By Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds romp around this room of wood and plastic blocks, a few computer terminals, a pseudo doctor's examination room, a mini-grocery, and a display of Mexican items. A few years ago, all this would've been in the way at Abercrombie and Fitch. But the clothing store pulled out. And now on the second level of Valley View Mall, next to Penney's, is the Dallas Children's Museum.
Susan Williams, Executive Director, Dallas Children's Museum: It's common for children's museums to start in places like this.
Zeeble: Susan Williams, who used to run a children's museum in New Braunfels, has been executive director of the Dallas Children's Museum since 1999, when it opened in an even smaller venue than in the mall.
Williams: Strip malls, retail centers, vacant storefronts are common because it's a grass-roots movement. You talk of this huge expansion of children's museums in last 20 years and certainly the last 10 years?that's how it's been happening.
Zeeble: If history's an indicator, it may take another 30 years or more for the Dallas Children's Museum to make its mark on the region. That's because the most revered children's museums, like Brooklyn's or Boston's, have been around for about a hundred years. They had persuasive, wealthy leaders who promoted the museums. The nation's largest children's museum, in Indianapolis, was founded 76 years ago. It's considered by many to be the best. David Wood handles the museum's traveling exhibits, one of which just retired after a 10-year tour. Wood says nearly all the museum's displays are hands-on and geared to kids 10 or younger, with a focus on more than science or natural history.
David Wood, Indianapolis Children's Museum: We have humanity-based exhibits, world cultures, history. We're talking about doing an exhibit on the power of children and how children have changed the world.
Zeeble: So the Indianapolis Children's Museum may, for example, highlight the brief life of Ryan White, the Indiana boy who contracted AIDS in the 1980's, then educated the public about a disease many knew little about, or were scared to ask. One overriding goal of all children's museums is to make the experience memorable, and also to make it fun, so that children will become lifelong learners and museum-goers. That's according to Lou Cassagrande, president of both the Boston Children's Museum, and the Association of Children's Museums.
Lou Cassagrande, President, Boston Children's Museum and President, Association of Children's Museums: We focus on the whole child. We're not focused on a discipline like just science, or natural history. We're not trying to teach content, we're trying to inspire creative play and learning. Children's museums are designed to bring out the genius of each child. That's our sound-bite but we mean it. Children's museums, literally, from the moment kids see them, the moment they enter them, to the moment they leave, they know they own that museum.
Zeeble: Cassagrande invited Dallas Mayor Laura Miller to address his museum association last week, because of her own experiences as a child.
Dallas Mayor Laura Miller: My first experience was at Boston's Children's Museum. I loved it. Was I aware that there was a Dallas Children's Museum? No. Should I take my kids there? Yes. Tell me where it is!
Zeeble: That's what Becky Wadsworth's 6-year-old son said when the family moved here from Houston ten years ago. Her boy was in love with the Houston Children's Museum, so she got involved in creating the Dallas Children's Museum. She's now its board president, and has seen slow progress despite her son's growing pessimism.
Becky Wadsworth, President of the board and founding board member: He would say to me, 'Mom, you're never going to have it, you're never going to have it.' So now I say, 'Well, we're going up to the museum, the one I was never going to have.' And now he'll be volunteering here.
Zeeble: Wadsworth and her board are now trying to map the future of the Dallas Children's Museum, hoping it will get them to a bigger, better funded space, with more sophisticated displays that can reach more visitors. For KERA 90.1, I'm Bill Zeeble.
To contact Bill Zeeble, please send emails to bzeeble@kera.org.