St. CLOUD – Ready to play? Central Minnesota’s much-anticipated Great River Children’s Museum opens its doors to the public Tuesday, June 10, 2025. The Grand opening Celebration is June 20 – 22.
Museum Hours and Ticket Prices
Great River Children’s Museum will be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays.
Daily general admission tickets are $14 for ages 1 to 101. Reduced price tickets of $5 each are available for families receiving SNAP or WIC benefits through the Museums for All program. Several membership options are also available.
Tickets should be purchased online in advance to guarantee entry to the museum. Visit greatrivercm.org to learn more.
Core Exhibits
Great River Children’s Museum has eight interactive exhibits that let children and their caregivers explore and learn at their own pace.
Guests can::
- Scamper up the 30-foot high Climber to the Clouds
- Splash in the 35-foot water table called Great Big River
- Immerse themselves in the ever-changing night sky at the Headwaters
- Tweek and torque gears and gadgets galore in Everyday Engineering
- Create in the Tinker Workshop makerspace
- Meander the Oxbow Outdoor adventure
- Enjoy Community Connections throughout our imaginative theatre, arts, culinary, and market space
- Wobble about in Great Explorations park for toddlers
Plus! Every exhibit area includes interactive space for our littlest guests to wobble and explore in a comfortable, safe environment.
A Brief History
What began as a conversation around a dinner table among soon-to-be-retired educators in 2012, Great River Children’s Museum started to take shape in 2018. At that time, Liberty Bank donated its downtown St. Cloud location for the future home of the museum. An executive director was hired in 2019.
A volunteer-led capital campaign yielded funding for interior demolition of the site in 2022, so the museum was “shovel ready” when construction funding was secured. At the same time, GRCM volunteers and Board members worked with architects and museum exhibit designers to finalize plans and begin exhibit fabrication. In 2023, the State of Minnesota awarded the museum $7 million in funding to begin construction.
Along the way, many program grants were awarded for community outreach.
Great River Children’s Museum By The Numbers
- Total project cost: $17 million
- Total square footage: 31,000
- Number of employees: 25-30
- Projected annual guests: 130,000
Grand Opening Celebration
Great River Children’s Museum will be marking this huge milestone with a Grand Opening Celebration Weekend, June 20–22. Details of this event will be announced.
About Great River Children’s Museum
Great River Children’s Museum resides in downtown St. Cloud and serves more than 500,000 residents in 12 counties and 64 school districts in Central Minnesota.
The museum’s mission is to shine a bright light on the power of play to spark children’s learning, strengthen families, and build community connections. Its 31,000-square-foot space celebrates the rich, natural elements, resources and cultures of Central Minnesota and provides venues for meetings, events, and programming.
GRCM is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization and member of the Association of Children’s Museums
Visit greatrivercm.org to learn more.