While looking for new events to add to the website, I came across an event the IDEA Museum was holding, Free Sunday. I was looking for something to do and thought it would be pretty cool to take the little one on a bit of an adventure there. I had never been and hadn’t really heard much about the museum so I thought to myself, why not, it’s free.
The architecture of the building is pretty impressive and a gorgeous site to look at as you can see in the picture above. It didn’t seem very big on the outside, however.
We went in and they explained a bit of the museum. To the right was the art center where no shoes were allowed and to the left was their dog exhibit and arts and craft area. We decided to go check out the dog exhibit first.
Dogs Life
The walls were immensely filled with paintings of dogs and there were a few different areas where kids could play veterinarian, dog trainer and just be silly. Along the way, there are a few different videos that teach you about dogs, how to train them and different fun facts about them.
We went through this area pretty quickly.
Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
One of the better parts of the museum was the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Kids were able to dress up in all sorts of crazy outfits and head into a room illuminated by a few black lights.
On the table were what seemed to be clay tea party accessories made by other children. The little one had a blast playing pretend with the other kids and just being goofy.
Arts and Craft Area
This section of the museum reminded me of a preschool. Plenty of tables scattered throughout, each having a different type of crafting accessory. Some were standard with paper and crayons. Others more advance having kids create things with cardboard, tape, and other random accessories.
One part of this area was the recycling center. Kids are able to grab all sorts of different objects we typically throw away and create all sorts of things.
Called it a day
We decided not to check out Artville which looked more like a daycare and headed home.
All in all, the IDEA museum was okay. What it does well is creating an environment of creativity but other than that, there is not much learning provided to the children. I probably won’t go back as there are other museums in the valley that offer a lot more to do for just about the same price. If you haven’t been, I’d check it out on one of their free days or if your child(ren) is artistically inclined.
