Omaha Children's Museum facts for kids
The Omaha Children's Museum is a super fun place in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, where kids and young people can learn and explore! It's a nonprofit organization, which means it's not trying to make money but instead focuses on helping the community. This museum has even won a special national award from the Association of Science and Technology Museums for being awesome.
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About the Museum
The Omaha Children's Museum is a private nonprofit group. Its main goal is to spark your imagination and make learning exciting! A group of local teachers and friends, including Karen Levin, Jane Ford Hawthorne, and Betty Hiller, started the museum in 1976.
At first, it was a traveling show with exhibits and activities that moved around. But now, it has a huge home in Downtown Omaha, covering about 60,000 square feet (that's like a really big playground!). The museum is guided by a group of people from the community called the Board of Directors.
The museum moved to its current spot at 20th Street and St. Mary's Avenue in 1989. A few years later, in 1993, they finished making the main floor even better. This big renovation added the amazing Charlie Campbell Science and Technology Center.
The museum has won special "Leading Edge Awards" in 2004 and 2010. These awards were for making visitors' experiences really great. The museum's director, Lindy J. Hoyer, also helped lead the national Association of Children's Museums.
Awesome Exhibits
The Omaha Children's Museum has updated its main exhibits to make them even better. They spent $6.6 million on this project!
Creative Arts Center
One cool area is the Creative Arts Center. Here, you can find a theater where shows happen. There's also an Artist-in-Residence Studio, where real artists work and share their skills. You can even help create community sculptures and art on the art island!
Charlie Campbell Science and Technology Center
Another exciting part is the Charlie Campbell Science and Technology Center.
- The "Super Gravitron" is a giant ball machine. Balls zoom through tubes and on rails, pushed by air, wind, and water!
- You can visit an inventors workshop to create your own ideas.
- Try out the pulley and vacuum chairs to see how simple machines work.
- At the "Science Showplace," you can watch live science presentations that are super fun and educational.
Other Fun Areas
- The "Imagination Playground" is a special place designed just for younger kids to play and explore.
- Outside, there's "Sandy’s Splish-Splash Garden." This is an interactive fountain area where kids can cool off and play in the water on a hot day.
- Right outside the museum, you'll see a tall, 51-foot (about 15.5 meters) kinetic tower. This tower moves with energy!
- There are also four huge, 24-foot (about 7.3 meters) whirligigs. They look like giant pinwheels spinning in the wind.
Janie York was the very first artist to work in the museum's Creative Arts Center. She explored different kinds of textile arts, like making quilts together and telling stories through fabric. She also taught about the history of textiles.
Besides its main exhibits, the Omaha Children’s Museum often brings in special traveling exhibits. These shows cover art, science, and history. The museum's Science Lab has even been featured on the PBS Kids website, showing how cool science can be!
See also
- Culture in Omaha
