InterActivity 2010: Invest Early, Inspire Growth

InterActivity 2010 will explore how investing early, whether in the delivery of play-based education, the ability to meet community needs or in the quest of institutional greatness, is children’s museums’ best formula for inspiring long-term growth.

Neuroscience confirms that play significantly effects the development of a young child’s brain. Social science studies indicate that play helps a child build interpersonal and self-regulation abilities. Futurists point to the global economy and the need for a workforce that can imagine, innovate and empathize. As leaders in early childhood education, children’s museums engage infants, toddlers and children through play to think critically and creatively. Exhibits and programs provide children with tangible interactions that challenge them to accomplish small and large feats. Museum outreach and community partnerships ensure that children of all backgrounds and abilities find ways to play and learn about the world in which we live. The results of these efforts yield dramatic rewards — children with critical cognitive, motor, social and emotional competencies that enable them to reach their full potential and to be ready to participate as 21st century learners and contributors.

To be essential community assets for children, children’s museums must be proactive. This means finding a seat at the table when leaders make plans regarding early childhood education, creating partnerships that expand community resources, embracing diversity in meaningful ways, supporting the professional development of museum staff, clarifying the museum’s brand, developing revenue streams and ensuring the business plan charts a course for sustainability and progress. Seeding children’s museums’ institutional capacity and influence will ensure the field’s growing impact on children, families and communities.