Kohl Children's Museum

infobox Museum
name= Kohl Children's Museum


established= 1985
location= Glenview, Illinois, USA
visitors=
type= Children's museum
director= Sheridan Turner
website= [http://www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org/ Kohl Children's Museum]

Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago is a hands-on learning laboratory for children ages birth to 8. All of the exhibits and programs are aligned to the Illinois State Learning Standards and are designed to make learning fun and interesting for young children.

History

Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago was founded in 1985 as an extension of the Kohl Teaching Center in Wilmette, one of four such centers in Illinois and Israel conceived by Dolores Kohl in 1972 and supported by the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation. Offering creative methods of enhancing traditional approaches to teaching, Kohl Teaching Centers provided training and educational resources to teachers and helped them incorporate hands-on experiences into their classrooms. Kohl Children’s Museum was founded to continue reaching educators and extend its service to meet the growing needs of families and the community at large through interactive exhibits and hands-on programs.

In 1998, Sheridan Turner became the Museum’s president and CEO and Dolores Kohl stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the Museum, expressing a strong desire for the Museum to be funded by the community that had come to rely on its services. With new leadership in place, the Museum’s Board of Trustees, led by Board Chairman Frederick H. Waddell of Northern Trust, conceived and realized plans for a new facility in Glenview, IL, just five miles (8 km) from the original Wilmette, IL location, which opened to the public in 2005.

Location

Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago is located on an convert|8.8|acre|m2|sing=on parcel of land in the center of The Glen in Glenview, IL, at 2100 Patriot Boulevard, Glenview, Illinois 60026.

Facility

Total square footage of the Museum is convert|46700|sqft|m2, with convert|23000|sqft|m2 of public space.

Accessibility

The Museum is equally available to guests with any level of physical, visual, auditory, or cognitive challenge. All public areas are 100% ADA-compliant. The facility and all exhibits have been designed using the principles of universal design, which go beyond accessibility with an approach that uses multi-sensory experiences as educational tools. These experiences allow all guests with any level of physical, visual, auditory, and cognitive ability to experience the Museum and its offerings.Cite web|url=http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources&id=3552220|title=The New Kohl Children's Museum|accessdate=2008-07-21|publisher=ABC|year=2005-10-19]

A Green Building

Kohl Children’s Museum has created an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient facility that has earned Silver-level certification as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Signage and activities provide children and families with hands-on learning opportunities about environmental concerns in both the indoor and outdoor exhibit spaces, accessible year-round.Cite web|url=http://www.greenexhibits.org/dream/buildings_kohl_case_study.shtml|title=Green Buildings Case Studies: Kohl Children's Museum|accessdate=2008-07-21|publisher=Madison Children's Museum|year=2006-04-01|author=Dave Judy]

Exhibits

Kohl Children’s Museum houses 17 hands-on, interactive exhibits.

Visitors

Around 350,000 people visit Kohl Children’s Museum each year. The Museum has over 7,500 member families.

Outreach Programs

For many years, the Museum has reached out to underserved and at-risk communities through its Early Childhood Connections program, working primarily with Chicago Public Schools. The Museum is now able to offer its programs to families in Wheeling, IL and Waukegan, IL, and has also developed outreach programs on anti-bias initiatives and healthy lifestyles in 2007 and 2008.

References

External links

* [http://www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org/ Kohl Children's Museum]