / 44.9479111°N 93.0968111°W / 44.9479111; -93.0968111

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