Otter Cove Children's Museum
Thanks to the support of the Minnesota Humanities Center in 2019, Otter Cove Children's Museum was able to complete the design, building, and installation of a variety of exhibits and interactive art features prior to our grand opening. Despite a delayed opening and months of limited operations due to the pandemic, Otter Cove's first year has been nothing short of incredible, attracting 17,299 children and families from 289 unique zip codes (179 of them in MN), 27 states, and 4 countries! Our guests have been so impressed that we have such a high-quality facility in a rural region. We are so proud of what we have accomplished in the past year, but we are committed to constantly improving and offering fresh, exciting exhibits to best serve our members, guests, and community. This project will allow us to enhance many of our existing exhibits to increase opportunities for rich play, as well as to offer new components and materials to introduce new and exciting learning experiences.
$925,000 the first year and $925,000 the second year are for arts and cultural heritage grants to children's museums for arts and cultural exhibits and related educational outreach programs. Of this amount:
(1) $375,000 the first year and $375,000 the second year are for the Minnesota Children's Museum for interactive exhibits and outreach programs on arts and cultural heritage; and
(2) $550,000 each year is for grants to other children's museums to be distributed through a competitive grant process for program development. The Minnesota Humanities Center must administer these funds using established mechanisms.
Exhibit enhancements The exhibit enhancements will provide new play opportunities for members and regular visitors. This outcome will largely be tracked using by observing how children (and adults) interact with the exhibits and components, as well as by soliciting member and visitor feedback. Observations and feedback will be documented. Some of the outcomes we expect to see include: Deeper, more focused dramatic play in Service Food using the new components Increased use of Lundeen's Bookstore exhibit by children and their caregivers Full building interpretive plan Upon completion of the interpretive plan, museum staff and the Board of Directors will use the plan as the foundation for developing a comprehensive, phased expansion plan.
In progress