Hand to Hand: 60th Anniversary Issue

Building on a Visionary Foundation

Arthur G. Affleck, III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Setting the Context

Marjorie Schwarzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The First Meetings

Mary Maher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Museums, Magic & Children

Bonnie Pitman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

InterActivity 1987, 2002, 2022:

Growth of a Conference

Beth Fitzgerald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Hand to Hand: A Constant Resource in the Field

Suzanne LeBlanc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Memphis Meeting

Jeanne Finan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Follow the Money

Janet Rice Elman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

A Good Neighbor

Jeanne Vergeront . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

InterActivity Gratitude

Aaron Goldblatt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Growing New Museums

Carol Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Support and Impact

Andrew Ackerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

MetLife Promising Practice Awards

Parent Stars: Twenty-Three Years of Serving Children and Families Cheryl McCallum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Countdown to Kindergarten

Kacy Hughes and Jeri Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Children’s Museums: An Oasis for Families in Crisis Heidi Brinig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

The Freeman Foundation Asian Exhibit Initiative

Asian Exhibits Initiative: Transformative Cultural Exhibits Brenda Baker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Asian Culture Exhibits: Medium, Large, and Small Beth Fitzgerald, Leda Riley, and Sarah Henthorn .17

Diversity in Action

Stephanie Terry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Good to Grow Tanya Durand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Reimagining Children’s Museums

Jane Werner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Research Agenda Meeting Leads to Creation of Children’s Museum Research Network Nicole Rivera and Kari Ross Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Learning to Lead

Laura Huerta Migus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Editor Note:

Hand to Hand is a quarterly publication of the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM). Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of ACM.

AssociAtion of children’s MuseuMs

2550 south clArk street suite 600 Arlington, VA 22202 703.224.3100

Email acm@ChildrensMuseums.org WEbsitE www.ChildrensMuseums.org

© 2022 Association of Children’s Museums. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited.

Hand to Hand Association of Children’s Museums

Business Members on Board Kathy Gustafson-Hilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Affinity Partners Advance the Association and Support the Members Emily Miranker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Museums for All Maggie Lancaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Hangouts Saved Us

Hardin Englehart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

ACM and HUD Partner to Promote Children’s COVID-19 Vaccinations

Keni Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Museums Mobilize

Alison Howard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

The Trends Reports

John Fraser, John Voiklis, and Shaun Field . . . . . . . 26

Does Knowing History Help?

Crystal Bowyer, Atiba Edwards, Nancy Fowler, Caitlin Luttjohann, Mfanafuthi Mbongwe, Anysia McDowall, and Kerrie Vilhauer . . . . . . . . . 27

60 Years of ACM: An International Perspective Leigh-Anne Stradeski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Future Depends on What We Choose to Do Today

Arthur G. Affleck, III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

This special edition issue of Hand to Hand celebrates sixty years of ACM’s work to advance children’s museums. The information presented here was gathered from conversations with nearly 100 people, from the organization’s major publications, including thirty-six years of Hand to Hand issues, and from a collection of documents, housed in the ACM archives, detailing hundreds of meetings, events, and other organizational efforts over the past three decades. For context, a timeline runs throughout the issue to share milestones. Articles focus on selected highlights from our history— brief anecdotal recollections of what took place at key times from 1962 to 2022 that live at the intersection of memory and research.

The organizational name itself has evolved over time to better articulate area of focus. The organization was first incorporated as the American Association of Youth Museums in 1988. A year later “American” was dropped from its name to reflect its increasingly international membership. In 2000, AYM members voted to change the name to the Association of Children’s Museums, as it is still known today. This collaborative issue, developed with many voices from the field, includes many shared references as well. To support the ease of reading, below is a short glossary of acronyms that you will find repeated frequently.

AAM: American Alliance of Museums

AAYM: American Association of Youth Museums

ACM: Association of Children’s Museums

ASTC: Association of Science and Technology Centers

AYM: Association of Youth Museums

IMLS: Institute of Museum and Library Services

What endures

Building on a Visionary Foundation

In the sixty years since in safe, secure, and family-friendly settings.

Arthur G. Affleck, III

Executive Director Association of Children’s Museums

its founding, ACM has been assertive in responding to the ever-growing early learning needs of children. Today’s ACM owes a huge debt of gratitude to its forward-thinking founders and staff members who brought into focus the urgency of broadening the scope and content of early childhood education through hands-on learning. In recent years, this urgency has been amplified into its own crisis as a direct result of the global COVID-19 pandemic which has drastically affected the teaching and learning environs for children, educators, and policymakers across virtually all demographic sectors and locations in society.

At its very core, ACM has a sixty-year track record of adapting to the changes in its ecosystem wrought by both society’s progress and its inevitable and persistent impediments. Indeed, our unspoken motto has been “resilience” in the face of daunting headwinds that would otherwise have stymied children museums’ growth and efficacy. From its formative years when membership was measured by the number of museum directors who voluntarily assembled in informal gatherings at the annual meeting of the American Alliance of Museums to its present-day total of nearly 500 members. ACM has steadily advanced the societal and educational importance of playful learning

And so, even as we gladly commemorate the monumental and visionary efforts that birthed ACM into existence, we must also remain diligent and disciplined in helping to steward children and their families toward brighter and more hopeful futures. In this special issue of Hand to Hand, you will read about a number of the defining moments in ACM’s evolution and what noted author and strategist Rita McGrath terms “inflection points” – shifts in the environment that often prompt organizations (and people) to recalibrate where and how they deploy their resources. Such occurred in 1962 with Mike Spock’s convening of his fellow children’s museum directors and again in 1994 when Janet Rice Elman became ACM’s first full-time executive director and an office in Washington, D.C., was established with a paid staff.

Alongside its founders, board members, and early staff, ACM will always be grateful for its financial backers and strategic partners whose support was indispensable and continues to assist ACM in advancing its mission. Their investments have paid handsome dividends in the form of ACM’s documented progress, growth in memberships, program offerings, expanded varieties of exhibits, hangouts by job function, InterActivity conferences held, and most critically, the children and families reached. So, while ACM understandably shares a measure of pride and even delight in its previous accomplishments, we are equally mindful that considerable work lies ahead. We pause, therefore, not just to acknowledge how far we have traveled in six decades but also to rekindle and reinforce the inspiration to ready future generations of children and their families for the social, civic, and educa-

One of the things that ACM has done over the years is to broaden, stretch out, punch holes in, and redefine the word “museum.” At the end of our days, if we are remembered for only that, it will be a good thing.

—Barbara Meyerson former president,

ACM

tional challenges that will surely await them throughout the 21st century.

Lastly, let me express my profound gratitude and appreciation to all those who contributed articles, photos, and testimonials for this special issue. I am especially grateful and indebted to Mary Maher, our long-standing and excellent editor, for shaping all aspects of this issue from its conception. Looking forward with hope and excitement to the next sixty years.

from the early origin stories to the present?...The distinguishing character of this field is—and always has been—its capacity to not just be dynamic, but always responsive. We serve families and communities with their changing issues and concerns. We are lead thinkers, and everything we do is a pilot.

—Ester Netter former CEO, Zimmer Children’s Museum

Setting the Context

Marjorie Schwarzer

Across the U.S., kindergartens were filled with children. Elementary schools were

expanding. Children’s book publishers, toy companies, pediatricians, diaper and baby food companies were thriving and innovating. It was 1962 and the baby boom generation had arrived. It is no coincidence that what eventually became ACM was founded that same year. While traditional museums were largely ignoring this growing demographic, ACM’s founders envisioned transforming museums to serve the unique needs of a growing population of children and their families.

In 1964, this vision took on more urgency when President Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled the federal government’s War on Poverty. Head Start was launched. Preschool educators began to seek new ways to develop healthy environments that would benefit all children. The nation needed more safe, accessible interactive places of learning, and ACM served as a hub for children’s museums to share ideas on how to accomplish this important work across socio-economic barriers. Their methods may have been shunned in conventional museum circles but were enthusiastically embraced by children and their caregivers.

As the baby boomers (and later GenXers) grew up and had children of their own, ACM also grew and prospered. The secret to ACM’s success? Continuing to focus on the

As the baby boomers (and later GenXers) grew up and had children of their own, ACM also grew and prospered.

The secret to ACM’s success?

Continuing to focus on the needs of children and families outside the boundaries of codified museum practices and within the context of changing times.

needs of children and families outside the boundaries of codified museum practices and within the context of changing times.

During the 1970s and 1980s, women were gaining ground in the workforce; families needed safe afterschool activities for “latchkey kids.” Within the tumult of busing, tax revolts, and politically motivated curriculum changes, public schools needed a supplemental organization centered around creativity and child-focused resources. The 1990s saw a rise of diagnoses and understanding of learning differences and other special needs; events throughout the early decades of the 2000s, including 9/11 and the growing epidemic of school shootings, have sparked fear for children’s physical safety. ACM supported children’s museums as they navigated this challenging terrain and distinguished itself as a nexus for “girl power,” programming for children with autism, interactive learning, racial and social justice, and inclusivity, among its many accomplishments.

Just as children observe and adapt to the world around them, so too do children’s museums identify and respond to the ever-evolving needs of children and families in their communities. And ACM has done its part by actively listening to and supporting children’s museums’ needs within a constantly changing world.

Under a team led by Mike Spock, Boston Children’s Museum broke new museum ground in the ’60s and ’70s. Top, Jeri Robinson, standing far right, created PlaySpace, based on the “radical” idea that children’s museums should serve toddlers and preschoolers; middle, the Visitor Center, directed by Elaine Heumann Gurian, was a “noisy, joyous” feast of exploration and discovery; science educator Bernie Zubrowksi invited kids to explore scientific phenomena.

1962-1972: Mike Spock starts informal, invitational gatherings of primarily children’s museum directors attending the American Association of Museum annual meeting.

1971: AAYM’s first survey of salaries, budgets & staff compares results among sixteen member museums. Annual directors’ salaries range from $7,500 to $25,000.

1972-1981: More children’s museums open; AAYM expands and continues to hold annual, invitational, day-long meetings piggybacking with AAM.

Museum studies professor and author of Riches, Rivals & Radicals: A History of Museums in U.S.

The First Meetings

Mary Maher

Editor & Designer Hand to Hand

In June 1962, Mike Spock, newly hired director of the Boston Children’s Museum,

invited a small group of museum directors attending the American Association of Museum’s annual meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, to get together and talk about their work in an emerging museum model: the children’s museum. Although a few children’s museums or “children’s rooms” in major museums had been around since the turn of the century, the political and social upheavals of the ’60s, running on parallel tracks with the progressive education movement, sparked an interest in the unlimited experiential learning possibilities in children’s museums.

The rest of the museum field was skeptical; support for this emerging field was absent. But Spock was undaunted. As Boston Children’s Museum colleague Pat Steuert described him, “Mike had contacts in all types of museums. He was good at drawing people together. And he usually took notes and came back and shared what went on with staff.” Spock himself described his small group of museum colleagues as “just a bunch of directors who liked to let their hair down and talk about salaries.”

Spock continued to lead these annual AAM-adjacent directors’ meetings although records of those early proceedings have not emerged. Attendance was by invitation only, and invitations were coveted. Former museum director and AAYM president Jane Jerry recalls getting her first invitation and feeling she had “arrived.” Elaine Heumann Gurian, then director of the Visitor Center at Boston Children’s Museum, never attended any of the meetings but described them as a “mix of personal and professional….They were like psychotherapy to help with the emotional overload of the work.” In minutes recovered from the 1971 meeting in Denver, Colorado, the group had expanded to include sixteen people, and the secretary

1972: 9th annual AAYM meeting held on June 17 in Mexico City, attended by 12 museums; Mike Spock gives galvanizing keynote beginning with “Hang on, I’m going to lay it on you heavy.”

closed her report with a passionate description of the “real worth of the group…so that future generations may understand what we really did when we came together”:

“The friendship, the camaraderie, the feeling of empathy, the lack of pomposity, the sense of interest and dedication, the openness of the discussions, the honesty in reporting, all bring an atmosphere around the table that is not found anywhere in any meetings conducted by the profession. It is my experience, after a lifetime of museums (30+ years) that I learn, that I grow, that I become a better professional each time I look into the friendly faces around the table and follow the discussions. It is my hope that this foolishness will go on for many years. It cannot help having a good influence on our profession.”

As the growth of the field and of what was ultimately incorporated in 1998 as the American Association of Youth Museums (AAYM) exploded over a thirty-year period starting in the late ’70s, new children’s museum leaders began to question the exclusivity of the directors’ invitation-only meetings. In June of 1980, Spock invited AAYM to hold its meeting at the Boston Children’s Museum, a day before AAM’s annual meeting in that same city. It was becoming no longer tenable to keep the hosting museum’s staff out of the room. In 1986, at a meeting led by then AAYM president Selma Shapiro (director of the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, Tennessee), held at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, it was decided the organization should take a broader leadership role in the field and open up meetings to all directors and all staff.

In the spring of 1987, in the second issue of Hand to Hand, Shapiro wrote an article entitled “AAYM: Context for Identity” in which she stated the rationale behind the change.

1973: To become an AAYM member, a museum must be accredited by AAM and approved by the rest of the AAYM members.

AAM annual meeting

Williamsburg, VA, June 5-8, 1962

Program included the following “Children’s Museum Section”:

Leisure Time Programming by Dr. Kenneth W. Prescott, Academy of Natural Sciences

Presenting a Challenge to Junior and Senior High School Students by Helmuth J. Naumer, Charlotte Children’s Nature Museum

People of the World—International Workshops for Youth by Jane B. Cheney, director, Children’s Museum of Hartford

Seeing and Doing Creatively by Robert E. Edmiston, director of education, Des Moines Art Center

Historic Site Studies for Youth by Louis F. Ismay, director, Rensselaer County Junior Museum

Election of section chairman for 1962-63

Although a complete list of attendees was not recorded, the first gathering of museum directors that became the foundation for AAYM included the following people:

Mike Spock, Boston Children’s Museum

Mildred Compton, Indianapolis Children’s Museum

Early meeting organizers Mike Spock and Mildred Compton

Albert Heine, The Corpus Christi Museum

Helmuth Naumer, San Antonio Museum Association

For this 1962 meeting, along with subsequent early annual gatherings, complete rosters of attendees are not known but meetings were likely attended by the following notable museum professionals:

Jane B. Cheney, Children’s Museum of Hartford

Jane Glaser, Sunrise Children’s Museum and Planetarium (Charleston, WV); later the Smithsonian Institution

Lloyd Hezekiah, Brooklyn Children’s Museum

Frank Oppenheimer, Exploratorium

Beatrice Parsons, Detroit Children’s Museum

Russell Peithman, Discovery Place (Charlotte, NC) and later LA Children’s Museum

Portia Sperr, Please Touch Museum (Philadelphia, PA)

“Although AAYM has been in existence for nearly twenty-five years, it has served mainly as a support group for about thirty-five youth museum directors who meet annually prior to the American Association of Museums conference. These meetings have been small, personal, and productive for those who attended. Now, with the tremendous proliferation of children’s museums in this country, AAYM officers and members have answered the demand for expansion of services to existing and new youth museums with a variety of plans for the future.”

Meanwhile, beginning in 1975, due to a tsunami of interest in opening new children’s museums, Boston Children’s Museum, weary of responding to repeated requests for advice, started a seminar called Museums for Children: Moving, Changing, Growing. This hugely popular gathering of startup groups was later retitled, in let’s-get-downto-brass-tacks fashion, How to Start/Not to Start a Children’s Museum. How to Start/ Not Start, offered several more times in the ’80s in Boston and later in Houston, was attended by over 100 people planning to open new museums in communities worldwide. The majority of startup museum leaders were parents, teachers, and women’s groups, such as the Junior League.

In 1987, the AAYM board in cooperation with its part-time administrator and Hand to Hand owner/editor Linda Edieken, launched the organization’s first conference, InterActivity. Held on June 7 at the Exploratorium in San Francisco before the start of the AAM meeting (June 7-10), Edeiken reported in the summer 1987 issue of Hand to Hand that 110 people attended. This signature annual gathering mushroomed over the years as both the field and the organization grew. In 2012, what by then was called the Association of Children’s Museums meeting became a stand-alone annual event. That year, InterActivity was held in Portland, Oregon, the hosting museum was the Portland Children’s Museum; it was attended by 767 people, including not only children’s museum staff, but professionals across a wide spectrum of museums and related industries.

1975: Boston Children’s Museum launches Museums for Children: Moving, Changing, Growing, a seminar for startups later known as How to Start/Not to Start a Children’s Museum.

Museums, Magic & Children

Bonnie Pitman

Author of Museums, Magic & Children, and Distinguished Scholar in Residence and Director of Art and Brain Initiatives at the Center for Brain Health at The University of Texas at Dallas.

As curator of education at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, I met Mike Spock on

a visit to Boston Children’s Museum in the late ’60s, beginning a decades-long friendship and collaboration. Through subsequent leadership positions at several art museums and one children’s museum, I regularly attended AAM meetings and participated in Mike’s informal gatherings of museum directors interested in children’s museums. The group included Mildred Compton, Jane Glaser, Al Heine, Helmuth Naumer, Russ Peithman, Lloyd Hezekiah, and other directors whose museums focused on the needs of children, families, and communities in a burgeoning field in need of funding and recognition by other museums. This trailblazing group of upstarts, which eventually coalesced as AAYM, served as the incubator for the first book about children’s museums: Museums, Magic & Children.

In 1975, AAYM received a grant from the National Museum Act to “research and

write a publication on youth education in museums,” and the book’s editorial committee asked me to write it. After six years of research, Museums, Magic & Children, originally titled Pumpkins into Coaches, was completed, and additional funding was obtained through The Association of Science-Technology Centers to publish it in 1981.

The publication, drawing on responses from questionnaires sent to nearly a thousand museums of all types, as well as science centers, aquariums, zoos, and botanic gardens, was organized as a guide with extensive resources for groups interested in starting their own museums. Up until then, education sat second chair to collections in most museums, but the rise of children’s museums, “for someone, not about something,” focused on the power of experiential learning and community engagement. At the same time, as a result of the 1969 Tax Reform Act, which created the 501(c) (3) nonprofit status, museums were now required to demonstrate a clear public benefit and so the balance shifted to audience + collections. Serving the needs of children and families through hands-on, object-based learning, the hallmark of children’s museums, was a methodology soon adapted in all types of museums.

Museums, Magic & Children was an instant success. In a time when the field was just beginning to experience explosive growth with few resources and an organization in its infancy, it soon sold out. But those early AAYM leaders, including myself, recognized a sea change in what people wanted from museums and what the best museums could provide their communities. Although the book was intended to be about “youth education in museums,” it became what editorial committee member Russ Peithen, then director of the Los Angeles Children’s Museum called “a book about children’s museums: what they are, how to start one, and how to design ‘hands-on’ programs and exhibits.”

1980: Annual AAYM meeting held for the first time in a children’s museum—Boston Children’s Museum—to enable members to “see the programs, firsthand.”

1984: AAYM has 30 members.

1986: AAYM takes a broader leadership role in the field and opens up annual meetings to all directors and staff.

InterActivity 1987, 2001, 2022

Growth of a Conference

This year, celebrating the 60th anniversary of ACM, a robust

organization with over 470 members in 50 states and 16 countries, I recall a time in the late ’70s and early ’80s when the association, after a trailblazing start, had become rather dormant. In June of 1987, I was one of a small group who met at the Exploratorium in San Francisco hoping to re-energize the organization. At that time, AAYM gathered the day before the American Association of Museums’ annual conference, held in the same city.

At that historic Exploratorium meeting, attended by about fifteen children’s museum directors who gathered for lunch in a conference room, we made a plan to formalize the association with an elected board of directors and organize our own annual conference. In the several years that followed, AAYM, which had dropped “American” from its name in 1989 and become AYM, was entirely volunteer run, but we still held strong day-long conferences hosted by children’s museums in New Orleans, Houston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Memphis. Based

At InterActivity 2006, hosted by Boston Children’s Museum, leaders gathered to celebrate the 20th InterActivity. Cutting the cake were Selma Shapiro, former ACM president, Mike Spock, ACM founder, Kate Bennett, former ACM president, Carol Enseki, executive director of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and Beth Fitzgerald, also former ACM president.

on the philosophy of hands-on, interactive learning, which reflected the mission of our field, the conference was called InterActivity. It was quite a novel approach to conference content—and to museums—at the time.

In 2001, the Magic House hosted InterActivity in St. Louis. By that time, the Association of Youth Museums had a fulltime

professional staff with offices in Washington, D.C. Children’s museums were “at the table” and had become advocates for children and families. The Great Friend to Kids award had become an important conference component, identifying leaders in the field of children’s learning and well-being and yielding strong keynote speakers and session content. It was a time of enormous growth in the field as communities reached out to the AYM office for support in creating their own children’s museums. In 2001, with more than 200 member museums, hundreds of museum professionals attended InterActivity. A network of museum leadership grew.

When The Magic House hosted the most recent 2022 InterActivity, we greeted many new faces entering the field. We were so very proud to reflect back on the growth of the association and its ability to evolve to meet the changing needs of children’s museums over the past six decades, efforts never more evident than during the past two pandemic years.

1986-87

1987:

1988:

Beth Fitzgerald

President, The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum

Left to right, Loretta Yajima, former director, Hawaii Children’s Discovery Museum at Stepping Stones Children’s Museum 2016; InterActivity plenary session, 2022; Ella Jenkins performs at InterActivity 2007 in Chicago; and exhibit designer Richard Larson and architect/exhibit designer Alissa Rupp explore an exhibit at Children’s Museum Houston, host of InterActivity 2011.

AAYM incorporates in state of Utah as a 501 (c)(3) organization.

(winter): Linda Edeiken, Children’s Museum Network, publishes first issue of Hand to Hand, in cooperation with AAYM. A part-time AAYM director (James O. Loney, later director of the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum) hired to coordinate InterActivity and offer other technical assistance.

First AAYM InterActivity held June 7 at the Exploratorium in San Francisco before the start of AAM included a planning meeting and other activities; attendance figures vary.

1989:

Hand to Hand: A Constant Resource in the Field

Suzanne LeBlanc Executive Director Long Island Children’s Museum

I’

ve been reading and learning from Hand to Hand for as long as I can remember.

I’ve been in the children’s museum field for more than forty-eight years. I started as a mostly unpaid intern at the Boston Children’s Museum and I now direct the Long Island Children’s Museum. At each rung of my career ladder, I have had different questions, different information needs, as well as the desire to feed my own love for learning.

Hand to Hand has been a constant companion filling those needs—always a journal, not a newsletter, always intellectually stimulating.

I first started reading Hand to Hand before ACM had any paid staff. It has been an important resource for the field for thirty-six years. I have kept all my paper issues, have often referred to past ones, and have written for some. Are you: Looking for ideas and research about outdoor exhibits and the importance of children spending time outdoors? Thinking it’s time to reimagine children’s museums? Missed InterActivity and want to be inspired? Searching for new ways to enhance board effectiveness as an executive director? In need of ideas and models for living up to your core values about access and inclusion for all? Struggling with how to maintain financial sustainability through global crises? Thinking about the meaning and value of creativity and play? I have looked to Hand to Hand for assistance and inspiration about all of these things.

4

I confess––I am a reader. In spite of my understanding of the value of interactive learning and multiple learning styles, reading is how I learn best. Hand to Hand has always been within easy reach as I entered the field, as I developed my passion for community engagement and social justice work, and as I developed the drive and passion to be in leadership positions in museums. It has helped my growth and development as a museum professional in innumerable ways. For me, Hand to Hand has been both a shining gem and an in-depth exploration of ideas through the years and decades.

1989-1990:

formed.

“…to

1989: Hand to Hand focuses on research for the field; the first of five issues over the years to focus on the topic.

AAM National Museum Survey analyzes data from 1,077 museums, including 40 children’s museums. Hand to Hand publishes “Characteristics of Children’s Museums” based on survey excerpts; first data portrait of the field.

First AYM Standards Task Force

Goal:

develop tools necessary to define standards for children’s museums compatible with existing standards in the museum field.”

InterActivity, May 1996, St. Paul, MN: Jeanne Finan, executive director of The Children’s Museum of Memphis and past president of ACM; Putter Bert, then executive director of the Children’s Museum of Arkansas; Andy Ackerman, executive director of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, and Mary Maher, editor/designer, Hand to Hand pose next to the Christmas decorations, including fake snow, covering downtown, where the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Jingle All the Way was being filmed.

The Memphis Meeting

Finan, former President, AYM and Executive Director

The number of children’s museums around the country was growing exponentially, and those of us in leadership positions in children’s museums—large, medium and small—realized we were not able to take care of the needs of our own individual institutions AND offer the support needed by what we at the time referred to as “start-ups.”

We wanted to be generous but we were stretched beyond our capacity.

At this meeting, we unanimously agreed we had to hire a paid executive director. Sally Osberg had a contact at the Knight Foundation, and we thought they might be interested in funding a director and initial office set up. Moreover, we desperately needed a skillful and experienced leader to assume the responsibilities of fund raising to hire additional staff and develop programs.

After much discussion, we decided we wanted a permanent office, not a workfrom-home situation (this was long before the recent pandemic) and the location of that office was to be in Washington, D.C. (Another foundation had previously expressed interest in funding AYM’s growth but insisted that the headquarters be in their home town, which was not Washington, D.C.) The offices for AAM and ASTC, as well as other governmental museum support systems, made Washington their home. It seemed like a logical location.

In 1992, the AYM Council came together in Memphis for a meeting. I was the ex-

ecutive director of The Children’s Museum of Memphis and president of AYM. Council members included Barbara Meyerson (Arizona Museum for Youth, later known as i.d.e.a. Museum, in Mesa), Nancy Glaser (Richmond Children’s Museum later known as the Children’s Museum of Richmond), Sally Osberg (Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose), Diane Frankel (Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito), Dianne Sautter (Chicago Children’s Museum), Debi Edward (Austin Children’s Museum, later known as The Thinkery), and Suzanne LeBlanc (Lied Discovery Museum later known as Discovery Children’s Museum, in Las Vegas).

For many years, before the all-volunteer organization had a paid staff and permanent physical office, AYM’s “headquarters”

moved around from city to city depending on where its president lived and worked. The main focus for our discussion at this meeting was how to move forward in hiring a professional staff.

We knew we were at that point. As council president, I wanted that to happen as soon as possible. The number of children’s museums around the country was growing exponentially, and those of us in leadership positions in children’s museums—large, medium and small—realized we were not able to take care of the needs of our own individual institutions AND offer the support needed by what we at the time referred to as “start-ups.” We wanted to be generous but we were stretched beyond our capacity. Plus, we felt like we also needed support and resources for our own work, mostly beyond the startup phase but still in early growth mode.

Funding was secured. Resumes were received and reviewed and our finalists were selected for personal interviews. I distinctly remember conducting a lunch interview, along with Sally Osberg and Barbara Meyerson, with Janet Rice Elman. It was one of those occasions where all three of us knew without a doubt: she is the one.

After checking references and discussion with the full council, we hired Janet. Thirty years later, I have no hesitation whatsoever in saying, Janet Rice Elman was the absolute best possible first executive director of AYM.

1990: Annual conference (Chicago) consists of half-day Director’s Roundtable with evening activities for directors, full day of InterActivity with the first exhibit hall and evening activities for attendees, reception for AAM attendees, and business meeting.

1990: AYM membership: 190 U.S. museums, 16 international members, 68 individual members, 4 corporate members.

1991: AYM receives IMLS grant to develop and disseminate recommended standards for the children’s museum field. AYM Self-Study Task Force produces Youth Museum SelfStudy Document, which leads to Professional Practices for Children’s Museums.

Jeanne Finan

Jeanne

The Children’s Museum of Memphis

Janet Rice Elman, hired in 1994 as the organization’s first executive director, congratulates outgoing AYM president Jeanne Finan and welcomes incoming AYM president and executive director of the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose (CA), Sally Osberg at InterActivity 1996 in St. Paul, MN.

Follow the Money

Janet Rice Elman

Growth and innovation require investment. Whether a milestone was the logical next step in the maturation of children’s museums or ACM, or an innovative leap, there was always a funder willing to invest.

For nearly twenty years as executive director of ACM, I was privileged to be a

part of many milestones in the growth of the association and the children’s museum field. Underpinning every milestone was money. Like children’s museums, ACM’s income is both earned and contributed. The earned income, primarily from membership dues and InterActivity fees and sponsorships, supported the association’s general operations including technical assistance, publications, and the annual conference. The contributed income, particularly grants, provided the

flexibility needed for the association to be creative and innovative as it grew its services and advocacy for the field.

Knight Foundation funding, in 1994, helped to establish an office and hire an executive director, quickly followed by a professional practices grant from IMLS for the “startup kit” (Collective Vision: Starting and Sustaining a Children’s Museum), shaped the early years by providing staff and resources to support the rapidly growing field. Starting in 1999, MetLife Foundation funded the annual Promising Practice Awards to

showcase the best examples of programs, exhibits, design, and operations in the field and to create corollary tool kits to support replications of these ideas at other museums. From these projects and others grew a matrix of programs, publications, meetings, and partnerships that would establish children’s museums as leaders in the broader museum, informal education, and early learning fields.

As children’s museums achieved critical mass in number, size, professionalism, and reputation, the association attracted funders interested in promoting growth in new directions. Civil Society Institute provided capacity-building support and nurtured many connections that laid the groundwork for innovation. IMLS supported an enormous effort to harness the data ACM collected from each museum to create a Benchmarking Calculator. The Freeman Foundation supported the creation of traveling exhibits that not only immersed children and families in Asian cultures, but also built capacity in museums to create and host these exhibits. The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund supported Good to Grow!, an initiative to develop nature-based, outdoor experiences and spaces at children’s museums.

All of these efforts represented the field’s drive to support families in new ways, leading the association to convene conversations and solicit visionary ideas for the future through the Reimagining Children’s Museums initiative also funded by MetLife Foundation. And, of course, for all of these efforts, there were many more ideas that were not funded. Growth and innovation require investment. Whether a milestone was the logical next step in the maturation of children’s museums or ACM, or an innovative leap, there was always a funder willing to invest.

1991:

1991: Mary Worthington,

1991:

of LA Children’s Museum,

Where Are the Dinosaurs? The Phenomena of Hands On Museums, the first history (unpublished) of children’s museums from inception to 1991.

Former Executive Director Association of Children’s Museums

Great Friend to Kids Award launches to recognize people committed to expanding the understanding of child development and to generating research that improves the way children and their families are served.

Linda Edeiken resigns as director of Children’s Museum Network/AYM but remains editor of Hand to Hand.

former director

writes

1997 AYM board meeting, Santa Fe, NM. Front, seated, from left: Suzanne LeBlanc, Barbara Meyerson, [unidentified man in blue], Janet Rice Elman, Lou Casagrande, Carol Enseki; back row, standing, from left: Mary Ellyn Voden, Greg Warren, Ann Bitter, Sally Osberg, Alison Moore, Nan Miller, Andy Ackerman, and Kim McDougall.

A Good Neighbor

Vergeront

In mid-1995, ACM invited Minnesota Children’s Museum to host InterActiv-

ity the following May. We were excited to show our newly opened (September 1995), 65,000-square-foot building with five galleries in downtown St. Paul to our children’s museum colleagues. We were also exhausted. Six months after opening, we were still finishing some exhibit components and fixing others.

When ACM announced that Mr. Rogers would receive its Great Friend to Kids Award and visit the museum, we were elated. And panicked. We were just learning how to operate the new building, manage larger crowds, and get staffing right. It was as if we had been driving a VW Bug—our much smaller, older building—and were now flying an intergalactic spaceship while reading the operations manual. We had a lot to figure out in order to host an evening event for 600 of our best museum friends and a visit from a celebrity. Adding to the confusion, the movie Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger was being filmed across the street from the museum and artificial snow drifts lined the May streets.

When we found that we needed to close the museum to the public on the day Mr. Rogers visited, we were flummoxed. Wouldn’t he want to see and be seen by some of his biggest fans? There were a lot of demands on museum time. As a new museum, we needed to keep regular public visitation hours but we also needed any time we could get to get ready for a big evening event.

Ann Bitter, the museum’s CEO, and I, then vice president of exhibits and education, were given the task of walking Mr. Rogers through the museum. Our first clue as to why we needed to close the museum while he was there surfaced when Richard, a housekeeper in a job training program, asked if he could please say hello to Mr. Rogers. After meeting, the two of them took off walking through the entire building leaving Ann and me in the museum’s atrium. They returned more than an hour later. As we learned, Mr. Rogers gave each person the time they needed.

Later commenting to Ann and me, Mr. Rogers paused on his tour and said, “I can see what you are trying to do here for children.” Drained and weary, Ann and I felt

Left, Fred Rogers, who receivd AYM’s sixth Great Friend to Kids Award at InterActivity 1996 in St. Paul, Minnesota, is flanked by Jeanne Vergeront, vice president of education and exhibits, and Ann Bitter, executive director, Minnesota Children’s Museum.

Above: Rogers and Bitter explore one of the newly opened museum’s exhibit signs with its Rogers-aligned message “Don’t worry...I’m here to help explain things.”

overwhelmed by his observation. First one of us and then the other quietly turned our head to hide our tears of pride.

After Mr. Rogers had gone to his hotel, I was asked to drop off a guest pass so he could take his daily swim at the nearby YMCA. Arriving at the historic St. Paul Hotel a few blocks from the museum, I told the livery-dressed concierge I needed to drop off the swimming pass for Mr. Rogers. This man, wearing a brass-buttoned coat and top hat, could hardly contain himself. He said, “I was a high school swimming coach. Please, can I deliver the pass to Mr. Rogers?” Off he went on his important errand.

Near the conference’s closing, Mr. Rogers accepted ACM’s Great friend to Kids Award. The long applause subsided, the great hall emptied, and conference attendees swarmed a table where Mr. Rogers sat patiently signing each copy of You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor. Mr. Rogers remained a good neighbor to ACM and children’s museums.

1991: CHILDMUS, the first children’s museum list serv, starts in Houston by George Jerry; within six years, it connects more than 250 children’s museum professionals in more than 20 countries.

1991-1992: Jane Jerry writes “What’s in a Name?” in the winter issue of Hand to Hand about the raging debate (which went on for years in the museum world) about whether a children’s museum should be called a “museum.”

1992: AYMnews, a bimonthly newsletter, created to keep members informed about the organization and the field.

Jeanne

Museum Planner

InterActivity Gratitude

Aaron Goldblatt

Museum Services Metcalf Design

ve missed a handful of InterActivity conferences since my first one in 1993, but not many. The annual ritual has been an important piece of my professional life for almost thirty years. I truly love these folks, many of whom have shaped my practice yet, unfortunately, I see them only then. But there are scores of other people I have been lucky enough to work with in a wide range of settings because of that meeting.

I can’t point to any one stand-out event or meeting, but together, they form a deep pool of generosity and innovative thinking that feeds and refreshes me every year.

I came to exhibit design as a practicing artist, thinking a job in a children’s museum would be a way to simultaneously feed that practice and my family. What I found was a world where creativity and experimentation

flourished. I worked with people way smarter than me, and I was held accountable for that work by a tough crowd of (mostly) little people.

As an artist, I was trained to think that asking your audience what they wanted was a fundamental sin. The very idea carried a whiff of “commercialism,” which tainted creativity. Even acknowledging your audience was frowned upon. In this new world, understanding, respecting, and listening to your audience was a prime directive. With no regrets, I closed my studio practice, in 1994, and never looked back.

I will forever be grateful to the welcoming, inspiring community I found in ACM. Hours in meaningful discussion in InterActivity sessions, at the host children’s museum’s party, and in the hotel bar will sustain me for the rest of my life.

Since 1991, the ACM Great Friend to Kids Award has recognized individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to strengthening the education and lives of children. The award is presented at a ceremony during the Association of Children’s Museums’ annual InterActivity conference.

1991 Michael Spock 1992 Howard Gardner 1993 Marian Wright Edelman 1994 Peggy Charren 1995 Ernest L. Boyer 1996 Fred Rogers 1997 James P. Comer 1998 Hillary Rodham Clinton 1999 Children’s Television Workshop 2000 Robert Coles 2001 David Elkind 2002 UNICEF 2003 Barbara Pierce Bush 2004 Kevin Clash 2005 Erikson Institute 2006 T. Berry Brazelton 2007 Bettye Caldwell, Julius B. Richmond, Edward F. Zigler

1993: AYM purchases Hand to Hand from Edeiken and hires Mary Maher as editor/ designer; editorial focus shifts to themed issues and all articles, no newsletter announcements or ads.

1994: Hands-On!, an alliance of European children’s museums, begins as an informal network; attracts over 400 international panelists and attendees at its first conference in 1996.

2008 Joe L. Frost, Ed.D., L.H.D 2009 Boys and Girls Clubs of America 2010 Search Institute 2011 The Jim Henson Company 2012 Reggio Children, Reggio Emilia 2013 Eric Carle 2014 Ralph Smith 2015 Ruby Bridges, Yvonne Simons, Jeanne White-Ginder 2016 Geoffrey Canada 2017 The Junior League 2018 The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University 2019 Temple Grandin 2022 PBS KIDS

1994: Supported by Knight Foundation funds, AYM opens its professionally staffed office on K Street NW in Washington, D.C., and hires its first executive director, Janet Rice Elman. Current membership: 247.

Laura Foster, former executive director, and Aaron Goldblatt, former exhibits director, Please Touch Museum at InterActivity 1996.

Top, T. Berry Brazelton; bottom, Lisa Henson, CEO, The Jim Henson Company.

Growing New Museums

Carol Scott Consulting Director Modesto Children’s Museum (CA)

Ihave been involved in this field for nearly thirty years. To say that we are an in-

dustry that has great social value is evident in the growth and widespread expansion of children’s museums over the last sixty years.

One of the highlights for me has been working with the startups. In 1995, ACM added a day-long Startup Museums Preconference* to respond to increasing demand from people who wanted to open a children’s museum. Not only did this addition to the InterActivity program reflect the rapid growth of children’s museums around the world and in ACM’s membership, but it also meant that there were accepted steps and processes for successfully opening one. For many years, existing children’s museums generously shared their time and expertise with dozens of startup groups. Later, along with staff from many of these same museums, we presented information and lessons learned at the preconference, reaching more people, and reflecting a growing centralization and professionalization in the field.

As the startup process can take many years, several new museums return annually to the preconference for ongoing support and additional information relevant to their stage of development.

The magic of fresh beginnings is a powerful motivator, but creating a new museum requires more than enthusiasm. Most children’s museum founders do not have museum experience, so attending the preconference offered a crash course in what they needed to focus on. In addition, through-

out the years, ACM has supplemented the preconference with several startup toolkits and publications. While the industry has changed significantly, and the information may be slightly dated, the startup process remains consistent. In addition to the preconference, in 1997, ACM published the “bible,” Collective Vision: Starting and Sustaining a Children’s Museum, which continues to be a great resource.

A quotation by Sally Osberg in Collective Vision stands out: “There’s no script, no right way or wrong way; creative energy, resourcefulness, a tolerance for risk...and plain old tenacity turn out to be more important than getting the square footage right.” As the children’s museum industry has grown and developed, so has ACM’s level of support and guidance for those just starting out.

* The term “startup museum” was later changed to “emerging museum” to reflect the lengthy development process often involved.

There’s no script, no right way or wrong way [to start a children’s museum]; creative energy, resourcefulness, a tolerance for risk...and plain old tenacity turn out to be more important than getting the square footage right.”

1995: Nina Friedlander Gibans publishes Children’s Museums: Bridges to the Future, the first children’s museum research project, sponsored by the Cleveland Children’s Museum and Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

1995: AYM initiates Startup Museums Preconference at InterActivity.

1997: Collective Vision: Starting and Sustaining a Children’s Museum, a 324page collection of articles, best practices, and resources for emerging museums; later reprinted in 2007 and 2010.

—Sally Osberg, Collective Vision

InterActivity attendees chat with a representative from Imagination Playground, a popular exhibit among children’s museums of all ages.

Support and Impact

If past is prologue (and it surely is), the future of children’s museums is starlight

bright. For sixty years, ACM has supported a field with grassroots beginnings and a strong commitment to local communities. Through key projects it spearheaded and a collaborative ethos, its national impact has grown enormously. .

After twenty-nine years as executive director of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM), I have selected two related examples of how New York’s children’s museums aligned themselves with a leading university to highlight the research-based practices of children’s museums and, then, experienced how children’s museums rallied to support one another in times of national crisis.

In 1999, InterActivity was held in New York City. This atypical location posed enormous opportunities and even larger challenges. The co-hosts—CMOM, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and the Staten Island Children’s Museum—decided to do something different: infuse the entire conference with the scholarly work of a major university. In fact, we held the conference at New York University (NYU), with a roster of professors, including well-known cultural critic Neil Postman, delivering keynotes and participating in panel discussions.

For the first time, conference goers did not move from room to room in a hotel conference center but traveled independently among multiple venues on an urban campus. Honestly, it was not everyone’s cup of tea, yet many attendees felt that the inconvenience was far offset by the elevated academic rigor highlighting the serious underpinnings of our work. (While the academic side of the conference was a hit with many, most attendees will remember the CMOM evening event featuring the local culture of transvestites in bathing suits on roller skates greeting people at the entrance.)

1996: Your Voice Counts, a members’ survey, segmented into five key criteria to permit comparing results across a variety of member segments, launches.

Above, Andy Ackerman and Mike Spock; below, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and the Louisiana Children’s Museum became supportive partners in response to two staggering disasters in their communities, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, respectively, both with significant local impact.

They accepted our invitation and provided a timely balm to the staff and to those visitors who sought them out.

In the longer term, responses from colleagues buoyed our spirits, gave us strength, and reminded us to do what children’s museums do best: provide creative outlets for families to be families and to help children thrive even in the midst of trauma. Within days, we received letters and children’s drawings from children’s museums across the country. And then we received a note from Julia Bland at the Louisiana Children’s Museum (LCM): they had just held a fund raiser and sent us part of the proceeds to help us secure art materials for our families.

I assured Julia that we would never forget their generosity and we would be there for them if they ever needed help. Unfortunately, that time came four years later when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

CMOM worked with LCM to develop and fund a recovery project. We brought four huge tents to the sole remaining elementary school in the city and filled them with activities needed to nourish the minds and souls of traumatized children, teachers, and families and help them to feel “normal.”

Two years later brought September 11, and in 2001, no history or text book existed to help respond to the attacks on American soil. As I watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center tower in real time, it was clear that CMOM would need to respond. But what would be appropriate and who would help us?

Fortunately, the previous year’s New York-based InterActivity helped us forge another relationship with NYU. We asked NYU therapists to be at the museum when we re-opened a few days after the towers fell.

1997: Laying the groundwork for AYM’s Early Learning Initiative, AYM Institute on Early Learning presents Environments for the Very Young in Museums at Boston Children’s Museum, the first AYM Fall Institute for children’s museum leaders.

CMOM staff continued working in NOLA for four months, and the program continued in another guise for years thereafter. The comradery created by ACM at previous InterActivities and through its other programs and publications, like Hand to Hand, was the wellspring from which came the help many of us needed after 9/11 and Katrina.

When we capitalize on the spirit of mutual support, the national network that serves tens of millions of people each year, and the intellectual basis of our work, our national impact will receive the support it deserves and our families will be the beneficiaries.

1998: MetLife begins ten-year sponsorship of the Promising Practice Award program (1999-2008) to “honor innovative management and programming practices in the children’s museum field.”

Andrew Ackerman

Former Executive Director Children’s Museum of Manhattan and former President, ACM

PROMISING PRACTICE AWARD

Established in 1999, and funded by MetLife Foundation, the Promising Practice Award recognized and documented pioneering programs, exhibits, and management practices found in ACM member museums in the United States.

From 1999 to 2008, award categories were determined annually and emphasized themes that supported ACM’s mission. Themes included nurturing early childhood development, building a civil society, promoting lifelong learning, forging neighborhood partnerships, and positioning children’s museums to thrive in a changing world. Through an application process during this ten-year program, an impartial selection committee identified thirty museums to receive cash awards and field-wide reconition.

Parent Stars: Twenty-Three Years of Serving Children and Families

Cheryl McCallum

Director of Education Children’s Museum Houston

In 1999, Texaco contacted three local nonprofits, including Children’s Muse-

um Houston (CMH), about plans to sponsor STEM family learning engagement for elementary school-age children. They selected CMH because, in their words, “Children’s museums are known for strong community outreach.”

At the same time, in partnership with the Houston Independent School District, CMH had developed a pilot program, Parent Stars, in response to a need for elementary schools to provide compelling family engagement events on their campuses, leveraging the expertise of partners rather than burdening teachers with extra work. Parent Stars’ multidisciplinary programming included STEM activities, which meshed with Texaco’s interests. So, with three years of startup funding from Texaco, CMH built a system which included large events held in school cafeterias that “transported” the museum to schools through table-top bilingual activities. In addition, smaller, more intimate workshops were held for parents on topics ranging from communicating with children to facilitating inquiry-based activities at home.

ACM recognized Parent Stars with a Promising Practice Award in 2005. By 2015,

the program had grown from an initial three schools to more than seventy-five schools in thirteen school districts, serving 30,000+ students and family members annually. Evidence gathered through many external and internal studies has consistently shown that through participation in the program, parents gain confidence for doing at-home learning activities with their children and develop stronger relationships with their children’s school.

COVID-19 temporarily kicked Parent Stars off course until CMH educators developed an online version. From October 2020 through February 2022, supplies were available for curbside pickup by families at partner campuses; CMH educators joined families virtually while they used the materials and techniques at home. While proud of that virtual work, CMH and partner schools are happy to have regained the power of in-person gatherings on campuses to engage and learn together.

1999: Outward Bound for the Mind Leadership Institute, the second in AYM’s Fall Institutes, sponsored by Civil Society Institute; 100 children’s museums leaders gather in Asheville, NC, for creative inspiration and professional development.

1999: AYM launches a website.

2000: 90% of AYM members vote to change AYM’s name to the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) to more accurately reflect their core constituency and citing better brand recognition of the word “children.”

MetLife Foundation & Association of Children’s Museums

Promising Practice Award | 2001

Families play and learn together in Children’s Museum Houston’s long-running Parents Stars program.

Countdown to Kindergarten (C2K) started in 1999 to help families transition

into Boston Public School (BPS) kindergarten, which had recently expanded from a half-day to a full-day program. Its founding partners, a network of community groups, included Boston Children’s Museum (BCM), the city’s Department of Children and Families, and ABCD Head Start. The program title, Countdown to Kindergarten, was coined by Jeri Robinson, who had been conducting events at the museum for Head Start families for years.

C2K’s three goals were: 1) to help families understand the complicated school registration process; 2) to prepare families to help their kids succeed in school by giving them ideas for practicing skills they would need there; and 3) to engage childcare providers, teachers, and other community agencies to support families in getting ready for school.

In August 1999, one of the first activities developed by the founding partners’ steering committee, was a city-wide Countdown to Kindergarten celebration, hosted by Boston Children’s Museum, for all the children entering BPS kindergarten. Key activities included vision and dental screenings, BPS department representatives on hand to answer questions from families and caregivers, and a backpack giveaway.

Countdown to Kindergarten

Promising Practice Award | 2001

Three hundred people attended the first C2K event. Families brought their prospective kindergartener along with their siblings. The following year, in order to make the kindergartener feel special—and stand out in a sea of young children— the famous yellow C2K tee shirts were created and handed out to the incoming kindergarteners. Countdown to Kindergarten became a model for dozens of similar initiatives across the country and is now a division of the Department of Early Childhood in the Boston Public Schools and a core strategy of the school system to improve new family engagement.

Kacy Hughes, Project Manager, Countdown to Kindergarten, Boston Public Schools; Jeri Robinson, former Vice President Early Childhood Initiatives, Boston Children’s Museum and current Committee Chair, Boston Public Schools

Children receive the famous yellow shirts and with their families get ready for kindergarten in Boston Children’s Museum’s much-replicated Countdown to Kindergarten program.

have in order to be successful in their formative years. During the weekdays, the classroom is popular with many young toddlers who visit the museum. Based on museum staff observations and feedback from caregivers, the exhibit has been adapted from time to time to reflect what school readiness means for young children and their families. Over the years, the exhibit has also served as a gathering place, hosting language-specific groups of families from Boston Public Schools, early childhood educators from around the world, and playgroups.

In addition to the annual C2K event, Robinson, current chair of the Boston Public Schools Committee, dreamt of having a space at the museum where children and families could “practice” going to kindergarten. In 2010 the museum opened a Countdown to Kindergarten classroom, a model classroom designed around the questions parents had about kindergarten and the skills educators thought children should

2000: ACM launches Affinity Partner Programs and other programs for corporate members.

2001: ACM begins work with Freeman Foundation on $7 million Asian Exhibit Initiative.

2001: Capturing the Vision, companion volume to Collective Vision published with early history of the field (“A Slender Golden Thread”) and photos of outstanding examples of existing children’s museums; book came with CD that included all images for use in presentations to community stakeholders and media.

Kacy Hughes and Jeri Robinson

As a small children’s museum, could we create a meaningful partnership with

our state child welfare agency? The mission started simply as an effort to bring the two entities together to provide play-based experiences in a different visitation setting to families with children in foster care. The result was the creation of Families Together (FT), Providence Children’s Museum’s (PCM) award-winning program now in its thirty-first year of serving families separated due to abuse or neglect.

The purpose of Families Together remains the same today: help families rebuild relationships and help parents strengthen their parenting skills during their court-ordered visitation time. The program offers permanency planning, therapeutic visitation, and clinical assessments for children in state care. Serving children ages birth to eighteen and their parents, Families Together clinicians work with Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Family social workers to help them make the best diagnostic and therapeutic use of family visitations.

When visiting at PCM or Nina’s House, a separate homelike care setting, a child can invite her parent(s) to put on a costume or pretend to be sailing across the ocean, creating a teachable moment when negotiation, compromise, and conversations can occur. As their children engage them in imagina-

Children’s

Museums: An Oasis for Families in Crisis

those who are rebuilding relationships.

In addition to our 2000 Promising Practice Award, in 2003, Families Together was named a finalist for the Innovations in American Government Award, a program of the Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

PCM currently serves sixty-two families at any one time compared to the fifteen with which we began. Families Together staff along with the museum’s education staff provide professional development to social service agencies on how to encourage families to play in the museum. Caseworkers understand the value of the environment, museum staff’s support of their families, and the simple kindness we afford them.

2001: 9/11 changes everything; accelerates a major shift toward supporting children’s museums as they support children and families in an uncertain world.

tive play, parents also relearn how to play, reinforcing bonds that may have weakened. In contrast to court “visitation rooms,” the museum environment is welcoming and respectful, encouraging families to interact and explore, not sit and wonder what to do next. This kind of interaction is important to all families but is of particular value to

For families in crisis, a children’s museum is an oasis, a judgment-free zone, no matter what your background or learning style is. It’s important for them to be able to walk into a museum and say, “I can be here like everybody else. I can play alongside all these other people that are having fun. My kid can sit down next to this kid and figure out how to put that puzzle together.” Families in crisis don’t have many other opportunities to do that. Children’s museums are one of the rare places where that can happen.

2002: Caring for Every Child Mental Health Campaign, sponsored by Comprehensive Mental Health Services for Children program of the federal Center for Mental Health Services: relationship with ACM.

2003: The 21st Century Learner: The Continuum Begins with Early Learning; symposium (September) and publication; co-sponsors: Association for Library Services to Children, Civil Society Institute, and Families and Work Institute, in partnership with IMLS.

Promising Practice Award | 2000

Heidi Brinig Founding Director, Families Together, Providence Children’s Museum

The Freeman Foundation’s work with the Association of Children’s Museums began in 2001 with a program called the Asian Exhibit Initiative. Nine children’s museums, including two museum collaboratives, developed seven traveling exhibits, each showcasing an Asian culture. Beginning in 2004, these interactive exhibits traveled throughout the country over four years, enabling seventy-four children’s museums to host an Asian exhibit.

We felt this was a successful program and several years later replicated this initiative with ACM. Another five museums produced five new Asianthemed exhibits which traveled to forty-four museums nationwide.

In 2019 we embarked on a five-year project to develop modular designs for five Asian-themed exhibits especially for small-to-midsized museums. Our goal is to expand to new museums and children in these communities.

We have thoroughly enjoyed working with ACM over the years and we applaud their professionalism, expertise, and efforts.

Graeme Freeman President The Freeman Foundation

Asian Exhibits Initiative: Tranformative Cultural Exhibits

Brenda Baker

Vice President Education and Community Engagement Madison Children’s Museum

Ileaned back against a double bed, crosslegged on matted carpeting, while mu-

seum guru Elaine Heumann Gurian sat barefoot holding court on the other bed at an impromptu “session” in her hotel room during one of my first AYM conferences over thirty years ago. Elaine spoke passionately about innovation, creativity, and about how cultural exhibits could bridge social divides and strengthen children, families and communities, while bolstering kids’ confidence and their awakening sense of self. As a young artist trying to merge my passions for art, education, and cultural anthropology, and looking for a career where I could create and innovate, I knew I had found my tribe. I never looked back.

That same boldness, innovation, creativity, and commitment to fostering transformative cultural experiences for children has been a bedrock for (what eventually became) ACM ever since. With the Asian Exhibits Initiative launch in 2001, in partnership with the Freeman Foundation, ACM opened the floodgates on cultural learning and revolutionized the field.

Now, twenty years later, two national tours, seven new developmental profiles on cultural learning, and twelve unique exhibits have been completed with more than 6.8 million visitors getting a taste of Asian cultures in our museums. And that isn’t counting the whole new round of five additional smaller exhibits that are near completion.

I have been involved in each round of the project, as a team lead for a producing museum, as an evaluator, and as a collaborator and co-developer. I can say without hesitation that the initiative created transformative professional development opportunities for staff across the country and profound early cultural experiences for our nation’s

youngest learners. It has also enhanced and changed our communities along the way.

With rigorous guidelines, touchpoints, and deliverables, the seven original producing museums created groundbreaking new exhibit content on diverse Asian cultures, along with educational materials, and developmental profiles helping museums better understand how children at various ages learn about culture.

As part of our in-depth research, first developing our first Asian exhibit, Hmong at Heart, in 2002, we shared lunch with Hmong elders every week for nearly two years, conversing and joking around through interpreters over sticky rice, Khao Piak, and Hmong egg rolls. Today, in Madison, we’re still in deep collaboration with the Hmong community and embarking on another joint exhibit project together, and maintaining lasting friendships and building community over shared sticky rice, Khao Piak, and Hmong egg rolls.

2004: Diversity in Action Initiative (taskforce, surveys, IA scholarships) begins.

In 2002, children play in an indoor recreation of a traditional Hmong garden in Madison Children’s Museum’s first Asian Exhibit Initiative exhibit Hmong at Heart.

2004: ACM launches its first members’ survey entitled Your Voice Counts.

Hosting Five Friends from Japan, developed by the Bos-

ton Children’s Museum as part of the first iteration of the Asian Exhibit Initiative funded by the Freeman Foundation, was a transformational exhibit for The Magic House in 2005. It literally changed our history. The Magic House was much smaller than it is today, and we rarely hosted traveling exhibits. But we really wanted to be part of this unprecedented opportunity to host a cultural exhibit for free, so we were determined to make it work. For us, that meant working collaboratively with the producing museum to edit the exhibit to Three Friends from Japan, instead of Five, because that was all the space we had.

Shortly after we hosted the exhibit, the condominium complex next door unexpectantly offered to sell us their coveted corner lot. The key message in the capital campaign to raise funds to convert that space for museum use was that while other children’s museums around the country were able to host Five Friends from Japan, because of our

Asian Culture Exhibits: Medium, Large, and Small

Beth Fitzgerald, Leda Riley, and Sarah Henthorn

Beth Fitzgerald, President; Leda Riley, Exhibit Manager; and Sarah Henthorn, Traveling Exhibit Manager and Graphic Designer

The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum

Top, the original design of Five Friends from Japan: Children in Japan Today developed by the Boston Children’s Museum and Capital Children’s Museum; middle, recreation of a Japanese school room in the exhibit; bottom, logo from Children’s China, an exhibit developed by The Magic House.

building limitations, children in St. Louis had a lesser experience. That message resonated with our donors and community. The expansion that followed more than doubled the size of The Magic House and included a 2,500-square-foot traveling exhibit gallery plus a large exhibit fabrication workshop so we could begin creating our own traveling exhibits.

Several years later, the Freeman Foundation generously funded a second round of Asian cultural exhibits and this time The Magic House was able to participate as a creator of an exhibit, Children’s China. The exhibit was so well loved by our community that we dedicated a new permanent World Traveler Gallery so we could continue to create culturally immersive exhibits.

But we never forgot our Three Friends from Japan experience. In fact, we were not the only museum interested in cultural exhibits but challenged by space limitations. When the third round of Freeman Foundation funding focused on creating cultural exhibits for small museums, we were eager to use our experiences to serve in an advisory capacity to assist ACM in conceptualizing a whole new way of sharing cultural exhibits in smaller spaces.

2005: ACM publishes The Case for Children’s Museums, a marketing resource tool for the field.

2007: Hand to Hand (Fall) switches from tabloid to standard, letter-size and PDF-friendly page format.

Diversity in Action

Stephanie Terry

Executive Director Koch Family Children’s Museum of Evansville

Iexcitedly joined

the field in 2010, and InterActivity (IA) was my first real opportunity to see it in action. In 2011, I was awarded the tremendous gift of a Diversity in Action Scholarship which helped jumpstart my leadership journey in the museum world. I learned so much at IA to help me be more effective in my role. But there I also discovered few people in leadership who looked like me. At that time, I think I was one of two African-American executive directors of children’s museums. That low number was the same for other organizations in my own community of Evansville, Indiana.

My InterActivity experience made me determined to ensure that diversity, access, and inclusion became intrinsic parts of who we were as a museum. We not only initiated thematic diversity programming and inclusive workplace staff training, but added “we include everyone” as a core value of the museum.

Now, twelve years later, I’m even more invested in ensuring we provide a space that helps every child learn through play among a diverse group of people committed to helping them develop virtues and skills— to create a better future for themselves and others. Today, we have a wonderful staff that is as diverse as the visitors we serve and the city itself, reflecting our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. We have expanded our access programs making the

museum a vibrant place where all sorts of families can recognize themselves. We invest deeply in community engagement activities; and, to strengthen our commitment to diversity and inclusion, plans are underway for a mobile museum to further address access barriers.

Finally, in 2016, I joined the ACM board of directors, broadening my own leadership experience and advancing the organization’s goal of including diverse voices to our growing field.

Begun in 2004, the Diversity in Action (DIA) Committee was comprised of ACM staff, board members, and children’s museum professionals committed to building inclusive museums and cultural competencies. DIA highlights include publishing survey data from ACM member museums to benchmark museum perceptions, challenges, and strategies to incorporate diversity at all levels of operation; coordinating the Diversity in Action Showcase during InterActivity; administering InterActivity Diversity Scholarships and the Universal Design for Learning Award. The group pictured above presented highlights of their DIA work at InterActivity 2006 in Boston. Identifiable committee members include: Georgina Ngozi (second from left), Mark Thorne (sixth from left), Emily Timmel (sixth from right), Christine Scorza (fourth from right), and Cheryl McCallum (second from right).

2007: Good to Grow initiative launches, producing Kids Dig Dirt “green paper”; Healthy Kids, Healthy Museums (100-page publication profiling best practices at 30 children’s museums); and a toolkit.

2008: ACM launches Small Museums InterActivity Scholarship Program, with its first sponsor, Jack Rouse Associates, to encourage professional development among staff at museums with annual budgets under $500,000.

2009: ACM moves its offices to Crystal City area of Arlington, VA.

In 2006, ACM joined the growing number of voices expressing serious concern

over what was then referred to as the “pandemic” of childhood obesity. Scary statistics about children’s health and the troubling prognosis that this young generation might be the first with life expectancy lower than that of their parents became motivation for ACM and the field to act.

The Good to Grow initiative aimed to engage children’s museums and their audiences in learning more about childhood obesity and health and wellness in general, and gently promote a change in lifestyle habits for better health outcomes for children. With funding from Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund and IMLS a task force of children’s museum leaders and consultants went to work.

This multi-faceted initiative focused on four key messages: 1) eating good foods, 2) getting plenty of exercise, 3) reducing screen time, and 4) connecting with the outdoors. The initiative featured a symposium at InterActivity and a toolkit to help museums consider their roles in modeling healthy practices and offering health-related exhibits and programming. In addition, Healthy

Good to Grow

Tanya Durand

Director

Member

Museums, Healthy Kids, a “cookbook” of best practices across the field, was published, and a website was developed. Finally, museums could complete a self-assessment and be deemed a “Good to Grow Museum,” an achievement noted on Good to Grow stickers that could be applied around the museum’s entranceway for visitors to see.

In 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative was expanded in concert with IMLS to create a “Let’s Move Museums and Gardens” division; ACM leadership was instrumental in forming that partnership.

The initiative marked a change in the way children’s museums engaged with national healthcare leaders and showcased the influence children’s museums could have as trusted messengers and partners in promoting health and wellness among children and their families.

2010: Funded by an IMLS grant, ACM launches the Benchmark Calculator giving members access to current benchmarking information to inform decisions.

2011: ACM partners with ASTC to produce the first Workforce Survey Report (second edition published in 2016) to provide up-todate numbers on workforce metrics including compensation, educational requirements, benefits, demographics, and diversity.

2012: ACM develops the 2012–2015 strategic framework themed Growing Impact.

Executive

Greentrike Tacoma, Washington, and Good to Grow Working Group

Reimagining Children’s Museums

Jane Werner Executive Director Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and former ACM President

Design Ideation as a Function of Reimagining Children’s Museums

We (Children’s Museums) all have experience with designers helping us to realize a specific “future ” typically in the form of a new exhibit, a building addition or a general brochure. At a very basic level, we look to designers as creators and communicators. In fact, designers do much more.

The Reimagining Children’s Museums project, supported by the MetLife Foun-

I would argue that the role of designers remains largely misunderstood and often dismissed as merely a necessity for liability concerns or even

dation, was all about thinking differently about our missions, community roles, sustainability, equity, and vision for the future.

We began the three-year process by inviting over two-hundred people to attend a leadership preconference at InterActivity in Portland, in 2012. Here, they listened to presentations from thought leaders outside the museum world and engaged in charrette-like activities to help us reimagine everything from how we use data to the role of technology in education to the nascent maker movement.

worse, a decorative afterthought. I believe designers help shape ideas that influence our world, enrich everyday experiences and improve our lives. Designers offer a wide range of interpretations and thoughts; they utilize a process of research and analysis that evolves into a “future ” I would also argue that good design is a fundamental right and a necessity for our audience. Good design enables our audience to take control of their environments. The future of Children s Museums needs good design as an integral part of all that we do.

Design Ideation as a Function of Reimagining Children’s Museums

Museums

Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) Reimagining Children’s Museum

[launched in 2012] is a multi-year effort to fundamentally rethink the learning experiences, and community involvement that takes place in the 21st century Children s Museum. As part of this project, ACM administered an international design competition and selected four design teams to develop concepts that address what it means to experience a Children’s Museum in the 21st century as well as showcase how design excellence promotes innovation and strengthens community The Exhibition of Ideas displays the resulting research, analysis and concepts of each design team.

Administered by:

We (Children’s Museums) all have experience with designers helping us to realize a specific “future,” typically in the form of a new exhibit, a building addition or a general brochure. At a very basic level, we look to designers as creators and communicators. In fact, designers do much more.

Among the tangible results of this effort was the explosion of makerspaces both in museums and in hospitals and schools. Museums tried out different makerspace models in different environments. They also played a vital part in providing professional training for teachers and research into the effectiveness of the makerspaces. Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s Museum Lab was a direct result of this work.

EXHIBITION OF IDEAS

Reimagining Children’s Museums

In an increasingly complex world, Children s Museums provide a place where all kids can learn through play and exploration with the caring adults in their lives. There are approximately 400 Children’s Museums around the world, which reach more than 31 million visitors annually ACM provides leadership, professional development, advocacy and resources for its member organizations and individuals.

What does it mean to experience a children’s museum in the 21st centur y?

I would argue that the role of designers remains largely misunderstood and often dismissed as merely a necessity for liability concerns or even

Children s Museums distinguish ourselves in our ability to contribute to a wide range of subject areas and social conditions, from the arts, sciences and humanities to our connections with formal education to our engagement with national topics such as the the roles of imagination and creativity in learning. To bring innovative thinking and processes to the forefront of our industry, the Association of Children’s Museums challenged four design teams to help us look at our future – in its entirety – which is no small task. To make this effective, we organized teams strategically to reflect diversity of thought. They collected data and gathered impressions from an extensive range of sources and then performed rigorous analysis. I hope you agree that this exhibition takes us outside of our normal zones and inspires new perspectives.

worse, a decorative afterthought. I believe designers help shape ideas that nfluence our world, enrich everyday experiences and improve our lives. Designers offer a wide range of interpretations and thoughts; they utilize a process of research and analysis that evolves into a “future I would also argue that good design is a fundamental right and a necessity for our audience. Good design enables our audience to take control of their environments. The future of Children’s Museums needs good design as an integral part of all that we do.

Needless to say, there are as many “futures” for Children’s Museums as there are Children s Museums. This experiment aims to demonstrate constructive approaches to self-assessment and evaluation. With the generous support of MetLife Foundation, the Reimagining Children s Museums project will serve us all well. By taking risks, the next generation of Children’s Museums [all museums for that matter] will benefit from and contribute to an enlightened future.

The following year, in Pittsburgh, we reinvented the conference format itself, beginning with a full day of SmallTalks, hosting speakers from outside the children’s museum field including designers, artists, and community activists. Throughout this second year, we engaged four multi-disciplinary design teams to help us reimagine what children’s museums could do and be in the future. In the final year, we published an account of these activities to act as a touchstone to challenge museums to think differently about their role(s) in the community.

CM CY

Coordinated by:

Association of Children s Museums (ACM) Reimagining Children s Museum project [launched in 2012] is a multi-year effort to fundamentally rethink the learning experiences, and community nvolvement that takes place in the 21st century Children’s Museum. As part of this project, ACM administered an international design competition and selected four design teams to develop concepts that address what it means to experience a Children s Museum in the 21st century as well as showcase how design excellence promotes innovation and strengthens community The Exhibition of Ideas displays the resulting research, analysis and concepts of each design team.

Administered by:

Chris Siefert, Reimagining Children’s Museum project director and deputy director at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh at the time, summed it up beautifully:

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh provides innovative museum experiences that inspire joy, creativity and curiosity We provide the highest quality exhibits and programs for learning and play We are a partner and a resource for people who work with or on behalf of children. Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is committed to quality design and firmly believes that attention to aesthetics and practicality creates functional, welcoming community spaces.

Association of Children's Museums InterActivity Conference April 30 – May 2, 2013

EXHIBITION OF IDEAS

Chris Siefert, Deputy Director, Children’s Museum Pittsburgh and Curator Exhibition of Ideas: What does it mean to experience a children s museum in the 21st century?

Reimagining Children’s Museums Design Ideation Working Group Janet Rice Elman, Executive Director Association of Children s Museums Lou Casagrande, Consultant Debbie Gilpin, President and CEO, Children's Museum of Phoenix

Marilee Jennings, Executive Director Children s Discovery Museum of San Jose Jane Werner, Executive Director, Children's Museum Pittsburgh Heather Johnson, Project Director Association of Children s Museums

Children’s Museums distinguish ourselves in our ability to contribute to a wide range of subject areas and social conditions, from the arts, sciences and humanities to our connections with formal education to our engagement with national topics such as the the roles of imagination and creativity in learning. To bring innovative thinking and processes to the forefront of our industry, the Association of Children’s Museums challenged four design teams to help us look at our future – in its entirety – which is no small task. To make this effective, we organized teams strategically to reflect diversity of thought. They collected data and gathered impressions from an extensive range of sources and then performed rigorous analysis. I hope you agree that this exhibition takes us outside of our normal zones and inspires new perspectives.

Needless to say, there are as many “futures” for Children s Museums as there are Children’s Museums. This experiment aims to demonstrate constructive approaches to self-assessment and evaluation. With the generous support of MetLife Foundation, the Reimagining Children’s Museums project will serve us all well. By taking risks, the next generation of Children s Museums [all museums for that matter] will benefit from and contribute to an enlightened future.

2012: Reimagining Children’s Museum project includes a leadership preconference, publication, and toolkit.

In an increasingly complex world, Children s Museums provide a place where all kids can learn through play and exploration with the caring adults in their lives. There are approximately 400 Children s Museums around the world, which reach more than 31 million visitors annually ACM provides leadership, professional development, advocacy and resources for its member organizations and individuals.

Supported by:

Coordinated by:

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh provides innovative museum experiences that inspire joy, creativity and curiosity We provide the highest quality exhibits and programs for learning and play We are a partner and a resource for people who work with or on behalf of children. Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is committed to quality design and firmly believes that attention to aesthetics and practicality creates functional, welcoming community spaces.

Supported by:

Using research and analytical strategies, the process of re-imagining can be a useful tool to help children’s museums learn and carry ideas back into our communities. We call ourselves “experienced based, hands-on, minds-on places.” Let’s go further— free from cynicism, outside of our walls, off our campuses, and out of our comfort zones into larger worlds to find ways to evolve our museums and enable our audience to shape the future that is right for them.

2013: Research agenda meeting held in September in Arlington, VA.

Association of Children's Museums InterActivity Conference April 30 – May 2, 2013

reimagining children’s museums

In the following year, an exhibit of creative ideas focused on how to “embrace change and enjoy making sense out of a constantly changing world” was presented at InterActivity in Pittsburgh.

reimagining children’s museums

2013: ACM’s first director, Janet Rice Elman, steps down after eighteen years building the organization.

Reimagining Children’s

project

C Y MY CMY

Left, the day-long Reimagining Children’s Museums preconference took place at the World Forestry Center in 2012 in Portland, Oregon. Bottom right, Charlie Trautman, Neil Gordon, and Tanya Durand engage in a collaborative problem-solving exercise.

Chris Siefert, Deputy Director, Children s Museum Pittsburgh and Curator, Exhibition of Ideas: What does it mean to experience a children s museum in the 21st century?

Reimagining Children s Museums Design Ideation Working Group

Janet Rice Elman, Executive Director, Association of Children s Museums Lou Casagrande, Consultant Debbie Gilpin, President and CEO, Children's Museum of Phoenix Marilee Jennings, Executive Director, Children s Discovery Museum of San Jose Jane Werner, Executive Director, Children's Museum Pittsburgh Heather Johnson, Project Director, Association of Children s Museums

What does it mean to experience a children’s museum in the 21st centur y?

Research Agenda Meeting

Leads to Creation of Children’s Museum Research Network

Nicole Rivera and Kari Ross Nelson

Rivera, Associate Professor, of Psychology, North Central College; Kari Nelson, Research Associate, Thanksgiving Point

We are all passionate about children’s museums and know intuitively that

they support and facilitate learning. But can we provide evidence of that?

In 2013, with funding from IMLS, ACM and the University of Washington’s Museology Graduate Program (UW), directed by Jessica Luke, partnered to develop the first research agenda for the children’s museum field. In September, over 120 individuals gathered at the Learning Value of Children’s Museums Research Agenda Symposium in Arlington, Virginia, to talk about what was already known about children’s museums and what people wished to know. Follow-up webinars and focus groups solicited additional feedback and insights regarding potential research topics. The development of the Learning Value in Children’s Museum Research Agenda marks the starting point for developing a collective, evidence-based body of knowledge to be used across institutions to improve practice, build learning theories, and demonstrate the unique value of children’s museums.

Symposium participants engaged first in small group discussions to generate questions, and then in a large group discussion to clarify and prioritize the questions. The project team organized resulting sets of questions into three themes, which were by no means mutually exclusive but provided much-needed structure to the agenda. The three themes were:

• Characteristics of children’s museums

• Audience

• Learning landscape

Based on the foundational work done by the Research Agenda project participants, including a literature review, research priorities were established and the Children’s Museum Research Network (CMRN) was created in 2015 to begin looking for answers.

The goal of the network was to develop collaborative, cross-institution research. Children’s museums from across the U.S. and Canada applied to be part of the network. Based on a demonstration of interest and capacity for engaging in research practices, ten museums were selected for the original cohort and five additional museums were added in 2017. Participating museums included institutions of various sizes and locations. CMRN members served in a variety of institutional roles including education, programming, and research/evaluation.

To date, CMRN has completed four studies grounded in the research agenda. Topics included an exploration of children’s museums learning frameworks, children’s museum professionals’ perceptions of the value of play, caregivers’ perceptions of children’s learning in museums, and a comparison of social and emotional behaviors demonstrated in children’s museum settings as compared to non-museum settings. Research network members collaborate with the project’s leadership team to develop and execute each study.

CMRN disseminated research findings both internally to the children’s museum field and externally to other museum, informal learning, and early childhood settings. To date, the network has shared study findings through eleven articles, fourteen presentations at national conferences, four posts on IMLS and CAISE (Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education) blogs, and a social media campaign. With the conclusion of the IMLS funding and the pandemic-related disruptions, major studies have been put on pause, but CMRN continues to serve as a resource for the ACM community as network members continue to collaborate to advance the work we’re all passionate about.

2014-2015: Museums for All, an initiative of the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by ACM, launches.

Nicole

2014: Laura Huerta Migus becomes second executive director of ACM.

Learning to Lead

Laura Huerta Migus

Deputy Director Office of Museum Services Institute for Museum and Library Services

n 2003, spotting the listing for pro- I gram officer, education at ACM I thought, “Whoa! That sounds like a fun job!” Nearly twenty years later, ACM and its members have been powerful influences on my personal and professional career path.

I joined ACM when a new wave of DEAI work was developing in the field, affording me the leadership opportunity to help build the foundation of ACM’s Diversity in Action initiative, and the inaugural classes of its scholarships. My early DEAI involvement led to more work at the National MultiCultural Institute, ASTC, and right back home to ACM as its second executive director where, among other efforts, the DEAI work continued. We established internal practices (diversity analysis of the board, program committees, and staff) and external practices (equity/inclusion at conferences, representation among Hand to Hand authors), consistent with doing things well. There is plenty more to do, but the sophistication of the conversation and actions have improved substantially during the past twenty years.

My personal life has also been shaped by this community. Who else brings their three-week old baby to their first board meeting as executive director? My son’s earliest years were shared with a global network of early childhood experts who showered him with adoration and carte blanche to children’s museums around the world. As one of hundreds of grateful children’s museum leaders who can share similar stories of personal and professional growth thanks to the ACM community: here’s to the next sixty years!

2015: Children’s Museum Research Network (CMRN) created “…to collectively develop a sustainable infrastructure for generating actionable, cross-institutional research results to advance the field-wide priorities.

Business Members on Board

Kathy Gustafson-Hilton

Community Liaison & Creative Thinking Facilitator Hands On! Studio

Hands On! had been a business

member of ACM for many years. Although the services and expertise offered by business members were valued, our for-profit status kept us all at a slightly cautious remove from the same level of participation as museum members. But attitudes were shifting at ACM and at other museum organizations.

In 2014, ACM sought to expand inclusion of business members in InterActivity planning and programming. In the spring of 2015, new ACM executive director Laura Huerta Migus visited our offices in St. Petersburg, FL. Chatting about several issues in the field, she asked how ACM might more fully serve its business members.

Later that year, we applied to serve on the InterActivity 2016 planning committee. We were eager to share our expertise gained from years of working with museums and attending conferences all around the world. Years of proposal-writing had also taught us how to present ideas in succinct, compelling ways, and we could now tap that experience when reading proposals submitted by other session presenters.

In 2016, we partnered with Kentucky Science Center (KSC) on a weekend workshop for ACM members called A Transformative Approach to Exhibit Planning, based on our collaboration with KSC to develop “Science In Play,” its early childhood space.

We appreciate that business members now fullly participate in the professional development aspects of the organization.

2015: Hand to Hand (Spring) prints in full color.

Affinity Partners Advance the Association and Support the Members

Emily Miranker Development Manager Association of Children’s Museums

In the early 2000s, ACM launched Affinity Partners, a program in which a select

group of corporate members provide their products and services at a discount exclusively to ACM members. In addition, they are afforded opportunities to showcase their subject-area expertise to that same audience. A 2002 survey helped us understand members’ products and services needs and enabled ACM to include their voices in the program.

Through an application process, potential Affinity Partners demonstrate how their business fits with ACM’s values and vision and how their company’s content is already used by or relevant to ACM’s members. The goal is to create a mutually beneficial partnership while serving the needs of our members.

The high-level commitment from Affinity Partners entails an annual contribution and a small percentage of sales as a revenue share with ACM. Participation is typically limited to less than six partners a year making the program attractive to businesses through its exclusivity and ensuring that members are not overwhelmed by promotions.

The Affinity Program represented a new level of organizational maturity for ACM. These relationships diversify ACM’s income streams—enhancing the association’s financial health—and the program serves as a museum-member engagement tool. Through a curated email series, museum members are encouraged to use Affinity Partners’ talents and products to help their individual organizations. Today’s Affinity Program forges relationships and makes connections that foster an evolving and inclusive field of children’s museums and the related businesses that serve them.

2015: ACM receives a capacity-building grant from Trustees’ Philanthropy Fund of Fidelity Charitable to update technological infrastructure including a new customer relationship management database completed in September 2017.

Museums for All

Maggie Lancaster

CEO of Play Grand Rapids Children’s Museum

Museums for All has not only enabled thousands of children and families to visit the museum, but has served as a model for creating new ways to serve the “hidden middle”: families whose annual income is too high to qualify for EBT/WIC benefits, but too low to allow non-essential expenses like museum visits.

The Grand Rapids Children’s Museum (GRCM) is proud to participate in

Museums for All, a national program established by IMLS and administered through ACM, that provides free or reduced admission to people who qualify for EBT or WIC. Through Museums for All at GRCM, admission is $1.75 per person for up to twelve people per EBT or WIC card.

Last year, despite a pandemic closure, GRCM was one of the top Michigan cultural organizations to welcome thousands of visitors through this program. Among nearly 1,000 museums nationwide who are part of Museums for All, GRCM is in the top twenty-five for total number of visitors using the program.

In 2021, inspired by our experience with Museums for All, GRCM launched a new membership level called the Family+ Pay What You Can, a sliding scale membership for families who qualify for EBT/WIC. This annual membership, which starts at $20, has the same benefits as those of our $100 Family membership including participation in GRCM’s Cultural Membership Exchange, which provides free admission to different museums and cultural centers throughout Michigan.

Museums for All has not only enabled thousands of children and families to visit the museum, but has served as a model for creating new ways to serve the “hidden middle”: families whose annual income is too high to qualify for EBT/WIC benefits, but too low to allow non-essential expenses like museum visits. Below are three of the comments we received from parents who participated in Museum for All at GRCM:

“There are a lot of activities to do here with your children. They even have a live bee farm! It’s reduced price if you qualify for EBT—$1.75. You won’t regret it….the museum blends culture and activities to keep kids entertained and educated.” —Joel B.

“Both my 5- and 6-year-old had a ball. Good place to let kids get out energy. And they participate in Museums for All, so for six people it was only $11.” — Dominique D.

“My daughter had a blast here! And with an EBT card you get a discount. Super nice.” —Jessica F.

The Hangouts Saved Us

Hardin Englehart

Chief Learning Officer Marbles Kids Museum

ACM has played a crucial role in providing opportunities for people in the chil-

dren’s museum field to connect, learn from, and support each other, primarily through conferences and webinars.

But when the pandemic hit in March 2020, our museums closed to the public and the future of children’s museums looked very uncertain. Fortunately, ACM’s quick pivot to providing virtual opportunities to learn from and support each other strengthened the field. Together, we reimagined how we could remain vital institutions in our communities, impacting children and families during a time when play became more critical than ever. Monthly job-function hangouts helped us decipher, navigate our new environment and circumstances, and answer an unexpected set of questions: what were our audiences looking to us to provide, what was falling flat, and how were we evolving as organizations and professionals to survive, revive, and later thrive?

Based on its locations and financial and staff capacity, some children’s museums were able to reopen sooner than others. Some were able to run summer camps, while others couldn’t do anything in-person. Some found success with virtual programming and hands-on kits while others didn’t. Some jumped into offering remote school support programs. Others had to hold off on almost everything. This new online community of children’s museums, all at various stages of bringing play and learning back to children and families, provided tremendous support to one another – in real time. Regular hangouts continue to be an important way for all children’s museums to have a bigger impact in our communities by building on the success, and sometimes learnings from the challenges and failures, of our partners in the field.

2015: Supported by a grant from IMLS, ACM partners with Knology to launch the Trends Reports.

2016: The Research Network’s first study analyzes learning frameworks in five musuems. Results disseminated at InterActivity and published in Hand to Hand, Journal of Museum Education, and Project Spotlight (InformalScience.org).

2017: Results of CMRN’s second study focused on The Value of Play in Learning were widely disseminated in InterActivity sessions and published in Curator, and The Museum Journal.

ACM and HUD Partner to Promote Children’s COVID-19 Vaccinations

Keni Sturgeon

Director of Strategic Initiatives Association of Children’s Museums

In February 2022, as news broke that COVID vaccinations for children un-

der five years of age might soon be approved for emergency authorization, representatives from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reached out to ACM to discuss how we might partner in the We Can Do This (WCDT) COVID-19 public information campaign. WCDT partners include hundreds of organizations, associations, and groups: from public health and medical organizations to sports and entertainment; from rural, union, and organized labor organizations to BIPOC, LGBTQ+, business and faith leaders; and from veterans’ groups to arts and education associations. ACM joined as an official partner in the work in March 2022. HHS understood that ACM is ideally positioned to partner on this important work by leveraging our proven track record of overseeing national programs to catalyze local engagement across many institutions. Previously, ACM had been an active partner in initiatives focused on providing COVID-19 vaccine education and inspiring confidence among vaccine-hesitant populations. These efforts included Vaccines & US – Cultural Organizations for Community

Health (created through a collaboration of the Smithsonian with cultural organizations in communities across the nation), Communities for Immunity, and the REALM Project: REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums.

Many children’s museums across the country were already disseminating valuable knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines. Some served as vaccine sites, and many were working on programs and exhibits that went beyond the coronavirus vaccine roll-out to build trust in vaccines more generally. ACM’s member museums were ideal partners to share the We Can Do This messaging, through exhibits, programs, social media, and via their websites, newsletters and emails.

As part of the WCDT campaign, ACM directly reached more than 50,000 people via press releases, a COVID-19 webpage, emails to ACM members, social media

We felt it was important to market the vaccination clinics to our community…The response [was] overwhelmingly positive.

—Madison Children’s Museum

posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, monthly updates in e-newsletters, discussion topics posted to our member discussion forums, blog posts, and virtual calls with museum CEOs. We reached another 800 people in person at our annual conference, InterActivity 2022, in St. Louis.

Through August 31, 2022, ACM and thirty-nine of our member museums have shared information and programs that help parents and caregivers feel more confident about getting their children vaccinated against COVID. Thanks to regular tracking of metrics by participating museums, we know that ACM members:

• Held in-person programs/events reaching more than 2,400 people; and twenty-five of these events were vaccination clinics providing nearly 800 vaccines to children and adults.

• Shared social media posts, emails/e-newsletters, and/or posted WCDT info or links to their websites, reaching more than 350,000 people.

• Posted WCDT posters or handed out WCDT flyers, which were seen by more than 160,000 people.

• Between June 1 and August 31, twenty-five museums agreed to print and display a four-panel exhibit created to help parents better understand vaccine safety and help increase parental confidence in vaccines; more than 400,000 people viewed the exhibit at these museums.

2017: ACM adds a blog, The Run Around, to its website.

2017: Supported by a grant from National Endowment for the Humanities, ACM sponsors a Children’s Museums History and Culture summit meeting in Pasadena, CA.

2017: ACM launches the 90 Days of Action social media campaign, to highlight the work children’s museums do to serve immigrant and refugee families, in direct response to current events.

Guests engage with the We Can Do This four-panel exhibit on COVID-19 vaccines at the Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery.

Museums Mobilize

Former Communications Director Association of Children’s Museums

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, ACM launched Museums Mobilize

to highlight how children’s museums have supported children and families during the pandemic.

By March 19, 2020, all children’s museums in the U.S. and most around the world had closed their doors to the public. The closure had a devastating effect on children’s museum operations, resulting in lost revenue and staff reductions. Nevertheless, children’s museums immediately identified opportunities to serve their communities in new ways, with more than 70 percent of ACM museum members offering virtual programming by June 2020.

ACM recognized the need to showcase the extraordinary service our field was offering under unprecedented pressures. In November 2020, Museums Mobilize began collecting stories of impact from ACM’s

Whatever challenges may come, children’s museums have shown they are more than their buildings, and can mobilize to support children and families in the most difficult of circumstances.

more than 300 children’s museum members around the world. From partnerships with schools, webinar series and podcasts, innovative uses of space, and more, children’s museums supported their communities: as local destinations, educational laboratories, community resources, and advocates for children.

ACM partnered with Thanksgiving Point to conduct an analysis of the data, and the initiative culminated with the publication of these findings in the November 2021 issue of Hand to Hand. More than two years after the start of the pandemic, the vast majority of ACM members are open to visitors once again, and our field is adjusting to a new normal. Whatever challenges may come, children’s museums have shown they are more than their buildings, and can mobilize to support children and families in the most difficult of circumstances.

Top to bottom: Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton, LI, developed several COVID-reposnse programs including a food pantry to help local families, a large percentage of whom are Latino immigrants.

Papalote, Museo del Nino, based in Mexico City, created a microsite called PAPALOTE en Casa (PAPALOTE@ Home), with articles, activities, videos, and health department updates for a predominantly urban audience.

Louisiana Children’s Museum in New Orleans conducted outdoor story times.

Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco focused heavily on serving children and families in the the surrounding dense urban neighborhood designated a Filipino Cultural Heritage District, named SOMA Pilipinas, to preserve its rich cultural history.

2017: ACM establishes the ACM Disaster Relief Fund (originally called the ACM Harvey Relief Fund) to assist the staff and families of members affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in Texas and Florida, and wildfires in California.

2018: CMRN’s third study focuses on Caregivers’ Understanding of Learning in Museums; results disseminated through InterActivity sessions and webinars.

2019: ACM develops guiding document “What Is a Children’s Museum?” focused on the four dimensions of children’s museums: 1) local destinations, 2) educational laboratories, 3) community resources, and 4) advocates for children.

Alison Howard

The Trends Reports

John Fraser

John Voiklis and

John Fraser. President and CEO, John Voiklis, Researcher, and Shaun Field, Researcher and Programs Manager at Knology

2015-2017 (Launch)

Children’s museums, like most museums, have both a human side and an operations side. Yet because of the specific and particularly vulnerable population children’s museums serve, general museum knowledge does not always help them support children’s health, safety, and growth. In recognition of this, in 2015, ACM and Knology embarked on a program designed to provide children’s museums with data that would allow them to self-advocate, and ensure equal support for both the human and the operational sides of their

Shaun Field work. The partnership has evolved into the ACM Trends Program,

which has two key parts: 1) investigating the unique at tributes of children’s museums; 2) researching emerging social sciences scholarship that can inform and support many different aspects (operations, fundraising, professional practice, and patrons) of children’s museums. The ACM Trends Report series serves as a technical, data-centered companion to the Hand to Hand quarterly publication.

Through the ACM Trends Program we redesigned ACM’s data collection approach, shifting away from a large, once-a-year survey, to shorter, targeted ones on specific topics. This method attempted to reduce burdens on museum leadership, and to generate streamlined data for ACM Trends Reports.

The first volume of twelve Trends Reports, published in 2017, summarized the implications of research results on data gathered from within the field, along with public data such as the U.S. Census and museum 990s. These reports are geared to help museum leadership understand patterns within the data, and anticipate shifts that may influence their museum’s future operations. In our first volume, we identified how important museum size is for understanding decision making, and provided overviews of museum workforce structures and patterns of community engagement.

2018-2019 (Economic impacts and survey review)

To date, the ACM Trends Program has been supported by three IMLS research grants. The initial grant, received in 2018, funded an investigation whose results showed that our field contributes $4.5 billion USD to the U.S. economy—effectively the same value as Ford declared it would invest in electric vehicles.

Volume 2 of the Trends Reports provided guidance on how to use data when advocating for the museum sector both nationally (Trends Report #2.1) and regionally (Trends Report #2.3). Trends Report #2.2 also provided guidance on how to talk to funders about the importance of covering staffing costs, and how to talk to local gov-

ernments about ways that museums support local economies.

Finally, Volume 2 provided accessible tools—a simple formula and graphical tools—for calculating the economic impact of a single museum. In this way, the ACM Trends Program extended the data literacy and data-wielding power of museum leadership.

2020–Present (Pandemic & digital data hub)

In 2019, we were awarded a second IMLS grant to develop the ACM Trends Data Hub that allows museums to benchmark against other children’s museums across a range of indicators (including attendance, expenses, staffing, and income) relevant to their operations. This portal will be live in Fall 2022.

The grant also supported the continuation of the ACM Trends Program. Our new set of data collection tools focused on yet unaddressed topics—including museum programming and events, and how museums could use 2020 U.S. Census data to plan for future population growth. But the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020 prompted a shift in the focus. To support the field’s needs, and to promote ongoing self-advocacy efforts, ACM and Knology administered three COVID-related surveys. The resultant data from eighty-nine responding member museums allowed us to track financial, workforce, and audience impacts of the pandemic. Our analysis identified a number of potential lifelines (i.e., increased fundraising and collaborations) to help children’s museums through this difficult time.

Through this grant, we also launched an ongoing series of ACM Trends Forums aimed at bringing experts from outside the children’s museum field into dialogue with leaders from our community. As our COVID survey data showed that most museums would continue virtual programming after re-opening, the first of these events explored this topic deeper. From this work, we were awarded a third IMLS grant to continue the work around supporting children’s museums virtual programming offerings.

2020: In March, all children’s museums close to the public as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020: ACM launches weekly online hangouts for CEOs and other role-based staff groups that includes crucial information about navigating evolving state and local health and governmental funding criteria.

2020: Hand to Hand transitions to digital format distributed electronically to members as world shifts to virtual engagement during pandemic.

Does Knowing History Help?

The children’s museum field is filled with people who have been part of many of the significant milestones in ACM’s sixty-year history. But many of today’s children’s museums are also invigorated by an influx of new staff, new leaders, who may be less familiar with the foundations of the field they are now part of. Informed by relevant theory and research, we’re still a pragmatic group of practitioners. As fascinating as some of our history is, does knowing about it help people working in children’s museums now?

We posed three questions to the following seven museum staff, all relatively new to the field:

Crystal Bowyer, President and CEO, National Children’s Museum,Washington, DC

Atiba Edwards, Executive Vice President and COO, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Nancy Fowler, Executive Director, The Sandbox Children’s Museum Hilton Head, SC

Caitlin Luttjohann, Vice President of Play and Learning, Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, Topeka, KA

Mfanafuthi Mbongwe, Operations Manager, Play Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

Anysia McDowall, Chief Development Officer, Glazer Children’s Museum, Tampa, FL Kerrie Vilhauer, Director of Marketing, Children’s Museum of South Dakota, Brookings, SD

What are you surprised to learn about ACM?

BOWYER: Although the ACM founders were mostly men, the children’s museum field has always been predominantly driven by women. But like other industries, the gender gap in salaries is still a problem in the museum community.

EDWARDS: That it started informally out of a need for a leadership role for children’s museums. It goes to show the power of realizing what is missing and stepping up to fill the gap.

FOWLER: That the children’s museum movement in the 1960s was primarily a social movement. ACM’s mission and vision have remained dedicated to that original intent, and their response has grown to include many programs that support diverse children and families throughout the world.

LUTTJOHANN: That the organization has been around for sixty years! All the incredible work that has created such a resourceful, resilient, and supportive organization. Growing up in Topeka, I never knew

what “informal learning” was. I did not realize how important those experiences were to my development and how much it helped keep the curiosity inside me alive.

MBONGWE: I am surprised by the amount of work ACM has done to support emerging children’s museums like ours. And I am impressed with the effort that ACM members have put into being pillars and supporters of communities during recent turbulent times.

MCDOWALL: New to the children’s museum world, I was pleasantly surprised by how tight-knit the ACM community is. There is a cohesiveness and a deep willingness to share ideas, ups, downs, program information, and innovations with each other at a level I have not experienced anywhere else in the nonprofit sector.

VILHAUER: I love how ACM started as an informal grassroots effort and grew to be an organization open to all children’s museum staff. It provided a voice for an up-andcoming industry that was different from traditional museums.

2020: For the first time in its 35-year history, InterActivity, scheduled to take place in St. Louis in May, is cancelled due to pandemic restrictions.

2020: Museums Mobilize collects stories of impact from ACM’s 300+ children’s museum members around the world to highlight how children’s museums are supporting children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mfanafuthi Mbongwe

Anysia McDowall

Crystal Bowyer

History is who we are and why we are the way we are. —David McCullough

BOWYER: During COVID, the weekly leadership calls were a lifeline. Connecting with other directors helped us all survive. ACM’s weekly summary of government programs and funding opportunities was amazing.

Personally, meeting other directors in the field is always inspiring. So many passionate individuals—they motivate me and my team.

EDWARDS: ACM has provided valuable resources, ranging from data and reports to shared experiences and possible stumbling blocks, which have all been helpful to my work at Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Additionally, it has provided me a network of peers, colleagues, and friends. Roadblocks that are part of an individual’s journey are often shared by others. This community has helped me and our museum to navigate paths and avoid the potholes.

FOWLER: New to the field five years ago, ACM was a major resource for learning about children’s museums and helping me grow the work already being done in my museum. The COVID shutdown was extremely isolating, but ACM’s weekly calls were invaluable. When everyone was struggling with the overwhelming task of reimagining hands-on learning, I did not feel alone. I had a network of other museum professionals around the world to reach out to.

LUTTJOHANN: Right out of college, I knew I wanted to work with children in a fun setting distinct from formal teaching. This led me to the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center in my hometown. Right away, our director sent me to InterActivity, my first “big kid” networking experience, to connect with people in the field. I was incredibly nervous but found it extremely rewarding to be surrounded by people with similar views on learning.

ACM has helped me grow my professionalism and my drive to ensure all children have safe spaces to learn, fail, and grow.

ACM has created a network of people who like to help make the world a better place for children.

MBONGWE: A children’s museum is still a novel idea in Africa, but ACM has provided us with resources and a rich international network of members. We are able to stay abreast of changes in the sector and we have carved long-term partnerships. For me, personally, it has been a capacity-building platform to harness my skills in leading an emerging museum using world-class knowledge.

MCDOWALL: The start of my tenure with the Glazer Children’s Museum was at the height of the pandemic. Through one of my first points of contact, Museums for All, ACM not only shared research and connections but offered genuine support of the efforts we hoped to make with that program locally.

Subsequently, I became involved in the development and marketing hangouts which connected me with other development professionals in the field. While I am

2020: ACM and Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center partner on the National Science Foundation-funded interPLAY Project to support STEM skills for early learners in children’s museums and science centers.

2021: InterActivity held as a virtual conference.

and begins an appointed position as Deputy Director, Office of Museum Services at IMLS.

2021: Laura Huerta Migus

How has ACM been helpful to your institution or to you personally?

Nancy Fowler

Kerrie Vilhauer

Caitlin Luttjohann

Atiba Edwards

leaves ACM

ACM was started by individuals from different museums seeking solutions. Learning the history highlights the importance of a central leadership and advocacy organization made up of many diverse people, experiences, views, and interests working toward a shared goal. This inclusive group effort was never more visible than in 2020 when resources, messages, forums and other means of communication were leveraged (and have continued) for the good of all members.

Diversity helps find more sustainable solutions and is a stronger path forward.

—Atiba Edwards

not new to the world of fundraising, development work in children’s museums has its nuances and requires varied strategies. I have developed special relationships with other development professionals; one in particular has become a trusted friend and mentor.

VILHAUER: Personally, ACM was a great way to get up-to-speed on the industry when I joined the museum staff four years ago.

Attending InterActivity is a priority for our team. The continuing education and the connections with children’s museum colleagues all over the world have been invaluable. And now, the online hangouts, begun during COVID when we were all learning as we went along, keep the networking going year-round—collaborating with colleagues who either are facing similar obstacles or have already found a best practice to solve problems.

Does learning more about the history of the organization change how you approach your work or view your role in the field?

BOWYER: Children’s museums have always responded to the needs of the times. So, what do today’s kids and parents want from the museum? Play-based learning, yes, but what about social-emotional learning, especially as we continue recovering from the pandemic and look to the future?

The overall museum experience matters more now, including the café and gift-shop offerings and, of course, settings for the “Instagrammable moment.” The design of the

museum has to appeal to everyone: vibrant colors, a modern feel. In the evolution of children’s museums and of ACM, we must think more about fun experiences for multigenerational families.

EDWARDS: ACM was started by individuals from different museums seeking solutions. Learning the history highlights the importance of a central leadership and advocacy organization made up of many diverse people, experiences, views, and interests working toward a shared goal. This inclusive group effort was never more visible than in 2020 when resources, messages, forums and other means of communication were leveraged (and have continued) for the good of all members. Diversity helps find more sustainable solutions and is a stronger path forward.

FOWLER: It allows me to better orient staff and board members with our mission and vision within the context of the field. It also gives me the knowledge and information to speak with potential grantors, local supporters, and community leaders about the rich history of—and ongoing need for— children’s museums.

LUTTJOHANN: It creates a sense of pride and ownership for the work we do…and what about the history we are creating right now? There has been tremendous growth in the past sixty years, but in our work now, continued support and collaboration are vital to the success of the next sixty.

MBONGWE: I am relatively new in the field, so learning about the history and the milestones is even more important because I am working in a sector that has been around for a while even though my own museum is still in the infancy stages.

MCDOWALL: Knowing the past challenges that children’s museums have experienced in expressing their relevancy has fueled my passion to convince our museum donors and partners today to support the children’s museum, which is essential to the vibrancy of our community.

On a personal level, being a leader at a children’s museum has made me a better human, mother, friend, and citizen. I value play and learning and its importance for people of all ages in ways I couldn’t have imagined before. I am hopeful that children’s museums can contribute to a better future for children and help fill the current void in the U.S. education system. I want to see the hands-on learning, critical-thinking-skills-building, and cross-cultural connections that happen in children’s museums continue for years to come and be replicated in every town in our nation.

VILHAUER: Learning history informs future choices. Learning about the longevity of this organization reaffirms my belief that it is important to stay up-to-date and support ACM’s work as they continue to provide resources and support to our continually growing field.

2021: ACM hangouts and webinars continue to attract participation from museum staff around the country.

2022: Arthur G. Affleck, III begins as executive director of ACM in January.

2022: We Can Do This—ACM partners with the Department of Health and Human Services to share critical resources and support programs, events, and exhibits in children’s museums to build vaccine confidence.

60 Years of ACM: An International Perspective

Leigh-Anne Stradeski

Chief Executive Eureka! The National Children’s Museum Halifax, United Kingdom

When I became executive director of the Children’s Museum in London, Ontario, in 1994, I was keen to learn everything about this exciting field. Imagine my delight in finding an amazing network of knowledgeable professionals in what was then AYM.

In 2000, I jumped across the pond to a new role as chief executive of Eureka!, the only children’s museum in the UK. This led me to Hands-On! Europe, a network of professionals working in children’s museums in Europe, of which there were only a few at the time. Following its first conference, in the Netherlands in 1996, this organization took off, and like ACM in the U.S., it became the “go-to” for the European children’s museum field.

With shared goals, it seemed logical that the two associations should work collaboratively, and after taking on board roles in both, I set out to encourage this. ACM had already extended into the international arena, with board members from Mexico, El Salvador, and Canada; and its first conference outside the U.S. was held in Ottawa, in 2002, so why not build stronger ties with Europe?

Wright, seated far right, an American working on a children’s museum in Saudi Arabia; and Laurent Carrier, standing second from right, from Toboggan Design in Montreal, Quebec.

Over the years, we have developed and sustained a close bond and share many members who benefit from and bring value to both associations. I was delighted recently to learn of renewed enthusiasm for international alliances from ACM Executive Director Arthur Affleck. After sixty years of ACM, and almost thirty of Hands-On!, this can only be a good thing, as we all work together to enhance the lives of children on a global scale.

Congratulations to the Association of Children’s Museums for sixty years of serving the global community though your dedication to and support of children’s museums. Your work has helped the field grow as the role of museums has changed, and your pursuit of equity and inclusion has transformed our collective ability to serve all children and families effectively and authentically.

—Lonnie L. Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

2022: Prototypes of the five newest Freeman Foundation Asian Culture Exhibit Series exhibits, designed for smaller spaces, unveiled at InterActivity.

2022: In October, Museums for All announces 1,000 participating institutions serving more than 5 million visitors.

2022: ACM adopts a new strategic plan.

At InterActivity 2011 in Houston, Texas, Leigh-Anne Stradeski, seated, first from left, met with a group of museum leaders working primarily outside the U.S. Other identifiable members of this group include science interactive designer Clifford Wagner, standing, far left; Katie Coughlin, seated next to Leigh-Anne and at that time, working on a children’s museum project in Oslo, Norway; Mark

In 2022, our field finds itself at a similar crossroads in which

the necessity for a robust and foward-thinking ACM is undeniably critical to the field and the futures of young learners, especially those who through no fault of their own represent society’s most vulnerable citizens.

Sixty years ago, a small group of forward-thinking visionaries, who appre-

ciated and recognized the growing role and power of children’s museums, dreamed this organization into its existence. Their signature efforts spawned not just an association of like-minded professionals but a crucial movement that has helped to bridge the worlds of early childhood development, hands-on, experiential, play-based learning, community engagement, cultural awareness, self-identity, professional development, family convenings, and unbridled fun. In the 1960s, the nation was engulfed in a perfect storm of inflection points that would reverberate for decades to come. It was into this mix of events that colleagues, funders, policymakers, and volunteers from all over the country (and the globe) pooled their expertise, talents, resources, and passions to create and enhance the field of children’s museums and, ultimately, the lives of children.

The previous essays in this special edition of Hand to Hand justifiably chronicle and pay tribute to many of the remarkable individuals whose sacrifices coupled with their courageous and prescient thinking positioned ACM as a leading force in the educational and socio-emotional development of young learners. Indeed, as already noted, their efforts launched a “tipping point” in both the field of children’s museums and in the broad arena of early childhood education. In 2022, our field finds itself at a similar crossroads in which the necessity for a robust and forward-thinking ACM is undeniably critical to the field and the futures of young learners, especially those who through no fault of their own represent society’s most vulnerable citizens.

Now, however, perhaps more than in any other period in recent memory, we realize that the environments and ecosystems into which young learners are born is signifi-

The Future Depends on What We Choose to Do Today

Arthur G. Affleck, III

Executive Director Association of Children’s Museums

cantly more complex and challenging. It pains me to say so, but today’s parents must concern themselves with a worrisome range of issues affecting their children—from their physical safety and well-being to worsening climatic conditions, food and housing insecurities, healthcare disparities and inequities, under-resourced school systems, along with a frightening pandemic that has disrupted grade-level attainment in reading and math for millions of children in this country and, undoubtedly, around the world.

As troubling and perhaps bleak as these circumstances may appear at first glance, I am convinced—based on ACM’s overall track record and heightened efficacy during the pandemic—that we can once again marshal our resources, resolve, resilience, and talents to mount a concerted path toward our North Star: “a world that prioritizes the rights of children to playful learning and a safe, healthy, and equitable future.” Accordingly, ACM and its board recognize that to build better futures for children, we must also consider how we can improve and strengthen the conditions of their families and the communities in which they live, socialize, and engage. The simple yet strategic reality is that children’s futures will forever be stifled and marginalized without a concerted strategy that involves both their families and their communities.

Here, in the U.S., recent data documenting the educational setbacks caused by

the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent sequestration confirm that a significant percentage of children are now performing below their expected grade levels (Mervosh and Wu 2022). This burgeoning crisis has occurred despite the heroic efforts by countless deeply committed educators, museum staffs, and ACM’s own team of professionals. In the early stages of the pandemic, the children’s museum community quickly coalesced to develop an array of new services, programs, communication channels, and supportive networks to enable children and their families to maintain their safe access to museums’ unique offerings. And although the social distancing that marked so much of the pandemic has subsided, the need for rethinking and enhancing how we attract and educate young learners has only increased.

The ACM board’s response to this crisis has been to authorize a new strategic plan to help guide the organization and the children’s museum community toward even greater success in the coming years. Starting with updated vision and mission statements,

A young learner visits Wonder Works, an early childhood STEM exhibit area at The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum.

...although the social distancing that marked so much of the pandemic has subsided, the need for rethinking and enhancing how we attract and educate young learners has only increased.

ACM’s board has adopted a set of four distinct priorities that will: a) define our primary resource allocations and b) serve as filters to help us stay focused on the crucial objectives, tasks, responsibilities, and outcomes necessary to be sustainable and effective.

S trategic P rioritie S

At its core, ACM’s strategic plan for its future has four inter-related priorities:

1. Elevating the children’s museum community. Children’s museums are not one-dimensional in either their structure or their impact. From their inception, they have focused on a combination of children’s educational and social-emotional development by use of interactive, experiential, playful learning approaches, exhibits, and activities. But the public, policymakers, and even parents, guardians, and some educators are unaware of how impactful children’s museums have been in bolstering young learners’ cognitive and social-emotional skills, curiosity, and exposure to worlds beyond their immediate and respective comfort zones. We will work to change this lack of awareness and appreciation. Moreover, we will leverage the collective voice of ACM members by elevating children’s museums and amplifying their impact.

2. Lifting up children and families. There is unanimous, broad-based agreement that the focus of children’s museums is and should be children. As illustrated throughout the essays in this special edition, children’s museums are essentially learning environments whose offerings stretch far beyond their buildings and physical surroundings. And yet it is nearly impossible for museums to reach and connect with children in meaningful or sustainable ways without engaging and involving their families. Practically speaking, children’s families are indispensable strategic partners or allies in museums’ quests to attract children to their offerings. More than ever, ACM will advocate for children, caregivers, families, and support children’s museums as they address issues impacting children, prioritizing playful learning and healthy, safe, and equitable communities.

3. Advancing the field through advocacy, policy, and research. As compared with art and natural history museums, children’s museums have not been baked into society’s institutional memories. Of course, the public’s perception of children’s museums continues to change largely due to the work of ACM and my predecessors along with the proliferation of children’s museums across the last six decades. But much more work remains in such areas as evidence-based research and public policy advocacy to ensure that best practices are codified and updated, and to avoid any diminution in the widespread goodwill and trust children’s museums have garnered.

4. Strengthening the organization. ACM’s ability to successfully elevate the field of children’s museums, to amplify its messaging to funders, policymakers at all levels—local, state, and federal, children’s families, and educators, and to spread targeted information about the intellectual and socio-emotional benefits of learning through play to under-resourced communities will necessarily require upgrades in the organization. This includes enhanced technology, database management, communications, and human resources infrastructure. Other areas requiring close attention, review, and investments include governance, development [fundraising / resource diversification], business policies, and data collection. We will also support our staff and volunteers in ways that will attract and retain top talent.

Having identified the direction in which ACM should concentrate its resources, the board also stipulated that ACM’s ongoing goals and objectives should be filtered through two critical and overarching lenses: diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion or DEAI; and environmental resiliency and regeneration or positioning ACM and its future projects to have net positive impacts. More succinctly, through the strategic plan, ACM’s board has signaled to its stakeholders and others that the organization intends to prioritize the living and learning conditions of all children and their families while simultaneously mirroring and practicing its core values as found in DEAI principles and environmentally responsible behaviors.

There is no denying that ACM’s priorities, strategic goals, and objectives are unapologetically ambitious. But it is equally true that the precarious conditions and ecosystem(s) of this post-pandemic era coupled with the unmet educational and social needs of today’s young learners deserve nothing less than our very best effort. Their futures and the future of our nation will depend on what we choose to do today. Moreover, the resilience, creativity, and passion, along with the thriving and contagious acuity demonstrated by ACM and its members in the field during the previous sixty years both inspires and assures me that, by continuing to work collaboratively, the objectives outlined above can and will be achieved.

Works CitEd

Sarah Mervosh and Ashley Wu, “Testing Reveals Alarming Drop in Math Skills, Reading Also Suffers,” New York Times, October 24, 2022, (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/us/ math-reading-scores-pandemic.html?searchResultPosition=1/ accessed November 18, 2022).

At the AAM Annual Meeting in 1962, a small group of museum directors convened to discuss an emerging museum model: the children’s museum! Sixty years later, the vital role of children’s museums in both the broad museum field and in communities around the world is clear and meaningful. Children’s museums lead the way in building a stronger future by bringing communities together through shared experiences, teaching people to learn through play and exploration, and demonstrating the power of museums to connect, educate, and inspire people of all ages and backgrounds.

—Laura Lott, president and CEO, American Alliance of Museums

acM Board of directorS

2022-2023

Executive Committee (2022-2023)

President Joe Hastings Executive Director Explora Albuquerque, NM

Past President

Tanya Durand Executive Director Greentrike Tacoma, WA

Vice President - Governance Tifferney White Chief Learning Officer Discovery Place Charlotte, NC

Vice President - Initiatives Joseph Cox President/CEO Museum of Discovery and Science Fort Lauderdale, FL

Vice President - Initiatives Dené Mosier

President and CEO Kansas Children’s Discovery Center Topeka, KS

acM Staff

Arthur G. Affleck, III

Executive Director

Victoria Garvin

Senior Director

Professional Development & Membership

Stephanie Yang

Senior Director of Finance & Administration

Gabrielle Gallagher

Director of Communications

Jennifer Rehkamp

Director of Field Services and Research

Keni Sturgeon

Director of Strategic Initiatives

Sharon Chiat, CMP

Senior Manager

Professional Development & Events

Treasurer Stephanie Terry Executive Director

Louis J. Koch Family Children’s Museum of Evansville (cMoe) Evansville, IN

Secretary

Putter Bert

President and CEO KidsQuest Children’s Museum Bellevue, WA

at-Large Board MeMBerS (2018-2024)

Lara Litchfield-Kimber Executive Director Montshire Museum of Science Norwich, VT

Carol Tang Executive Director Children’s Creativity Museum San Francisco, CA

at-Large Board MeMBerS (2021-2025)

Brenda Baker Director of Exhibits

Madison Children’s Museum Madison, WI

Brendan Cartwright Manager, Special Initiatives

Emily Miranker Manager, Development

Bianca Mona CCLI Program Manager

Daniel Fernandez-Baca Coordinator, Museum Membership

Kelly Perkins Office Manager

Blythe Romano Research Assistant

Mary Maher Editor & Designer Hand to Hand

Michael McHorney

Executive Director

Children’s Museum of Eau Claire Eau Claire, WI

at-Large Board MeMBerS (2022-2027)

Crystal Bowyer

President and CEO

National Children’s Museum Washington, DC

Atiba Edwards

Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

Brooklyn Children’s Museum Brooklyn, NY

Melissa Kaiser

Chief Executive Officer

DISCOVERY Children’s Museum Las Vegas, NV

Felipe Peña Executive Director

Brownsville Children’s Museum Brownsville, TX

Hand to Hand adviSory coMMittee

Megan Dickerson

Susan Foutz

Krishna Kabra

Kari Ross Nelson

Nicole Rivera

Sharon Vegh-Williams

Cover photos, left column, top to bottom: Mildred Compton, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; Janet Rice Elman, ACM director, James P. Comer, 1997 Great Friend to Kids Award winner, Peter Sterling, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and Sally Osberg, ACM president; Mike Spock, ACM founder; Fred Rogers, 1996 Great Friend to Kids Award winner; Selma Shapiro, ACM president; T. Berry Brazelton, 2006 Great Friend to Kids Award winner; Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, author/researcher. Top right: InterActivity 2022 attendees. Middle, left to right: Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s MakerYard exhibit; Sam Dean and young visitor to Scott Family Amazeum; Suzanne LeBlanc, Long Island Children’s Museum, and Jeri Robinson, Boston Children’s Museum, at InterActivity 1998 in San Jose; toddler explores RiverPlay at Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Bottom: 2018 InterActivity at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Page 1 photos: Counterclockwise from top left: Mike Spock; InterActivity 2018; Jane Werner, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and 2013 Great Friend to Kids Award winner Eric Carle; 2016 Great Friend to Kids Award winner Geoffrey Canada; SmallTalks, InterActivity 2016; 2019 Great Friend to Kids Award winner Temple Grandin.

Registration now open!

www.childrensmuseums.org/interactivity/

Full conference registration includes:

• Six blocks of professional development sessions for staff at all levels

• ACM MarketPlace with products and service providers for all your museum’s needs

• Networking opportunities, including opening evening reception in the ACM MarketPlace

• Keynote events, including the ACM 2023 Great Friend to Kids Award Ceremony honoring Dr. Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek

• Free admission to New Orleans area museums participating in the Museum Open House Program

Add-on options include:

• Emerging Museums Pre-Conference

• Museum CEO and Executive Directors Retreat (open to ACM museum members only)

• Four study tours: The National World War II Museum, 826 New Orleans, and two at the Louisiana Children’s Museum

• interPLAY: Understanding Playful Learning in STEM Exhibits workshop presented in partnership with Oregon State University STEM Research Center

• Evening Event at the Louisiana Children’s Museum

We can’t wait to see you!