When given the opportunity to research a museum I was torn between what to look for. I knew that I wanted to choose somewhere that applied to music or education. Eventually, I settled on children’s museums and chose Chicago Children’s Museum since it was nearby. When I looked through the list of exhibits, Michael’s Museum immediately caught my eye. There was something so interesting about a museum within a museum that was focused on miniatures and other small objects.
Children’s Museums are institutions with long histories that have educated generations of children. Almost anywhere you go in the world you can likely find a Children’s Museum not far from your area. The Association of Children’s Museums provides evidence of how important Children’s Museums are with a public opinion poll that resulted in 95% of parents saying they strongly agreed/agreed that children’s museums are “valuable learning institutions”. 1
While most would not doubt that museums are valuable resources, surveys like this portray the universal nature of museums. Museums as institutions are uniquely equipped to serve all populations. Chicago’s population especially is dense, diverse and with that come challenges for a museum.
Chicago has many students from low-income areas and museums are a great tool for education for those in need of it