About the Flint Children's Museum

History

Inspired by a visit to a Washington D.C. children’s museum in 1979, local educator Mary Newman began a quest to create a hands-on experiential learning center in her own community of Flint, Michigan. She believed that for children, the most important and longest-lasting kinds of learning comes from hands-on exploration, a principle that continues to guide the Flint Children’s Museum today.

In 1980, Articles of Incorporation were filed, and with some small grants, a hands-on antiques and crafts exhibit for children was created and installed at Flint’s Sloan Museum. By 1986, the popularity of this exhibit had grown so significantly that, with community support and additional grants, the Flint Children’s Museum’s first permanent location was established at North Bank Center in downtown Flint, operating there for 7 years.

An anonymous gift in 1990 created the Flint Children’s Museum Mary T. Newman Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. That fund, named for the museum’s founder and first Executive Director, has since grown to over 1 million dollars, and the proceeds from that fund continue to provide support for the museum.

The Museum’s current facility was donated to Kettering University, designated to house the Children’s Museum through a long-term lease. The Museum has been operating at this location since 1993, as an integral part of the developing "University Avenue”.This location has also created a neighborhood partnership with Kettering University and Durant-Tuuri Mott Elementary School, further helping to establish the museum as a valuable community asset.

After a strategic planning retreat in 2001, the FCM Board of Directors voted to make a long term commitment to our current location, and plans for a major renovation were begun. With the help of another anonymous gift, a fund was created at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, this time for the specific purpose of renovating the Children’s Museum with all new educational exhibits designed especially to support the standards and benchmarks of the Michigan Educational Curriculums, as well as for extensive building and grounds improvements. The first phase of this renovation began in summer of 2002 with a temporary six-week closing period, where the Museum saw structural improvements that nearly doubled the exhibit and activity space of the facility, as well as the filling of this new space with freshly designed and fabricated hands-on exhibits. One year later, phase two included the installation of some additional exhibits as well as cosmetic and functional improvements to the facility and the previously installed pieces. This process has produced the virtually all-new Children’s Museum that we have today.

In 2009 after 4 years of unpredictable growth and limited building space the FCM secured the adjacent property on the corner of Chevrolet and University Avenue to create an outdoor learning environment "Sproutside”.

To date, the Flint Children’s Museum has attracted over half a million visitors from all over Michigan. With an improved facility, an energized and dedicated staff, and the help of our community, the FCM will continue to develop exhibits, programs and activities that reflect our commitment to the children of the greater Flint area.