Opening its doors nearly ten years ago, the first Play Street Museum location was founded with the goal of seeing young children develop, learn, and grow in a space that they could navigate all on their own. This first location was founded by a preschool teacher in Dallas, TX who had a business degree but who also happened to be a mother of four young kiddos. Given this unique perspective, she was ideally positioned to see the need for a concept like Play Street Museum and then to subsequently lead the development of a sustainable solution to meet this need.
While her family loved the high-quality experiences that larger children’s museums can provide, they were rarely able to visit them given their distance from home, overwhelming size, and the time it took to recover from the often-chaotic environment that can be created when children's museums attempt to cater to kids with ages spanning from infant to teen and also that are frequently designed like theme parks or video arcades that make it challenging for kids to focus.
She felt like there had to be a better way for these children's museums to meet the needs of kids, families, and communities. After much thought and planning, she became convinced that by making some fundamental alterations to the format to address the systemic downsides of the traditional large-scale children's museum model, she could not only maintain the very positive and high-quality experiences that these museums provide but in fact further enhance them while also greatly improving the accessibility and guest experience for families.
That initial Play Street Museum location was created with several core modifications. First, the format was narrowed to focus the museum on the needs and interests of younger kids, targeting ages 1-8. Second, a variety of innovative and hands-on educational components targeted to this age group were integrated throughout. Third, the museum was located closer to where families lived, and finally the environment of the museum was designed so that both caregivers and kids enjoyed visiting and could easily do so on a consistent basis.
Play Street Museum now has 15 locations in diverse communities throughout Texas, Missouri, Colorado, and Oregon with numerous other locations in the works. With each new Play Street Museum opening we have been fortunate to garner an unprecedented level of direct experience and knowledge in all aspects of opening and operating a financially sustainable children’s museum. Essential to this growth, success, and knowledge gain has been the collective wisdom and cultivation of best practices from an amazing group of Play Street Museum owners and dedicated team members.