The Omaha Children's Museum is a nonprofit learning and exploration space

Children's museum

Children's museums are institutions that provide exhibits and programs to stimulate informal learning experiences for children. In contrast with traditional museums that typically have a hands-off policy regarding exhibits, children's museums feature interactive exhibits that are designed to be...

 for young people

Youth

Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...

 located at 500 South 20th Street in downtown

Downtown Omaha

Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. The boundaries are 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and the centerline of Leavenworth Street on the south to the centerline...

 Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

. The museum has received a national award from the Association of Science and Technology Museums."Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Awards", Association of Science and Technology Museums. Retrieved 8/22/07.

About

Operated as a private nonprofit organization the mission of Omaha Children's Museum is to engage the imagination and create excitement about learning. The museum was founded in 1976 by Karen Levin and a group of local educators. It began as a traveling group of exhibits and activities, and today occupies a 60000 square feet (5,574.2 m²) space in Downtown Omaha. The museum has a Board of Directors composed of community members.

In 2004 and 2010, the museum was honored with Leading Edge Awards for Visitor Experience from the Association of Science and Technology Museums."Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Awards", Association of Science and Technology Museums. Retrieved 8/22/07. The museum’s director, Lindy J. Hoyer served on the Board of Directors for the national Association of Children's Museums

Association of Children's Museums

The Association of Children's Museums is a Washington, D.C.–based organization that represents more than 300 children's museums in 23 countries throughout the world. The association began in 1962 as the American Association of Youth Museums and grew out of the desire for children's museums to meet...

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Exhibits

The Omaha Children's Museum renovated its permanent exhibits through the $6.6 million capital campaign entitled "Building on the Best". The permanent exhibits include the Creative Arts Center, which features a theater, Artist-in-Residence Studio, community sculpture and art island; the "Charlie Campbell Science and Technology Center", which houses the "Super Gravitron", a ball machine where balls powered by air wind and water travel through tubes and on rails, and an inventors workshop, pulley and vacuum chairs and the "Science Showplace" where live science presentations take place.

Other features include the "Imagination Playground", which is designed for young child

Child

Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...

ren; "Sandy’s Splish-Splash Garden", which is an interactive fountain area outside where kids can cool off. A 51 feet (15.5 m) kinetic tower

Kinetic energy

The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion.It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes...

 and four 24 feet (7.3 m) whirligig

Whirligig

A whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, or has at least one member that spins or whirls. Whirligigs are also known as pinwheels, buzzers, comic weathervanes, gee-haws, spinners, whirlygigs; whirlijig; whirlyjig; whirlybird; or plain whirly. Whirligigs are most commonly powered by the wind,...

s resembling giant pinwheels are located immediately outside the museum.

Janie York was the first artist in residence

Artist in residence

Artist-in-residence programs and other residency opportunities allow visiting artists to stay and work so that they may apply singular focus to their art practice....

 at the museum's Creative Arts Center in an ongoing program. York explored a variety of textile arts

Textile arts

Textile arts are those arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization, and the methods and materials used to make them have expanded enormously, while...

, including community quilting and story quilting, as well as textile history and identification."Kid News: New artist in residence program at Omaha Children's Museum creative center features Nebraska artist Janie York," Nebraska Arts Commission. Retrieved 8/22/07.

In addition to its permanent exhibits, Omaha Children’s Museum regularly features traveling exhibitions and educational programming in art, science and humanities. The museum's Science Lab has been featured on the PBS Kids

PBS Kids

PBS Kids is the brand for children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States founded in 1993. As with all PBS programming, PBS Kids programming is non-commercial. It is aimed at children ages 2 to 10...

website.