Education
A Time of Growth for Museums for Children
This article is part of our Museums special section about how institutions are commemorating the past as they move into the future.
As kidSTREAM prepares to open in Ventura County, it joins a national wave of new children’s museums, expansions of existing institutions and a broadened lineup of programming aimed at young visitors.
Originally opened in 1963 as the Junior Museum of Oneida, the institution has relocated several times and reopened last May in a 14,000-square-foot space. A two-story climber anchors the main floor, allowing children to navigate ramps, platforms and woven rope pathways. The museum houses five themed galleries, including World Market, which introduces music, art and cultural traditions from around the world, and Let’s Experiment, devoted to STEAM-based learning through prism and light exploration, an animation station and other hands-on activities.
The Museums Special Section
Founded by two mothers, Erin Gallagher and Meg Hagen, the museum opened last September in a former farm and garden center. They set out to establish a dedicated children’s institution to serve as an anchor for the community. The 6,400-square-foot space includes 12 exhibit areas focused on STEM exploration, art, engineering, imaginative play and sensory activities. It also offers family and after-school programs, as well as designated sensory-friendly hours. An additional 4,000 square feet of outdoor play space is expected to open in late spring.
In March, the 90,000-square-foot museum expanded with the Gallery of Wonder, a 9,000-square-foot early childhood space designed for children from infancy to age 5. The gallery includes five interactive environments. Into the Woods invites climbing, swinging and fort building in a forest setting, while Under the Waves offers a softly lit ocean cove with sensory-focused light and sound where children can play with puppets. Viva Village centers on community life, encouraging children to role-play everyday helpers. Tot*Spot, reimagined as an oversized garden, caters to infants and toddlers, while the outdoor Treetop Terrace is a space for active play.
The museum debuted two permanent exhibits in October as part of a broader transformation. Galactic Builders is a 1,788-square-foot space-themed environment that invites children to design rockets, engineer rovers and explore physics concepts through hands-on exploration. SKIES is a quieter, sensory-focused space featuring reading nooks, a dedicated area to rest and recharge and immersive visuals of sunrises, sunsets and drifting clouds. Together, the additions expand the museum’s interactive footprint by more than 4,500 square feet and mark the first phase of a multiyear effort to update its learning environments for young visitors.
In November, the museum unveiled a $11.6 million expansion that doubled its footprint to more than 30,000 square feet. The addition includes three galleries, two of which house permanent exhibits. The Sunflower Gallery is a hands-on environment where children can explore the prairie ecosystem and includes a two-story sunflower structure they can climb. The Hall of Bright Ideas celebrates creative Kansans with engineering-based activities. A third gallery will host traveling exhibitions, and the expansion adds three laboratory classrooms for STEAM programs and camps.
Conceived by a former preschool teacher and children’s cartoon artist, Mike Bennett, the Portland Aquarium opened last June as an animal-free, cartoon-style aquarium. Bennett said he wanted marine science to feel like “stepping inside a hand-drawn cartoon.” The 5,000-square-foot space showcases six ocean biomes, including the Wreck, focused on deep-sea carnivores and mysterious creatures, and the Open Ocean, highlighting some of the largest animals that swim in the seas. Throughout, visitors encounter illustrations of more than 100 marine species, including sea otters, jellyfish and great white sharks. Each child receives a guidebook created in collaboration with marine biologists to use throughout the galleries.
In our national memory, George Washington is a mythic figure, cast in metal, carved in stone. His leadership, first as general, then as president, is so intertwined with the roots of this country that it is sometimes hard to separate the man from the idea of America. How does one imagine the living presence of such an icon, much less embody him?
There is a small fraternity of men bold enough to try. At historical parks and commemorations from Virginia to Seattle, these interpreters (their preferred term) transform themselves into Washington. Each has his own approach, but what all their representations seek to capture is a legacy that has endured from his time to ours. If America, at least in part, is an idea, then our national project becomes, like theirs, an act of interpretation, an imperfect attempt to translate some idealized vision into the messy reality of our own time.
— Ezekiel Kweku
“By some strange quirk
of genetics, I have
Washington’s exact
dimensions. Where my
sleeves fall on my wrist,
the size of my chest, the
size of my thighs, where
the breeches fall to my
knees, are all identical.”
John Koopman, 67, often performs
while riding his horse, Bear. He
has portrayed Washington for 20 years.
James Fryer, 70, wears a replica of a general’s uniform that Washington designed himself. He recently completed training to portray Washington for the nonprofit Historic Philadelphia.
“Some people portray George as a marble statue. I don’t do a marble George. I am interested in talking to everyone, even those who yell at me because George was a slave owner. I want to respect them, try to educate them, or maybe even inspire them.”
Vern Frykholm, 77, was moved to bring his interpretation of Washington to Washington State, where he lives, after seeing a 2011 performance in Pennsylvania.
Dean Malissa, 73, signs his personal
correspondence, including emails,
as Washington did: “Your Most Humble
and Obedient Servant.” He became
the Official George Washington
at Mount Vernon in 2004, and held
that role for nearly 20 years.
“I describe him sometimes as just a dude. I look at him and think, I could see myself in the same world, making similar bad decisions or similar good decisions.”
Daniel Cross, 39, portrayed a young Washington at Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg until last year. He now works with organizations around the country.
Curt Radabaugh, 62, has 13,000 history books in his personal library, including several hundred about Washington. He is a veteran of the U.S. Marines and a retired police officer.
“He’s a mentor, a father
figure, and not only in the
sense that he’s a patriarch
of the country. Because
I grew up without a
father, he kind of became
my surrogate father.”
Brian Hilton, 58, says he researches
Washington’s era every morning before
his children get up and at night after
they go to bed. He is a high school history
teacher near Richmond, Va.
Daniel Shippey, 57, partners on interpretations with his wife, Kelly, who portrays Martha Washington. Kelly researched 18th-century hair techniques to create her husband’s costume hairstyle. They live in Virginia.
“You’re playing the myth of George Washington as well as the historical figure. I make his voice a little firmer and deeper than it probably was in real life. I play him a little funnier than he probably was. In reality, if you came to see him, he probably wouldn’t talk to you as much as I do.”
Doug Thomas, 53, is Washington’s second cousin nine times removed.
John Godzieba, 67, has reenacted
the crossing of the Delaware as
Washington every Christmas for the
past 16 years at Pennsylvania’s
Washington Crossing Historic Park.
“In many ways I don’t look like him. My eye color is wrong. My nose is wrong. My hair color is wrong. I wouldn’t have cast myself in this role.”
Ron Carnegie, 64, has portrayed Washington at Colonial Williamsburg for 20 years.
Ryan Williams, 37, is a veteran who specializes in playing a young Washington during the French and Indian War. He lives in Virginia.
“Some people portray
Washington almost
like a superhero.
I like to bring out that
he has faults. He’s a
person like you or me.”
Michael Grillo, 64, is a historical
tailor who hand-sews his own clothes
for reenactments. He also makes
period props, including two American
battle flags and pewter mugs
engraved with Washington’s crest.
Martin Schoeller is a photographer and director known for his close-up portraits of everyone from world leaders and celebrities to female bodybuilders. For this project, he used a large format camera to photograph 13 historical interpreters of George Washington — many of whom arrived in full uniform — over three days in Virginia and New York City.
Additional reporting by Tenzin D. Tsagong. Interviews have been edited and condensed for length and clarity. Top quotes from Brian Hilton, Daniel Shippey and Daniel Cross.
Produced by Sara Barrett, Danny DeBelius and Sam Whitney. Additional production by Olivia James.
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