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Our Mission

Sparking Children's Learning Through Play

Minnesota Children's Museum of Rochester is dedicated to providing children with a fun, hands-on and stimulating environment to explore and discover. The Museum helps to instill a life-long love of learning by nurturing the real-world skills children need to become engaged citizens in the future.

The Museum embraces these core concepts:

• Early learning is the foundation for lifelong learning.
• Families are our children’s first teachers.
• All children deserve a time and place to be children.
• Diverse perspectives enrich children’s lives.
• Play is learning.

A Timeline of Minnesota Children’s Museum of Rochester:

2006

• A group of Rochester parents, interested in providing fun, educational opportunities for local families, meets to discuss the need for a children’s museum in Rochester.

2007

• The Children’s Museum of Rochester (CMR) officially forms as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization with the purpose of researching and planning for the creation of a children’s museum that benefits children, parents, employers and our community.
• CMR’s Board of Directors expands to include a diverse list of community leaders, employers and parents with backgrounds in education, business, finance, technology, law, communication and marketing. Its volunteer database grows to more than 50 families.

2008

• In April, the Augsburg College MBA program completes a comprehensive study testing support for a Children’s Museum in Rochester.  The study reveals overwhelming support for a museum, and projects the museum will draw more than 40,000 visitors annually from a 50-mile radius around Rochester.
• Based on the positive results of the CMR fundraising feasibility study by The Steir Group, the CMR Board of Directors votes to proceed with a capital campaign.

2009

• The CMR's first official fundraising event, on March 22 at BB's Pizzaria, attracts hundreds of supporters and confirms the community's enthusiasm for the project.  See our photos of this fun event.
• The CMR unveils a traveling exhibit, an interactive playhouse for kids, dubbed "CMR Under Construction" at the Aldrich Memorial Nursery School Carnival on May 1.  The CMR sets up the playhouse around town at community events throughout the summer.
• The CMR participated in the first ever ArtiGras held in August and showcased the "Under Construction" playhouse.
• The CMR hosted the first major fundraiser at the History Center "Movies on the Barn" with the "Incredible Family Fun Night". This event raised more than $4,000.

2010

• The Children's Museum of Rochester began discussions with the Minnesota Children's Museum to open a satellite location in Rochester.
• The new original mobile exhibit, Ready, Set, GO! Racetrack, created by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce LGR class of 2010 premiered at Family Night at Rochesterfest.

2011

• MCM received an appropriation from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund of the Legacy Amendment to fund two years of start-up and operating costs for the Rochester Museum.
• Minnesota Children’s Museum officially accquires the Children’s Museum of Rochester.  As part of the acquisition, CMR dissolved as a non profit and the CMR Board now serves as an Adivsory Board to MCM.

2012

• Minnesota Children's Museum of Rochester leases 5,000 square feet of space at the River Center Plaza in Rochester and announces the hire of the Museum's first director, Dawn Devine.
• The Grand Opening of Minnesota Children's Museum of Rochester is slated for late winter/early spring 2012.
• Minnesota Children's Museum of Rochester opens to the public on April 5, 2012.