Minnesota Children’s Museum is a vibrant community institution with 28 years of experience providing outstanding, playful learning opportunities for hundreds of thousands of young children and their families. The Museum is dedicated to young children and provides an environment expertly designed to match their size, interests, and eagerness to explore. Our exhibits and programs are thoughtfully designed to state-of-the art early childhood learning standards with the capacity to empower parents as the first teachers in their children’s lives and to improve the quality of non-parental care.

Many families are looking to the Museum to nurture, educate and inspire and the demand for programs that offer Museum access at little or no charge is at an all time high. Visits from families receiving free memberships rose more than 32% last year alone. To continue making the Museum accessible to these families, they need an open door.

You can be that open door and help meet the needs of more families by making a gift today. This gift will directly impact our ability to serve more families through our Access program, allowing all children to play and learn regardless of financial challenges.
Our mission is sparking children’s learning through play. Children learn and make sense of their world through play and we seek to strengthen families through our child-centered culture, engaging children and adults through broad and diverse content areas. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children.

Because play advances the well-being and learning potential of all children, Minnesota Children’s Museum makes the connection between play and learning visible. Through immersive experiences and environments that encourage children’s active exploration and adult engagement along with modeling, facilitating and documenting the play-learning experience, the Museum emphasizes and highlights play’s critical contribution to learning. Our five foundational beliefs are:

1. Early learning is the essential foundation of lifelong learning: Scientific research in child development over the last 30 years has lead to an unprecedented level of evidence that the experiences and relationships children have in their early years are critically important, setting the foundation for a child’s cognitive, social and emotional health.

2. All children deserve respect and a time and place to be children: The Museum celebrates childhood through innovative programs by encouraging and empowering children of all ages and abilities in our community to be children.

3. Families are our children’s first teachers: We recognize the critical importance of a child’s family in early development and offer supportive environments where families can play and learn together.

4. Diverse perspectives enrich children’s lives: The Museum works to ensure children of all abilities, backgrounds and ethnicities see themselves reflected within the Museum, and we provide children with opportunities to learn about others.

5. Playing is learning: Through play, children learn about themselves and their world, building skills that are foundations for academic learning and keys to social and emotional health. Play is the cornerstone through every Museum experience.