Neighbor Spotlight - Kidspace Children's Museum

Founded in 1979, Kidspace Children’s Museum has inhabited several locations in its 43-year history, but none as fitting as the 3.5-acre property where it now resides in the heart of the Arroyo Seco. While remaining thoughtful about what to preserve from its popular indoor space at McKinley School, the 2004 move to Brookside Park enabled Kidspace to expand programs to include a myriad of outdoor environments for kids to connect with animals and nature while making sense of their local environs and urban wildlife community.

The Interpretive Arroyo, an outdoor stream where kids learn to trust themselves by navigating natural waterplay terrain, is just one of the museum’s enticing exhibits promoting discovery and development through risk appropriate challenges. 

Closing its doors for 14 months during the pandemic presented Kidspace with unprecedented challenges, but for Chief Executive Officer Lisa Clements and her staff, focusing on the mission – to nurture the potential of all children through kid-driven experiences, inspiring them to become joyful, active learners -- is what kept them afloat. 

Kidspace’s remote teaching for LAUSD and Title I schools included inventive online classes for 1,500 students through the Season of Stem program. The first semester unit for Grades K-2 involved partnering with Artistic Entertainment Services float builders to design a parade float, while the second semester provided Grades 3-5 with a simple machines curriculum that involved co-designing a mechanical puppet with artist Wayne White.

In-person learning has resumed with programs and exhibits on local snakes, bats, birds, and more. As butterfly season approaches and the Monarch butterfly count bounces back, there is renewed excitement for Kidspace’s annual Butterfly Celebration. In partnership with the Pasadena Humane Society, Kidspace has also become a natural halfway house and release site for baby squirrels and possums making their way back into the wild, thereby teaching kids to become animal care advocates. To learn more about Kidspace Children’s Museum, visit www.kidspace.org.

The Interperative Arroyo at Kidspace