Children's Museum of Atlanta
 | |
  Location within Atlanta | |
| Established | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Location | 275 Centennial Olympic Park Drive, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Director | Jane Turner |
| Website | The Children's Museum of Atlanta |
The Children's Museum of Atlanta (from 2003-2011, known as "Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta") is a children's museum located in Atlanta, Georgia, founded in 1988 as a "Museum Without Walls" and opened to the public in 2003. The Museum is located Downtown, adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park. The 16,316 square foot museum, one of four children's museums in Georgia, includes exhibits designed for and geared toward children under the age of nine and hosts field trips from schools and learning centers throughout north Georgia.[1]
The Imaginators, the Museum's troupe of professional actors, guide field trip groups through the Museum, invent fun hands-on activities for children, and create terrific programming, including original and lively 20-minute mini-musicals, which are frequently themed to tie in with the featured traveling exhibit. The Imaginators connect play and learning in a fun way.[2]
History
For its first fifteen years, the Children's Museum of Atlanta was a "Museum Without Walls." In 1999, then-executive director Pat Turner wrote, "There is no edifice for the children's museum. While planning for a facility, the staff developed programs to help young people think about their community and about the role they have in it... The community is the museum." (Gibans & Beach, 1999, p. 123-24) The facility, located in the ground floor of Museum Tower, opened to the public in March, 2003. It celebrated its tenth birthday over the weekend of March 2–3, 2013, with special events and a giant birthday card.[3] The Museum temporarily closed on August 1, 2015 to undergo an $8.2 million renovation. The Museum added a 3,000 sq. ft. second story mezzanine, a two-story climbing structure and many other permanent exhibits. The Museum re-opened on December 12, 2015.
Exhibits
The permanent exhibits include Fundamentally Food, which allows children to role play through the cultivation of food at a farm, its delivery to a grocery store, and consumption in a home kitchen, Tools for Solutions, the centerpiece of which is a machine that, using corkscrews and cranes, transports balls through a series of tracks, and Leaping into Learning, a small play area for guests younger than five, Let Your Creativity Flow, an area devoted to the arts, complete with an art studio, a paint wall and a stage for performances, Gateway to the World, which is devoted to teaching children about geography, topography, and culture..[4]
The Morph Gallery
The Museum typically hosts three traveling exhibits per year in a 2500 square foot section called The Morph Gallery.
A T. Rex Named Sue, October 4, 2003 – January 5, 2004
Birthdays Around the World, February 5-April 18, 2004
The Monkey King, July 24, 2004 – November 1, 2004
Tummy Town, November 13, 2004 – February 20, 2005
Spring Into the Arts, March 4, 2005 – June 23, 2005
The Shoes We Use, June 25, 2005 – September 15, 2005
Arthur’s World, October 29, 2005 – February 15, 2006
Critters February 25, 2006 – April 8, 2006
Take a Deep Breath!, April 22, 2006 – June 18, 2006
Night Journeys, July 1, 2006 – October 26, 2006
Little Hands, Big Difference, November 18, 2006 – February 25, 2007
Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?: March 31, 2007 – September 9, 2007
Alice’s Wonderland, September 29, 2007 – January 23, 2008
Wild About Plants: The Plant Adventures of Flora Wild, January 26, 2008 – April 27, 2008
Under the Big Top: You’re the Ringmaster!, May 17, 2008 – September 14, 2008
The Amazing Castle, January 24, 2009 – May 26, 2009
Exploring Trees: Inside & Out, June 13, 2009 – September 13, 2009
Curious George: Let’s Get Curious!, October 10, 2009 – January 24, 2010
Cyberchase: the Chase is on!, February 13, 2010 – May 31, 2010
Conservation Quest, July 1, 2010 – Mid-September 2010
Making America’s Music, October 2, 2010 – January 9, 2011
From Here to Timbuktu: A Journey Through West Africa, February 5 – May 31, 2011
Team Up! Explore Science & Sports, June 11-September 18, 2011
Once Upon a Time: Exploring the World of Fairy Tales, October 1, 2011 – January 22, 2012
Adventures with Clifford, The Big Red Dog™, February 4-May 6, 2012
The Big Adventure, May 26 – September 9, 2012
The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm: October 6, 2012 – January 27, 2013
Body Carnival: The Fun & Science of Being You!, February 9 – May 27, 2013
WEEBLES Coast to Coast, June 8 – September 8, 2013
Moneyville, September 28, 2013- January 12, 2014
Sonic Sensation, February 15 - May 28, 2014
Outside the Box, June 14, 2014 - January 26, 2015
Super Kids Saves the World, February 7 - May 3, 2015
Once Upon a Time: Exploring the World of Fairy Tales, May 16 - July 26, 2015
See also
References
- Gibans, Nina Freedlander & Barbara Kres Bach, eds. Bridges to Understanding Children's Museums, Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations, 1999