Province comes to play: Children’s Museum gets $500K for upgrades

The province is giving the financially struggling Manitoba Children’s Museum $500,000 for its 40th anniversary.

“This $500,000 investment will help ensure the museum will continue to evolve and meet the needs of today’s children and tomorrow’s leaders,” Sport, Culture, Heritage and Tourism Minister Nellie Kennedy said Friday over the din of scores of preschoolers and schoolchildren on field trips at the The Forks attraction.

“We’re really here to invest in our children and a longtime Manitoba institution that supports their growth and love of learning,” Kennedy said.

The museum, housed in the oldest surviving train repair facility in Manitoba, has encountered several years of operating deficits forcing it to close two days a week while raising admission and membership fees. The program cuts and price hikes were intended to help stabilize a dire financial situation at the long-running institution, which opened on June 21, 1986.

The additional funding will help the museum advance its revitalization plans, expand interactive exhibits and enhance inclusive educational programming, Premier Wab Kinew said at the funding announcement.

“It’s another great facility to bring people downtown and have us celebrate so much of what makes Manitoba great,” Kinew said.

On Tuesday, the province announced $15 million to support the restoration and renovation of the Pantages Playhouse Theatre, a national historic building in downtown Winnipeg.

Executive director Trevor Clearwater, who took the helm of the Children’s Museum last fall, said it was able to open seven days a week once again this spring.

The museum partnered with United Way Winnipeg to distribute 2,000 free passes to local families, schools and individuals who otherwise would not be able to access the museum, he said.

The goal was to fill the gap when a pilot program offering free admission to First Nation, Métis and Inuit families was phased out.

The financial boost from the province is much-needed help, he said.

“This funding strengthens our programming, supports our operations and contributes to the long-term sustainability of this institution,” Clearwater said. “We have a lot to celebrate.”

The museum will host Play it Forward, a fundraising gala on Sept. 18.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca