Behind the boom in children's museums

Educational, social changes fuel spectacular growth in museums for kids

by Marcella Bernhard

Children's museums are sprouting up throughout the country, in suburban and rural areas and as flagships of downtown revitalization projects in big cities.

The stunning growth--more than 100 museums for kids have opened in the past nine years--has made children's museums the fastest growing segment in the museum market.

"It's a boom period," said Justine Roberts, a museum exhibit and planning consultant for the Oakland firm Gyroscope. "I am constantly impressed by the attendance numbers."

Newcomers include big-name urban institutions such as Baltimore's Port Discovery, San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum, and San Francisco's Zeum.

But museums for kids are cropping up everywhere--in the next two years new museums will open in Orange County, Lake Tahoe, Atlanta, Ga., Topeka, Kan., Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., and Raleigh, N.C.

Roberts says many of the museums she works with start on the grassroots level, often by groups of parents who may visit a larger institution on a family trip, then get home and wonder why their town doesn't have a children's museum of its own.

Experts chalk up the surge in these institutions to both demographic and social forces. With less time to spend with their families, Baby Boomer parents with elementary school-age children look for family activities that are both educational and fun, said Janet Rice Elman, executive director of the Association of Youth Museums.

"Parents are looking for real learning opportunities that are family-based," Elman said.

Further, she said, recent changes in the way schools are teaching science to elementary school kids--emphasizing exploration and fun rather than learning straight of a textbook--has helped draw interest to children's museums.

At the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo, education curator Mike Asbill can barely keep up with community demand for the Junior Museum's year-round science classes for kids.

"We offered so much more last year, and we filled every class we offered," Asbill said. "Parents have been really jazzed."

Classes such as "Zoobots," "Roller Coasters," and "Science Experiments You Can Eat" are designed to teach sophisticated subjects--life sciences, basic chemistry, geology, and physics--in a fun and engaging way.

This year, Junior Museum staff will teach outreach classes in four Palo Alto elementary schools--Escondido, Walter Hays, Nixon, Palo Verde. Also included with be visits to a new private school in Palo Alto, Oak Canyon, as well as at an East Palo Alto school and at Palo Alto Community Child Care.

Those involved with children's museums suspect some of the popularity is simply a product of the changing geographic or social landscape; parents are finding that the river beds or vacant lots they explored and played in as children no longer seem safe, or no longer exist.

"There aren't that many safe places to expose your children to nature and the environment," said Lisen Stromberg, vice president of the Friends of the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo and the mother of three young children.

"(The Junior Museum) is a place where children can experience their environment and expand their horizons in an intimate, safe setting."

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