Community Engagement - Great River Children's Museum

Children's Museum, Community Engagement, Events

Flourishing: Insights and Inspiration from InterActivity 2024

“Kasserian Ingera?”

“And how are the children?” is a traditional greeting among the Massai tribe from Africa. Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, plenary speaker and recipient of this year’s Great Friend to Kids award, posed this question at this year’s InterActivity conference hosted by the Association of Children’s Museums in Madison, Wisconsin.

This year’s theme was Flourish. How can children’s museums uplift their communities by helping children reach their full potential and help communities flourish?

Throughout the three-day conference, Executive Director Cassie Miles, Program & Outreach Manager Kylie Conover, Communications Specialist Hailey Thielen, and Board and Committee Member Vincent Miles participated in interactive sessions, all focused on the theme of flourishing.

Kylie presenting, at the emerging children's museum conference.

At the Emerging Children’s Museum pre-conference Program & Outreach Manager, Kylie, along with Bethany Ball and Tennille Adams of the Children’s Museum of the Magic Valley in Twin Falls, Idaho, presented The Grant-Writing Game is Afoot.

In this session, they helped emerging children’s museums discover the needs of their community, how they can meet those needs, and how to develop programming through grant writing — all in the style of a Holmes & Watson mystery!

Board and Committee Member Dr. Vincent Miles, PsyD LP led the session, Building Resilience: A Conversation on Executive Burnout. Participants learned how to identify and address burnout, as well as strategies on how to combat burnout, build resilience, and promote healthy organizations.

The InterActivity conference also hosts dedicated sessions for Executive Directors. These sessions provide a platform for museum leadership to discuss trends in the industry and opportunities to better serve children and families in an ever evolving world. They also get to the heart of establishing a culture of respect, positivity, and adaptability to promote health and wellness for the people that spend the most time at the children’s museum – staff and volunteers!

At the Madison Children’s Museum, staff explored their innovative natural outdoor playscape. They gained insights into designing play spaces using sustainable and affordable materials and discovering how these natural spaces can offer unique and educational experiences for children.

The trip also included a visit to Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park, known for its massive sculptures crafted from scrap metal. One of Dr. Evermor’s works is showcased on the rooftop of the Madison Children’s Museum. This rooftop sculpture exemplifies a collaborative effort with local artists, highlighting the power of community and artistic partnership. A partnership that Great River Children’s Museum values deeply and will be demonstrated through commissioned art pieces created by many artists with ties to Central Minnesota.

Keynote small talks from artist Lynda Barry, neuroscientist Dr. Richard J. Davidson, and Charles Hua, Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy and Loan, emphasized the transformative power of creativity, the brain’s capacity for resilience and happiness, and how healthy environments foster well-being. The speakers inspired attendees to think holistically about how they can support and nurture the potential within their own communities, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to truly flourish.

A hands-on workshop led by artist Lynda Barry unleashed hidden creativity. Her techniques, taught to both kids and adults alike, are based on the premise that everyone can draw. She started her brief talk by She started the session having everyone draw with eyes closed. Can you guess what each drawing is supposed to be?

Barry’s workshop was a powerful reminder that creativity resides in everyone and that the act of creating can be a source of profound fulfillment and connection. Creativity is not a talent, but a fundamental aspect of human experience that everyone can tap into!

Of course, InterActivity wouldn’t have been complete without an evening at the Madison Children’s Museum!

This celebration provided the perfect opportunity for museum professionals to relax, connect, and experience the museum’s exhibits and activities firsthand.

With over 1,000 museum professionals in attendance from all over the world, this year’s InterActivity was the largest yet. With so many in attendance, the event was a vibrant hub of activity, collaboration, and innovation.

The conference closed on an uplifting note, leaving participants inspired and equipped with new ideas and strategies to help their communities flourish so we can say “Sepati Ingera!”

“The Kids are Well!”

Children's Museum, Community Engagement, Events

Building Block(s) Party – Breaking Ground and Building Community

On Saturday, October 7th over 1,000 people from all over Central Minnesota came together to celebrate a historic milestone for Great River Children’s Museum, breaking ground. This spectacular turnout shows the enthusiasm Central Minnesota has for GRCM and a space our community can enjoy for generations to come.

But what does building community look like? At Great River Children’s Museum, access and inclusion are at our core. We want to provide a space for children and families of all backgrounds with opportunities to play, follow their curiosity, and discover their potential.

At our Building Block(s) Party, 300+ children and their caring adults toured our future museum space. The future museum will be over 31,000 sq ft and will be home to eight exhibit areas, program spaces, teaching kitchen, community room, rooftop deck, and more!

Children and families also explored a host of construction themed activities like Touch-a-Construction Truck, building their own children’s museum with Marshmallow Engineering, exploring physics with our Cement Station (oobleck!), and other activities full of digging, building, and most importantly, playing!

What does it take to build a community event like this? It took 64 volunteers over 177 hours to help us build this event from the ground up.

It also took…

300 pounds of cornstarch to make 147 gallons of oobleck.

2,000 pounds of sand for our Digging Station.

20 cases of marshmallows for Marshmallow Engineering.

300 water balloons for our Wrecking Ball Balloon station where kids got the opportunity to “knock down” the museum walls, making for a true groundbreaking!

Over 40 gallons of ice cream at our Make-your-Own Dirt Cake Station.

240 kids construction hats.

And endless smiles!

We are truly grateful for all of our volunteers and sponsors who came together to make our Building Block(s) Party possible, we couldn’t have asked for a better turn out. We are thrilled to embark on this exciting journey toward our grand opening date of late 2024!

As we mark the start of construction we reflect how Great River Children’s Museum will be more than a building. Our dynamic, interactive environments and experiences are a gateway to the world and its people for children and families of all backgrounds and will include:

Curriculum complementary field trips rooted in play and exploration.
Outreach activities to bring museum programming to parks, festivals, schools, and other community venues.
Spaces to bring people together for co-learning, group gatherings, birthdays, corporate outings, and more!

We need your support to make this happen. You can help us Chart the Course by supporting program development and providing funding for interactive loose parts to supplement all the fun! Donate today at: https://campaign.greatrivercm.org/

Children's Museum, Community Engagement, Events

Leveraging our voices: Uplifting our shared mission at InterActivity

At the end of April, the Great River Children’s Museum team traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana for the 2023 Association of Children’s Museums InterActivity Conference. Executive Director Cassie Miles, Program and Outreach Manager Kylie Conover, and Board and Committee Member Vincent Mies represented the museum and participated in three days of conversations, panels, and information sessions. And, of course, there was time for play throughout as well! The Louisiana Children’s Museum in New Orleans hosted 700+ ACM InterActivity attendees in their new space which sits on over 8 acres of park land.

InterActivity attendees come from children’s museums that span the globe, from South Korea and Singapore, to the island of Curaçoa.

For this and many other reasons, attending the ACM InterActivity Conference is a great way to make connections to other children’s museum professionals, access resources to support programming and operations, and to discuss opportunities for the advancement of our shared mission. These connections are extremely valuable to our team now and in the future when we are open to the public.

Program & Outreach Manager, Kylie was able to give some insight on building meaningful connections with communities as a presenter this year at ACM alongside Beth Housewert from Golisano Children’s Museum.

The focus of the session that Kylie took part in was on community engagement during the emerging stages of a museum’s life. Kylie and Beth posed 4 different questions to consider before starting a program to a room of emerging museum professionals. Kylie spoke specifically about our Play Explore and Learn Labs, Camp Beyond, work alongside Yes Network, and our fantastic Pop-Up Museum Experiences in partnership with Great River Regional Library. In each case we are able to take what we’re learning from communities throughout Central Minnesota and incorporate feedback into future program plans. The work that we are doing now will set us up for success when we open our doors. Listening to the needs of our community is the best metric for our program planning.

Executive Director, Cassie Miles, participated in leadership roundtable discussions and sessions focused on guiding the vision forward, building a network of invested community members, and supporting children and families through the world’s ever evolving technological changes. Panel sessions provoked thoughtful discussions about integrating expertise from other sectors, connecting with community leaders, financial forecasting, and leveraging the voices of children’s museums in support of lifelong playful learning. No matter the topic, access to play and the power of play to empower children’s creativity and curiosity is at the core of what we do.

In the words of Dr. Calvin Mackie, keynote speaker at the opening day of the event, “The highest form of wealth does not come from making money, it comes from making a difference” and there may be no better way to summarize how we feel after meeting an incredible group of people at InterActivity 2023.

Children's Museum, PLAY

Unlocking creativity: how art supports a child’s development

By Jill Dubbledee Kuhn, Anisa Hagi-Mohamed, Jo Svaren-Eichler, Heather Allen

Why is GRCM inviting local Central Minnesota artists to fill all three levels of the museum inside and out with art? Exposing children to various types of art encourages imaginative and creative thinking skills that benefit a lifetime. It is our hope that the various types of art generate conversations and new ways of reframing ideas.

Ways art supports children in development and learning:

Art fosters discovery and experimentation.

“One of my favorite childhood games was to fill a sink with water and put nail polish into it to see what happened when the color burst up the surface, merging into each other as a floating, changing art” -Helen Frankenthaler

This child would later grow up to become an American painter and major contributor to the style of Abstract Expressionism after the post war era. Who knew? All children are born artists. Not all children become artists like Helen; however, all children can carry the skills of expression and critical thinking into adulthood.

Kids create their art on an easel during a GRCM Play Explore Learn (PEL) Lab.

Art nurtures and builds communication skills.

One year old Stella has already been exposed to the elements of art found in the shapes, colors and textures from her board books, toys and even clothing. This is one way she is learning about the world.

Art is all inclusive.

Art builds a vocabulary from our five senses. It speaks many languages and tells many stories. It never goes out of style. It is for all ages. It can make an ordinary space sing with joy and wonder. It reminds us of the children we all once were as we grew in identity, confidence and personality.

Children's Museum, Community Engagement, PLAY

Learning together as we go

By Jane Ellison, GRCM board member and volunteer

Great River Children’s Museum offered a Play, Explore and Learn (PEL) Lab for Somali families on October 8 at our downtown building. This was a rich co-learning experience, where families learned about the children’s museum and children’s learning through play. GRCM volunteers listened to suggestions for the future museum and were able to field test a welcoming display of cultural fabrics, carvings, metalwork, and local artwork.

The PEL Lab offered activities one might find in the future exhibits, and efforts were made to integrate Somali materials, such as hijabs for the baby dolls and children’s books in English and Somali.

The program included time for parents and children to play together, storytelling, snack and play for children while parents learned about museum plans and gave input on ways to incorporate Somali culture into the Community Connections exhibit. The PEL Lab closed with a multi-cultural music performance by the Lullaby Singers for parents and children together. The singing experience was SO enjoyable – some children brought the baby dolls to hold on their laps while listening to the music and a few of the parents joined the performers in a fun sing-a-long. Everyone left with smiles. No wonder music is a universal language.

GRCM volunteers were impressed with the kindness and cooperation among the fifteen children from 8 mos. – 13 years. Older children included and helped younger children, independently creating an amazing bus big enough for all – with a door that opened and closed, and an awesome steering wheel.

We are continuing to learn from the wider community that has much to offer the museum with its talents, ideas, creativity, support and encouragement. Many thanks to the Cultural Navigators Anisa and Naima, video production team Mohamed (XIDIG TV) and Bashir (C.A.I.R.O.), volunteers, and the Lullaby Singers!

Community Engagement, Exhibits

Organic ways to grow and connect

This summer we’ve been able to connect with children, families, and community members in our region outside of St. Cloud. Families and caregivers are excited to learn that a children’s museum is coming to Central Minnesota! Through our partnership with Great River Regional Library, and through visits to various farmers markets, we’ve been able to provide simple and interactive programming for kids and their caring adults to enjoy and learn through play.

Farmers markets are a great way to meet neighbors in your community. Supporting your local farmers market is an important piece of community involvement too. Not only are you getting fresh and nourishing food that you need, but you’re also connecting with local growers!

The farmers market is a great place to learn where your food comes from and how it’s grown by simply chatting with the farmers and growers. You can ask them where the food gets planted, how long it takes to grow, when it was picked, and more. Sometimes, they might even have recipes and cooking ideas to share. After all, they’re the ones who are there from seed to sprout!

Taking a walk through the farmers market is a great way to learn more about your community and those around you. It can be a great place to try new foods, learn about local arts and trades, and meet new people. For some kids, farmers markets can be a more comfortable environment to experiment with food, ask questions, and in our case spend some time playing while learning about Great River Children’s Museum.

We’re designing an exhibit space that will celebrate the diversity of Central Minnesota’s communities through art, food, and music. The goal is to demonstrate that even though we’re all different and come from different backgrounds or cultures, we are all connected. Community Connections will include a Global Market to explore food, spices, and more from different cultures and parts of the world. You and the kids you love will be able to explore various scents by smelling spices, textures by touching food, and colors and sizes by assembling flower bouquets and sorting produce.

We want to thank all of the local farmers markets that have allowed us to be there with a fun and engaging experience for children and their caring adults. We’ve met and connected with so many amazing people!

Children's Museum, Community Engagement

A Great (River!) Partnership

Great River Children’s Museum and Great River Regional Library share a common goal to spark curiosity and learning while encouraging the exploration of new ideas.

Over the next year, Great River Children’s Museum and Great River Regional Library are proud to be bringing the communities of Central Minnesota a small glimpse of the future of Great River Children’s Museum (“GRCM”) through Pop-up Exhibit Experiences hosted by libraries around the region! This is the perfect opportunity to share the potential of future museum exhibits, programming, and experiences with those we look forward to serving in our region.

The library’s goal to have a patron-centered organization is an excellent fit with the museum’s plan to bring play and exploration to Central Minnesota’s children and families.

“The library has specific goals to try new ideas, innovate, and create partnerships that promote libraries and their services, so this feels like a natural extension of key parts of our goals,” says GRRL’s Beth Stolpman.

Great River Children’s Museum aspires to be a place where there is something for everyone and all are welcome, much like Great River Regional Library. Our goal is to bring awareness to those in our region who may not know we are in development. Library patrons outside of the St. Cloud metro area will get a sneak peek of what the future holds for Great River Children’s Museum through displays and exhibit related programming in the familiarity of their local library.

GRRL Librarian Jade Lauber, said, “We are so excited to have the opportunity to have the pop-up exhibits from Great River Children’s Museum! These exhibits will give our patrons the chance to experience what the museum has to offer, and will be an excellent addition to our summer programming. This year, we have a lot of outdoor, nature, and camping activities tying into our annual Summer Reading Program, ‘Read Beyond the Beaten Path.’ We can’t wait to see how well the museum’s Pop-up Exhibit Experiences compliment our existing library resources and programs, and how our patrons will interact with the exhibits!”

Cohort 1 of the Pop-up Exhibit Experiences begin Sunday, May 1 2022 at these Great River Regional Library locations: Annandale, Becker, Clearwater, Paynesville, Pierz, Richmond, and Swanville.

GRCM will also be taking part in this years Llama Llama Pajama Party at the St. Cloud Great River Regional Library on May 10th from 5-7pm. Come by to chat with us and enjoy an activity as well as a coloring contest, storytime, prizes, and more provided by United Way of Central Minnesota, GRRL, and others.

We look forward to connecting with the patrons of Great River Regional Library and to all future partnership opportunities that will support children, their families, and their love of learning through play!

Children's Museum

Experimenting with Imaginative Play at Camp Beyond

By Kylie Conover, Program & Outreach Manager

As the museum begins to take shape through the exhibit design process, so too are the programming components of the museum.

Museums are so much more than just the building and the exhibits themselves. Great River Children’s Museum plans on having additional, hands-on learning experiences including field trips and summer camps.

At the beginning of August I was able to run a pilot summer camp program. I named this experiment Camp Beyond, because what I wanted was us to think past what traditional summer camps at museums often look like. I combined three different elements together for the curriculum of Camp Beyond; practicing social emotional learning skills, hands-ons imaginative play, and TableTop Role Playing Games.

What resulted was a week of absolute joy as I watched a group of campers work together through a series of challenges that culminated in overcoming a challenge and a pizza party at the park!

Over the course of the week GRCM hosted 10 Adventurers (campers), they were broken into groups of five and were led through various activities by their Adventure Guides (camp staff). The various activities included building a world narrative together, making a character and costume, building a cardboard fort, and lastly defeating the bad guy plaguing their world.

According to our surveys, the day our adventurers got to create their hero personas was a huge highlight for them. Not only did they create their character, they were given the freedom to use cardboard, glue, fabric, and other materials to make a costume to become that character. To wrap up that day each camper got to use a program which allowed for them to create a 3-D model of their character which then got printed on our 3-D printer.

A key part of Camp Beyond was providing a sense of community and agency among the Adventurers. At the beginning of the week we presented an open door policy, simply stated: If you need to take a moment (or many moments) away from the group you could. There was a space provided with a set of alternative activities that allowed for the camper to take time away if they needed it. This open door policy is a part of a toolkit that allows for each camper to have more agency throughout the programming.

Ultimately, Camp Beyond was received favorably with requests from campers if they can come back and continue to be involved. I certainly can’t thank my adventurers and their adults more than I already have because they took a chance on a new camp at a not yet open museum.