Imagine Children's Museum
 Front entrance of the museum at Wall St. and Hoyt Ave. (2004-2022) | |
 | |
| Established | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Location | 1502 Wall Street Everett, Washington |
| Coordinates | 47°58′39″N 122°12′34″W / 47.97750°N 122.20944°W |
| Type | Children's museum |
| Website | www |
Imagine Children's Museum is a non-profit children's museum located in Everett, Washington, USA, near Seattle.
History
[edit]
The museum was founded in 1991 as the Children's Museum of Snohomish County, as part of a countywide initiative to establish children-oriented places in Snohomish County by the county government's Children's Commission. It opened in 1993 at a storefront in nearby Marysville,[1] but was forced to move to a temporary space in downtown Everett in 1995.[2] The county government planned to locate the museum permanently at McCollum Park in Mill Creek, but plans fell through during the late 1990s, leading to a donation by the Schack family to fund a permanent museum in downtown Everett.[3]
The new $4.75 million museum, a former Everett Mutual Bank branch with 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) of space, opened on October 17, 2004, and was renamed the Imagine Children's Museum.[4][5][6] In its first year at the expanded location, the museum reported an attendance of 146,000, more than quadruple its annual attendance at its temporary locations.[7] According to the museum's website, in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, it served more than 248,000 people through the museum and outreach programming.[8]
In 2020, the museum announced plans for a four-story expansion that would add 47,000 square feet (4,400 m2) in the southern parking lot. Plans included a construction crane exhibit that would allow visitors inside the museum to step into the crane cab and pretend to be crane operators.[9]
The $25 million expansion project ultimately added a three-story expansion of 33,000 square feet (3,066 m2), doubling the museum's size. The LEED-certified building includes interactive, hands-on exhibit areas designed to promote children's active learning and healthy development through play. The expanded museum opened to members on August 19, 2022, and had a "soft opening" for the public on September 7, 2022. Its Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting event took place on October 29, 2022.
Exhibits and programs
[edit]Imagine Children's Museum offers playful learning areas children between the ages of 1 and 12 years. Some of the exhibits are reflective of life in Snohomish County, including a child-sized airplane cockpit, a bus donated by Everett Transit, and a theater stage.[10] The museum's rooftop was converted into an outdoor playground in 2005, including a two-story wooden tower, climbing wall and other play areas.[7] Exhibit areas in the new expansion include the Woodlands Adventure, where children can climb among the trees of a make-believe forest, Puget Sound Ecosystem Gallery, with a real gray whale skeleton and cold water aquarium, a Tinker Shop, where children learn to use real tools supervised by their caregivers, and Import, Export, Our Port, where children can pretend to be a tugboat captain in the Port of Everett. [11]
References
[edit]- ^ Brooks, Diane (September 23, 1993). "Children's place: years of dedicated effort pay off as kids' museum finds a home". The Seattle Times. p. 1.
- ^ Ochoa, Rachel (October 6, 1995). "Children's museum to reopen in Everett". The Seattle Times. p. B3. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ de Leon, John (December 8, 2000). "Museum finally gets a home". The Seattle Times. p. B5.
- ^ Dunnewind, Stephanie (October 16, 2004). "Exploring children's museums: They educate and stimulate; they're expanding, and more are opening". The Seattle Times. p. C1. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ Lloyd, Jennifer (August 1, 2004). "Museum closes, new one to open: Everett facility for kids is moving". The Seattle Times. p. B2.
- ^ Tuinstra, Rachel (October 13, 2004). "Child's play: Imagine, a kids museum". The Seattle Times. p. H20. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ a b Dunnewind, Stephanie (October 8, 2005). ""Awesome" addition to Imagine Children's Museum". The Seattle Times. p. C1. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ "Mission and History | Imagine Children's Museum". 2015-02-09. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
- ^ Muhlstein, Julie (August 23, 2020). "Museum does more than imagine, plans four-story expansion". The Everett Herald. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
- ^ Yefimova, Katya (March 16, 2010). "Imagine Children's Museum welcomes its millionth visitor". The Everett Herald. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ "Imagine Children's Museum Unveils Its Incredible New Expansion". ParentMap. Retrieved 2023-08-08.