McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation

The Rural Library Traveling Exhibit Project

Posted on April 2, 2025 Updated on April 2, 2025

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Connecting Communities: The Impact of Great River Children’s Museum Education Kits

The Great River Children’s Museum (GRCM) brings engaging, hands-on learning experiences to children and families across Central Minnesota. Through a unique partnership with the Great River Regional Library (GRRL), the museum developed an educational initiative that reaches children who might otherwise lack access to exciting museum content. This program, which involves the distribution of rotating educational kits to libraries in the region, has already made a significant impact in the community.

Expanding Access and Building Relationships

The Great River Children’s Museum was successful in:

Raising Awareness about the Museum’s Future Location
The educational kits provided library staff with materials that helped them share information about the museum’s future location and offerings. Extra Experience programming, a collaboration between the museum and library staff, further helped raise awareness through community outreach. 

Providing Access to Engaging Content
The project provided children and their families with educational materials and experiences that would otherwise be inaccessible. Each kit was carefully designed to reflect the content of the museum’s permanent exhibits. These kits included a variety of engaging materials, from coding bugs and foam dinosaur blocks to novel science experiments and weaving looms.

Strengthening Partnerships with GRRL
By building a collaborative relationship with GRRL, the project provided librarians with the training, materials, and programming needed to support their educational initiatives. This collaboration not only helped enrich library programs but also established a foundation for future partnerships between the museum and the libraries.

In parallel, GRRL aimed to:

Develop Lifelong Learning Partnerships
The museum’s programming aligned with GRRL’s strategic goals to promote lifelong learning. The kits encouraged individual libraries to collaborate with GRCM, ensuring that programming needs were met while fostering strong community ties.

Enhance Literacy Skills Through Museum Exhibits
As part of the grant, library staff were encouraged to create themed book displays that complemented the kits. These displays further reinforced the connection between the kits and the development of literacy skills for children, offering a holistic approach to learning.

Connect Library Users to Museum Resources
Library staff encouraged visitors to sign up for the museum’s newsletter, keeping them informed about the progress of the museum and additional resources available as the project moved forward.

Impact on Learning: Connecting with Thousands of Children and Families

The museum’s educational initiative has already had a profound effect on learning in rural communities that are typically far from larger metro areas like Minneapolis and St. Paul. Many of the children served by this program would not have had access to the type of museum-quality programming provided by GRCM.

Additionally, the program has opened up new opportunities for collaboration with local daycares, schools, and early childhood programs. These partnerships have allowed the museum to pilot future exhibits and programs, which will support long-term learning as the museum prepares to open its physical doors in the Spring of 2025.

The museum’s outreach efforts have been met with enthusiasm, and the libraries involved in the program have often requested additional Extra Experience events due to their success. In fact, the program’s popularity led to GRCM being invited to present at two conferences to share insights into how the project has shaped community partnerships and educational efforts.

Continuing to Serve Central Minnesota

As the Great River Children’s Museum moves toward opening its doors, the success of this project will undoubtedly play a key role in shaping the museum’s future programming. The relationships built with libraries, schools, and community organizations during this project will provide a solid foundation for continued collaboration.

With the ongoing support of GRRL and the museum’s growing presence in Central Minnesota, the project will continue to inspire and educate children, fostering a lifelong love of learning and exploration in a way that’s accessible to all. Click the link below for updates on the Great River Children’s Museum.