Minnesota Children's Museum - History

History

On December 12, 1981, the first children entered the original Children’s Museum in downtown Minneapolis. Known as “Minnesota’s AwareHouse”, the museum allowed children to experience the innovative idea of hands–on children’s museums. Children who visited the museum have found creative, colorful, educational, safe environments to explore and have discovered galleries and programs based on principles of learning. The museum founders, Marialice Harwood, Kate Donaldson and Suzanne Payne, built a museum based on the philosophy that there would be no “Do not touch” signs. During the first year, the museum had 65,000 visitors.

Over the next few years, attendance grew to 80,000 and the museum quickly outgrew the original space in downtown Minneapolis. In 1985, the museum moved to an old blacksmith’s shop in Bandana Square. Attendance in the first year at this location jumped to 200,000. By the early 1990s, the museum’s visitors and exhibits again outgrew the space in Bandana Square. The doors to Minnesota Children’s Museum in downtown St. Paul opened with 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) of gallery and program space in September 1995. Today, more than five million children and their families have discovered the spark of learning through play.