Future Proofing through Play
Imagine Children’s Museum changing the world one child at a time.
By Ellen Hiatt
All photos by Marcus Badgley
At Imagine Children’s Museum, play is passion and purpose. Play is community building and future proofing. Play changes the world.
On any given day, except a quiet Monday when the museum is closed, children x-ray a woodland animal, climb the rope bridges of Bigfoot’s hideout, drive a bus, examine the flow of water, the vacuum-effect of an air chamber and the mechanical effects of leverage. They may be made small in scale by the restored whale skeleton, or loom large over Puget Sound’s ambassador, the once-injured wolf eel whose post-rehabilitation home is in the museum’s cold-water aquarium.
The imagination of a child, and the world they go on to actually create for themselves, are shaped by the games and the environment in which they learn and grow. Child’s play makes better communities, better learners and better workers.
The Snohomish County community has long seen that vision and put their resources behind it. The museum had been serving 20,000 visitors annually and expected that number to triple when they found their home on the corner of Hoyt Ave. and Wall St. That number immediately skyrocketed to 135,000. With a $25 million capital campaign, the museum doubled in size two years ago to 68,000 square feet and is debt-free. Last year, 293,171 visits were recorded.
The demand for the space reflects the quality of the programming, but also the fact that there isn’t anything else like it in Snohomish County. There isn’t a large-scale aquarium or a science center here. While the region is rich with outdoor opportunities, many children never see the seashore, never climb a tree or hike a mountain. Let alone, how many children get to fly a plane, conduct a train, watch a cargo ship come to shore, drive a tractor or create a movie?
Imagine Children’s Museum stands tall as the Pacific Northwest’s largest of its kind, and likely among the top 20 in the nation, attracting top talent like CEO Elizabeth “Elee” Wood.
Wood holds a doctorate in education and is a renowned expert in the field of museum education, having served as professor of museum studies and education, and a public scholar of museums, families and learning at the nation’s largest Children’s Museum in Indianapolis.
“How many kids don’t get a chance to go out and play anymore?” Wood asks. Play is important for adults, as well, she adds.
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“We are creating a playful place to work. A place where people who work here are playful in how we do our work, because that really comes through…That’s a mantra for me.” Wood brings that spirit of play with purpose to everything she does.
“I have my sequined boa and an admiral’s hat I wear from time to time. We are on a new adventure! I just read some books to kids and it’s a small part of the day, but it’s a reawakening of possibilities. Take a moment to look around you and think why things are the way they are,” she muses. “This place is so fantastic… It’s so different from a regular school environment. We are really giving kids, and I think parents too, that opportunity to see what happens when you take your imagination in new directions and give your kids safe places to take risks.”
If they never explore the marine environment, never see a farmer or know a pilot, a scientist or an engineer, how would a child imagine themselves doing any of that?
A decade-plus ago, Gretchen Wilson-Prangley was the mother of two in Johannesburg, South Africa and a reporter on public radio’s Marketplace. She came to Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett while visiting her in-laws and decided it was exactly what was needed in her community. So she created one, modeling it on Imagine’s impact, and adapting it to the needs of South African children living under the legacy of the deep divides created by Apartheid.
After being recruited to work for the Everett museum, Wilson-Prangley is raising her now-three children in Snohomish County, and is the museum’s Chief Impact Officer.
“It’s just an exquisite facility,” Wilson-Prangley says, as she walks past the membership desk, where just beyond, a world of imagination expands from the forest to the Salish Sea.
“This is what happens when you invest in children,” enthuses Wilson-Prangley. “It’s urban acupuncture. It brings people together and puts the needs of young children first, affecting the well-being of a city and a county.”
The impact extends beyond the walls of the museum and into community centers, libraries and schools. Partnerships have been key to ensuring the interactive exhibits are both of high quality and relevant to the innovations and opportunities that are ever-changing in our economies. Fluke Corporation, for example, helps show the chemistry in making ice cream. Edge Concrete, LLC, helped design and fabricate the Woodland Adventure area, among other exhibits, including the realistic trees and boulders, “which are so detail-rich that they often captivate children and adults alike!” wrote Wilson-Prangley.
Programming includes Spanish-language events, and opportunities for children of incarcerated parents and children raised solely by their grandparents. Museum-on-the-Go brings interactive events directly to schools.
Little Science Lab for preschoolers offers weekly and free 30-minute interactive sessions for preschoolers to local libraries and community centers all over the region. The program was awarded $250,000 over three years by the prestigious Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Children who are exposed very early to a broad base of domain-specific knowledge like the sciences and mathematics are likely to be more engaged and ask more questions.
Catherine Soper has seen that personally with her own family and believes in the center so deeply that she joined the Board of Directors.
“Places like this are essential to the amazing generation of children in front of us today that I’m convinced will change our world for the better,” she wrote in a social media message to friends not long after she joined.
“It offers a place for kids to be kids, a place parents don’t have to say ‘no,’ a place for kids to IMAGINE that they can be anything they want to be.”
STAY & PLAY
Discounted admission for visitors who stay local
Year-round fun is found on the two floors of interactive exhibits of Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett.
Come for pop-up science activities in the Museum’s multipurpose lodge or the rotating creative art projects in its Art Hangout. It also offers seasonal events, such as the Scarecrow Harvest Festival, Winter Wonderland, and Spring into STEM.
The museum is increasingly positioning itself as “Washington’s Ultimate Play and Learning Destination,” attracting visitors from every county of the state and every state in the country. They are running a special Play & Stay promotion through the end of 2024. Show proof of a stay at a Snohomish County hotel within 24 hours of your museum visit and receive 50% off regular admission.
Visit imaginecm.org for more information on exhibits, special events and more.
