Things looking up at Children's Museum
Now on solid footing, the long-loved institution is working on a new mission to expand its reach as it undergoes a revival.
In a workshop behind glass doors in a far corner of the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, Ed Williams toiled away on a recent day, repairing a broken glass panel of a popular kaleidoscope, testing a newly donated two-way lighted mirror exhibit and dreaming up new interactive displays.
When Williams joined the museum’s staff a few months ago, eager to be part of what he sees as a worthy cause — exposing children to science and technology through creative play — the Intel retiree found the doors to his workspace covered in dark paper. He ripped it off.
Now, curious children can peer into the delightfully untidy world where the former automation engineer is building all kinds of fun. “By the end of
the year, I’ll have six to seven new exhibits on the floor,” he said.
Williams, one of several new staff members at a long-loved community staple undergoing a revival, doesn’t mind the nose prints the kids leave behind on the glass. He’s glad to see their faces.
His tenure comes at a dynamic time for the nearly 3-decade-old Children’s Museum, whose future seemed uncertain early last year, as it struggled with declining revenues.
It is now on solid footing, workers and board members say, and is searching for grant funding to grow rather than emergency cash to keep the doors open. The museum, which has been collaborating with Albuquerque’s Explora children’s center on improvement plans, also is working on a new mission to expand its reach around the region, by bringing an inflatable planetarium straight to schools. The structure allows kids to step inside a digital experience that staff said is much like a 3-D IMAX theater.
“It has catapulted us into the present day,” said Sharon Woods, president of the museum’s board. She described her first time inside the dome: “You’re zooming past the stars, and you land on
one of Saturn’s rings. … And that’s just a tiny portion of what it does.”
Paul Macks, the board’s vice president, said, “I think the opportunities here are unlimited.”
The museum will be hosting a free Community Day on Oct. 1 to showcase a recent face-lift — the facility was closed for a week earlier this month for a thorough cleaning and painting, with a brighter new kid-friendly palette — as well as the portable planetarium. The event includes a day of performances by local youth arts organizations in the museum’s vast outdoor garden space, hands-on activities, face painting and food trucks.
Visitors also can meet a new addition this summer to the museum’s menagerie — a bearded dragon named Smog who staff members insist is “cuddly” and “a love bug.” Smog was a gift from the ABQ BioPark zoo.
They can also quiz Cody Stelzer, chief “fun facilitator,” about his science knowhow. Stelzer, officially the facility’s floor manager, is a former pharmacist who, like Williams, joined the staff just a few months ago. His duty, one of the most important, is to make sure small patrons are exploring with relish.
“You’re never comfortable when you’re a nonprofit,” Macks said. “… It’s a never-ending struggle.”
Still, he said, the organization has been able to rebuild the trust of community supporters and funders over the past year, and he believes that momentum will continue to grow.
In December 2015, the Children’s Museum announced it was laying off its entire staff and shutting down temporarily amid financial troubles, a closure that dragged on for months. The organization’s annual funding from grants, donations and memberships had declined between 2012 and 2015 by nearly $330,000 — a significant drop for a nonprofit with a budget in 2015 of about $750,000. Total revenues that year, including entrance fees and room rentals, fell short of spending by more $84,000, federal tax documents show.
The goal of the closure, then-Executive Director Michael Hare said at the time, was to launch a major overhaul of the facility’s operations, from its financial management to its indoor and outdoor exhibits, its staff and even its board.
“The goal is to build the capacity of the museum,” said Hare, who didn’t return when the museum reopened in late April 2016. “We need to invest in the facility, we need to invest in the staff, we need to invest in the programming and in the exhibits,” he said, “so this is more like it was in 2002.”
That year, one of the museum’s strongest, staff said, it reported more than $1 million in revenue.
Museum changes didn’t happen overnight. Many are still in the works, and Hare hasn’t yet been replaced. Instead, the museum is operating with a fivemember management team.
Macks joined the board about a year ago, along with several other community people determined to not just ensure the museum survives but also see that it successfully fulfills its key role — getting young children excited about science.
“This is early childhood education,” Woods said. “This is such a great resource.”
“I raised my kids there,” she added, “and started taking my grandkids there. … We really need to keep it going.”
Staff and fellow board members credit Woods, longtime owner of the local homebuilding company Woods Design Builders, with much of the fundraising success in the past year. She organized a membership drive, reaching out to local businesses as well as individuals. The organization also has been awarded foundation grants, including funds to offer field trips, with transportation costs covered, for some 1,500 children at high-poverty schools throughout Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Sandoval and San Miguel counties.
Woods and others said the partnership with Explora, a much larger children’s discovery center, has been a critical part of the Children’s Museum overhaul, from consultations on color schemes and the organization of exhibits to program and staff development. The facilities also are planning to share exhibits on a rotating basis.
“They were instrumental in bringing in their expertise,” Woods said of Explora representatives.
The collaboration came with another benefit: It led Williams to his new gig.
After his retirement from Intel, Williams participated in a nine-month Intel fellowship at Explora. At the time, the two museums had begun collaborating, and Williams ended up spending much of his time at the Santa Fe facility. When the fellowship ended, he decided to stay on as the facilities and exhibits manager.
He rattled off plans for a child-size “maker space” — a tinker space, as he calls it — with electronics and robotics, a bubble display addition called a spectrum window, a mark-making machine and a new train exhibit.
Tammy McLellan, senior manager and master gardener, who has been busy over the past year upgrading the museum’s outdoor space — including additional acreage, where she’s growing pumpkins for a Halloween-themed event next month — said visitors have liked the changes they’ve seen so far.
She pays particular attention to how children are engaging with exhibits as she gathers ideas for new developments.
“It’s about individual discovery,” McLellan said. “… We have to make sure we are all about fun.”