Museum Reaches Out To Children
By JULIA FERRANTE The Tampa Tribune
Published: Sep 21, 2007
HUDSON - Two years ago, Lisa Campos began to pursue a dream of opening a
children's museum in Pasco County.
She and former teacher Patricia LaFramboise developed exhibits where
lifting and banging and touching were encouraged, and Investigation Station: A
Please Touch Museum was born.
Campos and LaFramboise were granted not-for-profit status for the traveling
museum, allowing them to solicit tax-deductible donations and apply for
grants. The partners have been bringing their hands-on museum to elementary
schools and day care programs for the past couple of years for the price of a
donation. Eventually, they hope to open a permanent museum.
Investigation Station's exhibits encourage children to touch, smell, see
and hear on their own terms. The sight exhibit, for instance, includes nature
photographs, a kaleidoscope and a microscope, and the smell exhibit includes
jewelry boxes filled with coffee and spices concealed under paper filters so
children can guess what is beneath.
"The sound exhibit had various things from the house, like a cast-iron
skillet, a cardboard box, a stockpot cover, a rubber scraper and a wooden
spoon," Campos said. "We let the kids hit everything. They would
look at their parents, who would say, 'It's OK to do it here.'"
Campos, who has a master's degree in anthropology and did an internship at
a natural history museum, applied two years ago to move the museum to the
former Hudson library, but another group won the spot. She still hopes to
secure a permanent site, but, for now, the museum remains roving.
"I would love to have a permanent building, but I think from what I
have learned, first you have to get a large community support base and funding
to sustain and pay for the monthly bills," Campos said.
According to the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Children's Museums,
an organization with 341 members, a children's museum also should be a
reflection of the community, much like a town square with locally focused
exhibits. A water station, for instance, could be centered on a local river or
beach. If a community includes a significant number of immigrants from one
place, the museum also should reflect that.
About a quarter of the organization's member museums are in the start-up
phase, according to the association Web site. Sixty-nine member museums are in
the midst of capital campaigns to build a new facility or expand an existing
one.
Florida has more children's museums than most states, with 12 up and
running and a few others starting up. By comparison, Georgia has two. The
closest children's museums to Pasco are in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Lakeland.
Most of the Pasco museum's exhibit materials comprise donated materials,
Campos said. A Dunkin' Donuts franchise gave coffee beans and paper filters
for the scent exhibit. A Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts store offered a sampling of
materials for the touch exhibit. Land O' Lakes nature photographer Jason Hahn
offered photos of butterflies and a crocodile.
Campos, who grew up in New Hampshire, gets her inspiration from other
museums, including the Boston Children's Museum, which she visited as a child.
She took her children, Xavier, 5, and Sebastian, 2, there this summer. The
children were drawn to a water exhibit with boats and sticks that would wind
their way through a course.
"A please-touch museum makes the experience so much better, and the
adults are interacting with the kids," she said.
To make a tax-deductible donation, volunteer time or supplies, or set up a
visit with the traveling museum, contact Director@InvestigationStation.net.
FLORIDA CHILDREN'S MUSEUMS
Florida has more children's museums than most states, according to the
Washington, D.C.-based Association of Children's Museums. The following is a
list of operating museums that are members of the organization:
•Children's Science Explorium, Boca Raton
•The Children's Museum of the Highlands, Sebring
•Explorations V Children's Museum, Lakeland
•Great Explorations, St. Petersburg
•Junior Museum of Bay County, Panama City
•Miami Children's Museum
•Museum of Science and Industry, Tampa
•My Jewish Discovery Place Children's Museum, Fort Lauderdale
•Schoolhouse Children's Museum, Boynton Beach
•Seminole County School Student Museum, Sanford
•The Children's Museum of Tampa
•Young At Art, Davie
•Emerging museums in Florida include the Children's Museum of Naples and
the Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast (Stuart)
For more information about children's museums, go to www.childrensmuseums.org.
Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.
Mom On A Quest For County's Kids
By JULIA FERRANTE jferrante@tampatrib.com
Published: Jul 19, 2005
Advertisement
HUDSON - Lisa Campos recalls sitting at the great big desk and picking up the
enormous telephone. She examined the oversized eyeglasses and marveled at her
new-found stature.
``I liked that they made everything so big, because I was able to feel like Lily
Tomlin,'' Campos said, referring to the comedian's portrayal of Edith Ann, a
rambunctious 6-year- old who sat in a giant rocking chair on the 1970s
television show ``Laugh-In''.
Campos, now 30, was about the same age as Edith Ann when she and her family
visited ``Giant's Desktop'' a popular exhibit at the Boston Children's Museum
during the 1980s. The exhibit also included a chair, a ruler and a mug, all made
12 times their normal size, museum spokesman Rick Stockwood said.
The memory of the desk stuck with Campos, even as her family moved from
Merrimack, N.H., to Hudson. Now the mother of two small children, Campos is
trying to create a hands-on children's museum in Pasco County. The U.S. Census
Bureau this year named Pasco the 38th fastest- growing county in the nation.
Many of the new residents are younger families with children, but the closest
children's museums are Kid City, The Children's Museum of Tampa and Great
Explorations in St. Petersburg. Lakeland also has a small children's museum.
``This area is growing so much,'' Campos said. ``We have plenty of activities
for seniors, but no children's museum. I've made that my mission.''
The dream is in its infancy. Campos, who has a master's degree in anthropology
and did an internship at a natural history museum, has applied for nonprofit
status for The Children's Museum of Pasco. Once that status is granted, a board
of directors may be named and the organization may seek donations and search for
a building. The size and location of the building and the budget have not been
determined.
``A lot of it depends on what is donated to us,'' Campos said. ``If we get a
building donated, that would cut down a lot on costs.''
Campos has submitted a proposal to the county real estate department for use of
the former Hudson Library, a vacant building at Clark Street, but she faces
competition from several other groups.
She is working on the project with several community members, including former
teacher Patricia LaFramboise, whom she met through a moms' club.
``I've been brewing this idea for a long time,'' Campos said. ``I told her, `I'm
really thinking about doing it. I really need a teacher's assistance in putting
the exhibits together.' She is a full-time mom like me, but she is almost done
with her master's in education at USF. She has a bachelor's in education.''
Making A Name
LaFramboise is working on several traveling exhibits to bring to local events,
schools and community organizations to spread the word about the children's
museum. Among the plans are exhibits for children with developmental
disabilities and for ``non-walkers,'' to teach cause and effect and agility. The
museum also likely will include a dress-up room and a music area.
Campos has visited Kid City, The Children's Museum of Tampa with her older son,
Xavier, 3. Kid City has a miniature village with replicas of a Publix
supermarket, a J.P. Morgan Chase bank, a library, hospital, city hall and fire
station.
``I would like to make our museum completely different so that we're not
competing with Kid City,'' she said.
It typically takes four to 10 years to develop, raise money for and open a
children's museum, said Janet Rice Elman, executive director of the Association
of Children's Museums, an international organization with 299 members from 17
countries.
``The idea has to take hold in the community,'' Elman said. ``You need the
recognition that children are an important asset and that it is important to
create an entity where children can grow and develop a love for lifelong
learning.''
Studies For Success
Most successful museums start with feasibility studies examining market
demographics, potential for fundraising, competition and target audience, Elman
said.
``You have to find the appropriate place in the community and what the needs of
the community will be,'' she said. ``Every community is so different.''
There are about 65 ongoing capital campaigns for children's museums in the
United States, Elman said. The goals of the campaigns collectively add up to
nearly $1 billion.
``It is a field that continues to grow in leaps and bounds,'' she said. ``The
average campaign is for $14.1 million.''
Most children's museum exhibits are homegrown and usually include a locally
focused display, Elman said. The Miami Children's Museum, for instance, has an
exhibit of the cruise industry, a big economic player in the city. Some exhibits
are standard.
``The more common exhibits are about bubbles and water and the properties of
water - what floats and what sinks,'' Elman said. ``There are companies that
sell these exhibits, but they have to be custom- made for the space.''
Partnerships with schools, government agencies and other organizations also are
important, Elman said.
The Providence Children's Museum has a partnership with the Rhode Island
Department of Children, Youth and Families. ``Families Together`` allows parents
and children who have been separated by court order because of abuse or neglect
to have supervised visits at the museum, said Janice O'Donnell, the museum's
executive director.
Campos has contacted the Pasco County School District and sheriff's office about
possible partnerships.
School district Assistant Superintendent Bob Dorn said the district has
partnerships with the sheriff's office, Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park and the
Energy and Marine Center in west Pasco for educational programs that match
curricula. He said the district would consider working with the children's
museum but would not participate in its formation or fundraising.
Becky Clayton, acting general manager of the Kid City, said the Tampa museum has
partnerships with the library system and public safety agencies. The museum
property, at Lowry Park Zoo, is owned by the Tampa parks department. The
74,000-square-foot building is owned and operated by the nonprofit organization.
Plans are in the works to move Kid City to Ashley Street in downtown Tampa.
About 32,000 people from Tampa, Brandon, Pinellas and Pasco counties visited
last year, Clayton said.
To contact Campos about the Pasco museum project, e-mail
Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220
