Just take a walk with me through our world of make believe. It’s morning and the museum isn’t quite open yet. You can see ships moving up the Fox River and from inside the museum, you can see children’s faces pressed against windows of the new museum and the children have pure joy in their eyes. As soon as the doors open, families stream inside to see the huge Hot Air Balloon welcome them.

Some stop in their tracks, others run ahead, but all look up with broad smiles. After the Hot Air Balloon, the Mighty Oak greets them. All over the 15,000 square-foot museum, visitors are drawn to exciting hands-on exhibits. Staff and volunteers invite families to interact and play. Parents and caregivers are excited by the convenience of onsite parking, stroller coral and family bathrooms. The many downtown residents and workers stop by to enjoy the new City Deck. Some wonder about the museum as a new site for their next corporate event. The news reports that Green Bay is abuzz with news that the children’s museum is a ―must see.‖ While a dad checks into birthday parties, a mom remarks that she should get a membership because her
children will insist on coming every week.

As I take it all in, I feel a sense of pride on the museum’s long-awaited completion. I’m humbled and honored to see that the newest addition to downtown demonstrates Green Bay’s commitment to children, play and learning—in the city’s very heart.

These visions aren’t just dreams – they can be reality. We have a growing audience, a terrific site, a committed board, and well developed plans. There’s one thing missing: your support. Now let your imagination run wild, and please join us in this dream!

"Play is the way that children learn what no one can teach them. It is the way they explore and orient themselves to the actual world of space and time, of things, animals, structures and people. Play is the child’s work."
– JK Franks

The Opportunity To Dream

Green Bay needs a safe, fun, hands-on environment in which children can learn and play. Experience tells us, and neuroscience confirms, that learning occurs when new experiences, particularly in childhood, create new networks among brain cells. This happens best when two or more parts of the brain are being stimulated at the same time. Learning by doing – rather than merely listening or watching – works because it engages many of the five senses, creating wonder and stirring imaginations, as well as stimulating brain development.

To provide these vital experiences to more children more often and at a reasonable cost, the Children’s Museum of Green Bay will create an educational, play-filled environment dedicated to the children of today and tomorrow. With vision and support from adults today, future generations of Northeastern Wisconsin children will discover excitement and wonder at a new, state-of-the-art children’s museum.

The Children’s Museum of Green Bay will be affordable and allow, if for only an hour or so, children to escape into the world of the possibilities, to delve deeply into the world of imagination and what ifs. The new Children’s Museum of Green Bay will be a unique place in our community where kids will go to dream and where all families can learn together in an engaging and appealing setting.

Every healthy community needs a children’s museum. Many reputable community organizations in our area, such as the Einstein Project, Next Door Theatre and the Brown County Library, have chosen the Children’s Museum of Green Bay as an ideal setting to introduce science, the arts and humanities to children of all economic and cultural backgrounds.