Portland Children's Museum facts for kids
The Portland Children's Museum is a special place for kids and families to learn and play. It's located in Portland's beautiful Washington Park, right next to the Oregon Zoo. The museum started way back in 1946, making it one of the oldest children's museums in the world and the oldest one west of the Mississippi River!
This museum is huge, about 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) in size. Every year, over 250,000 kids and their families come to explore and have fun. It's a non-profit group, which means it's focused on helping the community rather than making money.
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A Look Back: Museum History
The Portland Children's Museum began in 1946. It was first called the Adventure House. A woman named Dorothea Lensch, who was in charge of recreation for Portland Parks & Recreation, started it. She was the first woman to hold that job!
The museum's first home was in a big house called the Jacob Kamm mansion in Southwest Portland. After a few years, in 1950, it moved to a different building on Lair Hill, just south of downtown Portland. This Lair Hill location was really cool! It even had a "pet library" where kids could check out animals, just like you check out books! There were also lots of hands-on exhibits, art workshops, and sports games.
After 51 years at the Lair Hill spot, the museum closed its doors there on March 31, 2001. Then, it moved to its current home in Washington Park. The building it moved into used to be the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). Since moving to Washington Park, almost two million people have visited the museum!
What's Happening Now
The main goal of the Portland Children's Museum is to create amazing learning experiences through art and science. The museum uses ideas from how kids grow and learn to design its spaces and programs. This helps kids develop in healthy ways – thinking, playing with others, understanding their feelings, and moving their bodies.
The museum has many fun exhibits, like:
- Water Works
- Play-it-Again Theater
- Building Bridgetown
- Groundworks
- Outdoor Adventure
- Baby's Garden
There are also awesome art studios, including The Clay Studio, The Wonder Corner, and The Garage. All these places encourage kids to explore, be creative, and learn how to learn new things.
Helping All Kids Visit
The museum wants every child and family to be able to visit, no matter their situation. Through its Community Partners Program, the museum helps families, schools, and groups who might have money, social, or physical challenges. They can get low-cost memberships, free passes, or free art workshops. The museum also has days and evenings when admission is free for everyone. By 2009, this program had helped over 20,000 children and their families visit the museum!
Opal School
Did you know the museum also has its own elementary school? It's called Opal School of the Portland Children’s Museum. This school is part of the Portland Public School District. Opal School's way of teaching is inspired by special ideas from Italy, called the Reggio Emilia approach, which focuses on children's natural curiosity and creativity.
Learning and Research
Since 2008, the museum has a special group called the Center for Learning. They watch and study how children learn. They want to understand how kids imagine, design, invent, and create using art and science tools.
The Center for Learning asks big questions like:
- What makes a child curious?
- How does playful exploration help kids wonder and create?
- How can we connect reading and writing with art?
- How can museum spaces help kids be creative?
The Center for Learning shares what they learn through articles and other media. They also host workshops for teachers who want to learn more about how kids learn and the methods used at Opal School.
How the Museum Gets Support
The Portland Children's Museum is a non-profit, so it needs help to keep running. It gets support from museum members, sponsors, grants from foundations and the government, and donations from people who care about the museum.
One fun event is "Be a Kid Again," which is an annual fundraiser in the spring. It's an adults-only evening at the museum where supporters can enjoy food and drinks from local businesses.
The museum has a full-time staff, but it also relies a lot on volunteers. Over 715 people of all ages volunteer every year! They help with everything from art programs to the annual fundraiser, making a big difference for the museum.
