For many museum people and their families, the next few weeks of self quarantine and social distancing may seem overwhelming. Here’s a list of #MuseumatHome offerings from Midwest museums to help you balance work time with your kid’s e-learning assignments or conquer restlessness and boredom (for the whole family). We’ll get through this together!
Activities for Home
Looking for hands-on activities for the whole family?
- The Bakken Museum online science learning resources
- DuPage Children’s Museum DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint instructional video
- Field Museum Learning Center, activities for preschool to high school
- Instructions for making homemade watercolors by Intuit: Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
- Kenosha Public Museum Kids Activity Page and Museum Munchkins Live Streaming Programs (Wednesdays at 9:30am CDT)
- Kohl Children’s Museum Home Zone
- Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum activity guides, audio tour app, and tour videos on YouTube
- Let’s Do Science series from Adler Planetarium
- National Museum of Mexican Art At-Home with NMMA activity resources
- National Museum of Puerto Rican Art and Culture artist education videos on their YouTube channel
- Real Science! from The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
- Rock Hall EDU has activities and lesson plans for teachers and parents searchable by musical decade, school grade level, etc.
- Wonder Slime video from Cincinnati Museum Center
- Western Reserve Historical Society digital learning resources
Collections Features
These series, pages or posts focus on a look behind-the-scenes or provide access to favorites at museums that we currently can’t view in person.
- Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University Collections Online
- Home Safari Facebook Live series from Cincinnati Zoo
- Five Fishy Facts and other Discovery World aquarium videos
- Fred and Dorothy Fichter Butterflies Are Blooming videos are posted each year with this annual exhibition at Meijer Gardens (Catch their stories on Instagram and Facebook too!)
- Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia digital collection
- MPM Untold YouTube series, featuring stories from the Milwaukee Public Museum
- Wisconsin Historical Society Big History is Happening journal project, history and teacher resources
Story Time
How about listening to stories read by museum educators?
- Story Time with Children’s Museum of Indianapolis Preschool, Stick and Stone
- Story Tree Time with Cincinnati Museum Center, The Most Magnificent Thing
- Story Time with National WWI Museum, Kansas City, Bold and Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote
- Story Time with Andrew Luck, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis: Larry Gets Lost at the Museum
Virtual Tours & Exhibitions
Visit Midwest museums virtually this month!
- Art Institute of Chicago online exhibition “Without Bounds or Limits”
- Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Museum at Home YouTube Channel
- Cranbrook Institute Frank Lloyd Wright Smith House 3D Tour
- Girl Museum online exhibits
- Glensheen Mansion, Duluth, MN 360 Tour
- Grand Rapids Public Museum virtual tour of The Streets of Old Grand Rapids on Facebook
- Jane Addams Hull-House Museum online exhibition “Look at it this way”
- Jane Addams Hull-House Museum virtual tours
- Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia Slavery in America interactive timeline and virtual tour of the museum
- Shedd Aquarium is taking their animal friends on field trips to other areas of their building and posting videos/photos on social media
- Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens manor house virtual tour
- The Warehouse virtual exhibition On the Nature of Wisconsin: 80 Years of Work by more than 40 Artists
- Wisconsin Historical Society online exhibitions
Oldies but Goodies
This list features some older museum programs and video series that still make us smile – we hope you will too!
- The Field Museum-inspired series The Brain Scoop
- The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation YouTube Series
- This Week’s WOW YouTube series from The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Contact us to add your museum’s offerings to this page.