Last updated: 2/25/2011
801 West San Antonio Street
New Braunfels, TX 78130
Monday - Saturday
10 AM - 5 PM
*This is year round!
$7.50 Memorial Day to Labor Day
$5.50 Labor Day to Memorial Day
Everyone over 12 months is the same price. Under one year is free.
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Linda Dietert
phone:
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Alice Jewell
phone: 830-606-9500
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We introduce our museum by saying, Please touch.
Touching is still, it seems, an incompatible idea for many people in a museum setting. We enjoy watching faces when orienting visitors at the front desk.
Let me tell you our rules, I say, speaking directly to the children in the group.
Parents usually interject a serious-- now listen!
Then I say, Our first rule is please touch.
Faces light up--of both adults and children. It s as if everyone heaves a sigh, Ah, this isn't going to be so bad after all.
It s really not that different in community settings when I speak about the museum, and fairly often among museum professionals, I have had to explain the concept of a children s museum.
It is different, of course, to be in the business of educating, enriching, and providing
experiences, but not collecting or preserving artifacts. Yet, we are included in the group of institutions known collectively as museums.
To some, it is a misnomer (a travesty, even), but not to me. We are preserving the
experiences of heritage. Learning by doing or through direct experience is the principal way, arguably the only way, we learn anything. The more real the experience, the more likely the retention.
In our museum, we have traditionally had a number of exhibits on the theme, Where in the World is . . . We have been to Germany many times, and to Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, to Mexico, Japan, and China. We have been to the Plains, home of the Sioux, and visited the longhouse of the Iroquois.
We go to these many places by putting on authentic-looking costumes, participating in cultural activities, dramatic play, creative art, listening to music, language and tales, eating food, and dancing the dances. In other words, we feel the atmosphere in every way possible given the physical constraints of being in a New Braunfels strip mall rather than the actual country. We believe in what we re doing. It s a good thing for families to have a place to interact and to be actively involved in learning with their children, not simply being entertained or bored or trained as a passive audience.
When I think about my vision for The Children s Museum in New Braunfels, it has to do with permanence, not of collection, but of the institution. Basically, the thirteent-year history of the museum has consisted of quality exhibits, dedicated people, and talented staff, all operating from exhibit to exhibit in the beginning and now from fundraiser to fundraiser (which is to say, paycheck to paycheck).
We have begun an endowment fund. We have an excellent Board of Directors, but we exist on too many fund raisers. It is a hard existence, and my vision has much to do with trying to ease that pattern so that we may have the quality and support without absolutely killing a few good people every year.
Our long-range planning includes an effort to establish permanency for the museum: a building and financial stability, as well as partnerships with schools, agencies, and other groups that reach underserved audiences and provide real service in the community.
Our yearly schedule includes one major and four to six temporary exhibits, rotating
favorites and creating new ones. We are doing a lot more community programming and involving more groups in supporting the museum: high school parenting class, middle schools in exhibits work, middle schools in work projects, Spanish clubs, career students, National Honor Society, etc. We have partnerships with two Girl Scout Councils for science education of girls and trainers, and provide a camping program for Girl Scouts. We partner with Community-in-Schools (usually termed Cities-in-Schools) to host kindergartner/first grade birthday parties and work with other C-I-S classes for projects. We are also developing a Head Start partnership.
The Children's Museum in New Braunfels was organized in the spring of 1986 to be a participatory museum which stimulates thought, inspires imagination, and prompts understanding through hands-on involvement in the learning environment. The exhibits and programs of the museum focus on fine arts, culture, history, science, and technology, and are designed to enrich children's emotional, physical, and intellectual lives, as well as reflect and challenge children's perspectives on the world. The museum seeks to support the experience of learning in the home, school, and community, and to work cooperatively with other community educational programs
and institutions.
Collections are limited to cultural examples, mostly from past exhibits.
We borrow artifacts for every temporary exhibit; some show history, others scientific or
artistic examples. Not for touching!
The museum has exhibit files - hardly archival in the historical sense, but might be helpful for another museum which wanted to create a similar exhibit: German culture, cotton industry, some Hispanic material, Masai and Ashanti people.
Exhibits, special events, workshops, classes, group visits. Other programs including the Community-in-Schools program are designed to offer more opportunities for underserved audiences to visit the museum and to enjoy the benefits of membership. A teen parenting class gives students the opportunity to come to the museum, learn about parenting, playing, and enrichment activities for their babies, and the opportunity for the young parents to earn a membership to the museum by doing a project.
Bimonthly newsletter to members.
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