Miami Children’s Museum opens (carefully) for fun

Miami Children’s Museum would say that it never really closed because it offers online activities for children and families — and has ever since the Great Shutdown started.

But it has been over a year since the museum opened its physical doors to the public, thanks to the pandemic. That’s changing this weekend.

And its staff says that’s a change they’re really, really ready for.

“We closed on a Friday afternoon. I called our team together, and I said, don’t worry, we’ll be back in two weeks,” said CEO and Executive Director of MCM Deborah Spiegelman. “Fourteen months later, we’re ready to reopen the right way. We feel we can do it.”

The museum was to open this weekend, starting Saturday, to members of the museum. Healthcare workers and first responders are being admitted free, in recognition of their work during the pandemic. The grand-opening event is sponsored by Bilzin Sumberg.

“I am excited to provide a warm welcome to our Health Care Heroes and our loyal members, and I look forward to watching families interact once again inside of our exhibits,” said Myrna Ace, associate director of community involvement, in an email.

Along with museum members, healthcare employees needed to register in advance to reserve their session for themselves and up to three family members. Healthcare/first responder employee IDs must be presented upon arrival.

Starting Saturday and Sunday, May 8-9, anyone from the community will be free to visit during the weekends, and on June 7, the museum will open seven days a week with reservations required. Tickets are $22.

Keeping things clean

As part of its new health protocol, the museum has added 37 cleaning stations where visitors can wipe their hands with sanitizer. And it limited space to three daily “Play Sessions” capped at 200 people each; workers clean constantly, and spray disinfectant fog into each room between sessions.

Creating a balance between the freedom to explore — an important aspect of the museum — and following pandemic cleaning procedures was one of the main concerns in planning the reopening.

“It’s great to think about having a path that families follow, but in reality, that doesn’t work,” Spiegelman said.

“Our museum is built upon discovery, imagination and exploration. And those are all things that you really can’t control. But we can control the cleanliness, we can control the number of people in the museum, and we can make sure that our props are changed out in between the play sessions. That’s what we’re committed to doing.”

Besides cleaning objects and screens that visitors touch, workers will let them know which areas are less crowded as a way to increase social distancing.

Spiegelman said the museum had a chance to practice the protocols when in October it started bringing children from its charter school and pre-K summer camp to the museum. It’s confident it can provide a safe environment for even more visitors.

Pandemic hit museum’s bottom line

The museum could keep all of its employees only through June 2020.

“When we realized we could not reopen in the foreseeable future due to government restrictions, we were forced to restructure our workforce. Some positions we eliminated and others were furloughed and have since returned,” Spiegelman said.

The museum has 85 team members who are preparing for full operations this summer.

The museum was able to overcome the financial burden of closing due to its various revenue streams, including its formal educational programs. It also received a $922,000 Payroll Protection Program loan, which has been forgiven, according to PPP records.

“We have been able to make it through this challenging time thanks to the generosity of stakeholders and active involvement from our board of directors,” Spiegelman said.

Maintaining a lively online presence

While the museum closed physically 14 months ago, it never did stop creating activities for kids and families.

During the past year, it launched its “Museum at Home” program, producing 450 programs such as storytime, cooking lessons and celebrations of holidays, all fitting into different monthly themes. These remain available on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and miamichildrensmuseum.org .

“It was a dream that our theater troupe and our programming staff had to be able to reach more people and provide greater access,” Spiegelman said.

The pandemic gave the museum an opportunity to launch the program, which was used not only by children from Miami, but from all parts of the world. “It also validated the vision that there is a broader world out there and we can serve more children in the digital world,” Spiegelman said.

The museum also delivered activity kits, learning material, and 50,000 pounds of food to more than 10,000 people through specialty drive-thru celebrations that focused on healthy lifestyles, literacy, autism awareness and more.

It also ran a two-week-long camp over Christmas and another during spring break for children from schools in Liberty City.

“Children, particularly in the underserved communities, have been suffering terribly this year, socially, emotionally, and of course, educationally. So we wanted to provide children with a rich education in a fun environment,” Spiegelman said.

While the museum workers say it feels good to return, they’re proud of their efforts during the pandemic.

“We’re able to fulfill our mission,” Spiegelman said. “We’re able to engage children and families in hands-on interactive learning.

“I think one of the greatest compliments that we got during our closure was that a family said ‘we used what we learned at the museum to engage our children at home through interactive play, through storytime,’ because we didn’t stop. We kept delivering to the community.”

If you go

Miami Children’s Museum

▪ Where: Watson Island Park: 980 MacArthur Causeway, Miami.

▪ Hours this week by reservation only: Sunday: 10-12 p.m.; 1-3 p.m.; 4-6 p.m. Monday: 10-12 p.m. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Starting May 8th and 9th, anyone from the community will be free to join during the weekends, and on June 7th, the museum will open seven days a week.

▪ Phone: 305-373-5437

▪ Tickets: $20

▪ Website: miamichildrensmuseum.org

This story was originally published May 1, 2021 at 7:30 AM.