Mission
Austin Children's Museum creates innovative learning experiences for children and families that equip and inspire the next generation of creative problem solvers.
Vision
Austin Children's Museum is an essential catalyst and trusted advisor in a community that works together to become more creative, more inventive, and more competent. We elevate and cherish the child-adult learning relationship. We cultivate a community that embraces the love of learning, the thirst for knowledge and a respect for questions. In doing so, we play a vital role in equipping future generations and our society for growth, innovation and collaborative problem solving.
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Values & Beliefs
Our values:
- Inclusiveness/respect
- Innovation/creativity
- Playfulness
- Excellence
- Cooperation
Our beliefs:
- Every child deserves excellent educational opportunities beyond those that schools can offer. The Museum can provide some of those opportunities.
- The most important skill we can give children is the ability to learn.
- Children need places to learn where risk is rewarded and failure accepted rather than punished.
- Play is an effective and important way children learn.
- All parents want the best for their children.
- Adults need support understanding and encouraging their children's learning activities.
- Austin is and will increasingly be an innovation culture. As a result, creative thinking skills will be the key to personal success as well as a major source of personal fulfillment and joy.
- Children and communities grow together.
- Diversity and interactions among people from different backgrounds enrich and strengthen our community.
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History
1983: The Austin Children’s Museum is founded as a “Museum without walls” by a grass-roots coalition of parents and educators. Exhibits and programs are hosted in schools, parks, recreation centers, libraries, and malls.
1987: The Museum opens its doors with 5,000 square feet on West 5th Street.
1997: A successful $4.8 million expansion campaign leads to creation of the Museum's new downtown location at the Dell Discovery Center. The expansion was funded through $1 million in lead gifts, 81 donor gifts of $10,000 dollars or more, and a 10-year rent-free lease on the building.
More than 800,000 visitors have enjoyed exhibits and programs since the Museum doors opened at its current home.
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How is the Museum funded?
The Austin Children's Museum is funded through a combination of philanthropic gifts, earned income, and in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. As a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization, gifts are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. For information on how you can make a tax deductible gift to the Austin Children's Museum, please contact the Museum's Resource Development Office at 512-472-2499 x212 or learn more online.
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201 Colorado Street
Austin, Texas 78701
512-472-2499
