Thursday, March 28, 2024

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New Children’s Museum Portland Maine

Celebrate Earth Day With The Museum & Theatre

New Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine

This Earth Day, join the Childrens Museum & Theatre of Maine for a celebration of the lands and waters we call home. Todays programs and activities are dedicated to the scientific exploration of Maines ecosystems, migratory species, and the reciprocal relationships we all have with all life. Earth Day is about raising awareness about the importance of protecting our planet, climate change, and taking action.

1-2pm

Meet Istar, the 45 foot long, inflatable humpback whale, on the Museum & Theatres Gather lawn and learn about how climate change is impacting whales, weather permitting.

2-3pm

Join us in the Makerspace to tinker, create and make one of a kind projects from recycled and reused materials. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle while exploring the Makerspace!

2:30-3pm

The New Childrens Museum Location In Maine Offers A Great Day For Family Fun

With so many fun trails, beaches, and mountains Maine is a great place to explore with kids. The only problem with so many outdoor options is that we need to depend on the weather. As well all know, weather-dependent activities in Maine are risky business throughout the year! Thats why we love anything that allows us to have and can be done no matter the weather. A visit to the new location of this fun museum is a sure thing!

The Childrens Museum & Theater of Maine is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. General admission is $15 per person and theater tickets are $10 per person. Right now tickets must be reserved in advance. You can see a calendar of open time slots here. For more information check out their website or follow them on . If you dont have access to a computer or the internet you can call them to talk about reserving your time slot. They can be reached at 207-828-1234.

We love any activity thats interactive and it doesnt get much more fun than a real lobster boat trip. You can learn the ropes of a Maine lobster boat on this unique tour in Casco Bay!

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Childrens Theatre Of Maine

The history of the Children’s Theatre of Maine dates back to 1923, when the Junior League of Portland began producing small shows for young audiences under the name Children’s Theatre of Portland . In the 1930s, the shows began to incorporate children as performers, and the tradition of shows for and by kids was born. The Children’s Theatre rehearsed and performed in donated locations all over Greater Portland, and in the summer of 1944 debuted their Trailer Theatre, a traveling fold-out stage that brought outdoor shows to parks and playgrounds throughout the city. In the 1950s, actors Bette Davis and Gary Merrill took the Children’s Theatre under their wing Davis arranged to premiere her film The Virgin Queen in Portland as a benefit for the cause. Throughout the latter half of the century, the Children’s Theatre experimented with many locations, models, and creative strategies.

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Childrens Museum Celebrates Grand Opening At Thompsons Point

PORTLAND, Maine – The Childrens Museum officially opened Thursday at its new location at Thompsons Point in Portland.

Gov. Janet Mills took part in the ribbon-cutting and grand opening.

For now, the museum will only be open three days each week until staffing levels can be increased. The museum is also limiting the number of people allowed inside and all tickets are timed. As of Thursday morning, all tickets were sold out until early July.

Each exhibit playtime session is 2.5 hours long for the time being.

The museum did previously announce that fundraising efforts exceeded expectations, allowing them to offer certain aspects of the project earlier than originally planned.

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The Creating Community Project

Children

In partnership with Portland Public Health Nurses and medical residents from Maine Medical Centers International Clinic, Museum & Theatre staff brings arts programming to Portlands Family Shelter. While nurses and doctors triage medical concerns, Museum & Theatre staff provide engaging activities. Additionally, doctors and nurses connect families with primary care physicians to avoid costly trips to the emergency room. Individuals with acute medical needs are sent immediately to Maine Medical Centers International Clinic. By providing the stress relieving power of play and the much-needed distraction to children, doctors and nurses are able to work more efficiently with their patients. This project has been sponsored by Francis Hollis Brain Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

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The Suzanne Olson Scholarship Fund

This initiative opens our doors to hundreds of children and families each year. Lack of financial resources is the biggest barrier that prevents many families from becoming members and fully benefiting from our services. Trusted community partners assist the Museum & Theatre in disseminating information about this program and once families receive memberships, partners help families utilize their memberships by helping with transportation needs, breaking down language barriers, and more. These partners include: Opportunity Alliances Maine Families, Welcoming the Stranger, and Portland Public Health Nurses. Scholarship funds are raised annually and are donated by individuals, families and foundations. This program has been central to our access, inclusion, and diversity goals for over fifteen years.

New Museum New Mural Artist

The new Childrens Museum & Theater of Maine has brought Portland resident Rachel Adams one step closer to her dream of being a full-time artist.

Adams has painted her first two murals on the museums walls, which are displayed in two exhibit rooms. The paintings match the fun, modern vibe of the new museum, and feature a mix of geometric shapes.

A graduate of Maine College of Art, Adams majored in printmaking and grew up as part of what she called an artist family as the daughter of an art teacher. Last year she launched a childrens clothing company known as Tachee, which has plans to expand into making homegoods.

She also has a full-time job that she said she is very grateful for, but her ultimate goal is to create art full time.

Adams is married to fellow Portland artist Ryan Adams, who is known for his graffiti work and several murals around the city.

She said she was first approached about creating art for the new museum space about three years ago, after Ryan did some painting for the former museum on Free Street, and an administrator there discovered her art.

It was funny getting asked, at that point there was pretty much only the gravel that they used to weigh down the Earth in anticipation of a building , she said.

The murals took her roughly six days to complete, and with a full-time job and two children, Adams said she sometimes worked on the paintings late at night in addition to a couple of full-day sessions.

Elizabeth Clemente

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We Value Relationships Between Caregivers And Children Within And Between Members Of Communities And Between People And The Earth Growth And Learning Require That We Experiment Take Risks And Learn To Trust In Teamwork Together We Advocate That Social And Emotional Skills Are Essential For Building A Healthy Community

We welcome all children and their adults, regardless of ability, age, color, creed, ethnicity, gender expression, gender identity, immigration status, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status. We provide a safe space where the diversity of our community is respected, reflected and celebrated, and intentionally design programming within and outside our walls that focuses on equity, access and inclusion. We take seriously our ongoing work to ensure that everyone feels like they belong at the Museum & Theatre. Acknowledging that we still have work to do, we have established a Belonging Task Force of board and staff members to recommend concrete actions for improvement of our practices. We continuously strive to be a welcoming place for all of our visitors.

Reunification And Facilitated Parent Visitation

New Maine Children’s Museum hoping to be open by spring 2021

The Museum & Theatre provides free admission to families going through the reunification process and/or supervised visitation between children and their parents. Facilitated visitation provides opportunities for continued connection after parenting rights have been altered or lost. Play in the Museum & Theatre facilitates family bonding and learning experiences, which are especially beneficial for families with limited visitation. Families undergoing supervised visitation are under significant amounts of stress. The Museum & Theatre intentionally creates a welcoming, inclusive, and playful environment to cultivate joyful child-caregiver experiences. Facilitated visitations at the Museum & Theatre occur thanks to a partnership with Home Counselors, Inc.

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Staff Spotlight: Kifah Abdulla

Kifah Abdulla is a Play Assistant.

When Kifah Abdulla was in fourth grade in Baghdad, his art teacher told him You are an artist, and invited him to the after school art program. It was the first time he experienced oil pastels and paints, instead of just colored pencils. That simple sentence changed his life, and now he tells children at the Museum & Theatre You are an artist.

As a Play Assistant, Kifah works in the MakerSpace and on Member Mondays he runs mural making in the Lobby. For the mural, pieces of paper are hung up on a mobile whiteboard and solid tempura, colored pencils and markers are offered as tools. Visiting children have free time to create, to add their sketches. The whiteboard is set up in the lobby close to the front desk.

Kifah laughs when describing how kids jump to the board while their parents stay in line to check in: Kids get drawn in. The panel is by the window, and the kids are totally pulled to it and feel comfortable picking up the materials.

The activity and the complete confidence of children who know this mural is for them, embodies the mission You belong here as soon as visitors come through the door.

Participants create a collaborate community map at Welcoming Week 2021

Visiting children have free time to create and add their sketches to the mural.

Kifah describes himself as an experimental artist.

Read more about Kifah on his website, .

Childrens Museum & Theatre Of Maine

Portland, Maine

The Childrens Museum & Theater of Maine has been steadily growing both its visitor-ship and educational offerings for more than 25 years. But, the physical limitations of their former downtown Portland space restricted their ability to expand their programming and services for patrons and the community. The new home for this esteemed institution is designed to support their dynamic and growing programs. The new building includes a 100-seat theatre, flexible exhibits, education and workshop space, meeting rooms and offices, and an outdoor play area set within the landscape.

Located along the Fore River, west of downtown, the building and site engage the riverfront and burgeoning Thompsons Point. The design of the new space incorporates visual and programmatic connections to Maine culture and creates an emerging and relaxing atmosphere for visitors of all ages.

The overall size, scale, and shape of the building is inspired by the industrial heritage of Thompsons Point, shipping and railroad. Its proportions, rhythm, and solid-to-void ratio are compatible with the warehouses and sheds on the point, and steel cross-bracing is a feature of the new building.

The building is organized in a way that is welcoming and relaxing for adults, exciting for kids, and east to navigate for both. That begins with a spacious, 20-foot high lobby, surrounded by floor to ceiling glass that connects the indoors and outdoors while bringing in abundant natural light.

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National Endowment For The Arts Funded Visiting Artist Series Launches At Childrens Museum And Theatre Of Maine

Visiting Artist Pamela Moulton will be the first in a series of artists to create communal art with visitors at the Childrens Museum & Theatre of Maine in a National Endowment for the Arts-funded program.

The Visiting Artist Series in the Lunder Arts and Culture Gallery is designed to enrich the Museum & Theatres arts education programming for children and their families with a focus on using art as a lens to explore sustainability and our changing planet.

From February 19, 2022 to May 28, 2022, the Visiting Artist Series will host three artists who call Maine home. The Artists will work with Museum & Theatre visitors to create communal works of art.

Beginning in February and continuing through May, visitors will have the opportunity to meet and create alongside our three Visiting Artists who were chosen through a rigorous application and selection process: Pamela Moulton, Roberta March and Marissa Glover. Over the course of several dates, each Visiting Artist will be working in the Makerspace for special pop-up studios during specific play sessions over four weeks .

Each artist works in a different medium and will supply base materials and lead special art-making techniques that visitors will use to contribute to the communal work of art. Over the course of the spring, visitors will help create sustainability-themed artwork:

Children’s Discovery Museum Of Central Maine At A Glance

Your Kids Will Love The New Children

For nearly 30 years, the Childrens Discovery Museum has invited children and families to play, learn, and grow in Augusta, Maine. Our museum has encouraged tens of thousands of children to explore their world, make friends, gain confidence, and problem solve. We are proud of our long-standing role as Central Maines childrens museum where children learn through hands-on play. Over this tenure, we have learned too. With these lessons in hand, we are growing this small but mighty organization into a bigger, bolder museum that better serves more of central Maines children ages birth through 12. The new museum redesigned with brand new exhibits and relocated to Waterville creates an immersive experience that ignites curiosity and celebrates learning through play.

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Childrens Museum Of Maine

The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine was founded by the Junior of Portland in 1970, opening in just a few rooms in Fort Williams park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. In 1980 the Museum moved to a Victorian home on Stevens Avenue in Portland. After more than a decade of successful exhibits and programs, the Museum once again needed a new space to accommodate growing interest. In 1970 a capital campaign was launched, and two years later the Museum opened to the public in a grand new home, the former Chamber of Commerce building on Free Street in downtown Portland. Has since been home to dozens of large-scale interactive exhibits, both permanent and rotating. In 2001, after careful assessment of community needs, the Museum chose to direct programming and exhibits toward children 6 months to 10 years of age, and selected three areas of focus: science education, early childhood education and multicultural education.

Childrens Museum Portland Maine

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That is certainly part of fresh lobsters caught just off the childrens museum portland maine to drive around town with it on your vehicle, you may want to escape to somewhere beautiful with the childrens museum portland maine can offer a lot more to this beautiful state. However, as with any tourist destination, there are many recreational opportunities in various fields. You can unload the childrens museum portland maine and put them in season and drying them for use in winter.

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The Childrens Museum & Theatre Of Maine Offers Visitors Interactive Exhibits That Have Been Designed To Create Experiential Learning And Fun At The Same Time We Are A Hands

These interactive spaces are grounded in the science of play and the latest research on how children learn. Each exhibit is an opportunity for visitors of all ages to learn about their world through dramatic role play, hands-on exploration, navigating immersive environments, and taking safe risks.

The building features over 30,000 square feet of exhibits spanning three floors and the Outdoor Adventure area. These spaces reflect Maines unique character and encourage exploration across a broad range of subjects, from STEM and the arts to the cultures and traditions that form the fabric of our community.

Children’s Museum Of Maine

Portland Children’s Museum announces permanent closure
Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine

Established
142 Free Street, Portland, Maine 04101
Type Children’s museum
Visitors Primarily children and their families and caregivers students and their teachers
Director

Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine is located in the Arts District of downtown Portland, Maine and features a wide variety of interactive exhibits and activities for children and families.

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The Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival

The Museum & Theatre is honored to partner with Indigo Arts Alliance to celebrate authors and illustrators who explore roots, identity and resiliency in their work. For the festivals inaugural year , the festival is moving to a virtual format. Following Indigo Arts lead, the Museum & Theatre is promoting this important work on our social media platforms to share this important work with our audience.

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