Serious times at play palace Children’s Museum forced to tighten financial belt, fundraise By: Eva Wasney Posted: 4:21 PM CST Friday, Jan. 30, 2026

The Children’s Museum is a home away from home for the Maes family.

“We come all the time,” says mom Rachel Maes, while watching four of her six kids explore the centre’s toddler zone on a cold Monday afternoon.

“We’re a Métis family, so we can come for free, which is amazing.”

The young family visits the colourful museum at The Forks several times a month during the depths of winter, but that may soon change.

Next week, the non-profit organization will begin phasing out a popular pilot program that has offered free admission to First Nation, Métis and Inuit visitors since 2023.

“That’s very sad to hear. It would for sure change the amount we would go to budget that in,” Maes says upon learning of the ticketing changes.

Last year, the museum also reduced its hours by two days a week while increasing its daily admission and membership fees to $13.75 and $55 per person, respectively.

The program cuts and price hikes are intended to help stabilize a dire financial situation at the long-running institution, which is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary this year.

“It’s very much an inflection point in the history of the museum,” says new executive director Trevor Clearwater, who took on the role in October following the departure of Sara Hancheruk.

“Belt-tightening measures have been taken to try and bring us to the place we want to be, which is a more sustainable future.”

“Belt-tightening measures have been taken to try and bring us to the place we want to be, which is a more sustainable future.”

The Children’s Museum has reported operating deficits in four of the last six years, including a $320,000 shortfall in 2024.

Attendance numbers have been slow to rebound since the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living has left families with less discretionary spending for recreational activities, says Clearwater.

Revenue from gift-shop sales and fundraising has also dwindled since 2019, according to annual reports.

Clearwater, previously vice-president of guest services at Assiniboine Park Conservancy, describes the situation as critical, but not catastrophic.

“Catastrophic would mean we would be sitting here talking about us not being able to operate any longer and we’re not in that position,” he says.

Deferred maintenance owing to the cash crunch has taken a toll on the heritage building, which is in need of roof and window upgrades, as well as interior fixes.

On Monday, the Splash Lab and Lasagna Lookout, two of the museum’s 12 permanent exhibits, were closed unexpectedly for repairs — an increasingly frequent occurrence that has garnered negative feedback from guests.

“In the last year or so, things have broken and not been replaced,” Clearwater says, adding some of the play structures and interactive elements installed during the museum’s last major $10-million renovation are nearing the end of their lives.

“We need more operating dollars for these issues, we want to inject more value into the guest experience. At some point in the not too distant future, we will likely need to embark on another capital campaign to do a bigger refresh of what you see inside.”

The museum is hosting a 40th birthday celebration in June, bringing back its fundraising gala in September and currently hiring for a part-time sponsorship manager.

The organization has also partnered with United Way Winnipeg to distribute 2,000 free passes to local families who otherwise would not be able to access the museum. Clearwater says priority will be given to First Nation, Métis and Inuit families to fill the gap left by the free admission pilot program, which will be phased out over the next several months.

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The Manitoba Children’s Museum was incorporated in 1983 by founding executive director Linda Isitt, a social worker who rallied support from her kitchen table for the creation of a fun and educational indoor space for kids.

The museum opened in the summer of 1986 inside a 4,000-square-foot warehouse on Pacific Avenue, which housed three permanent galleries and welcomed 65,000 guests in its first year.

“That’s where I took my kids and we had lots of fun there,” says Mary Hanson, who chaired the board during the museum’s move to The Forks in 1994.

The former railyard was in the early stages of revitalization and the developers were strict about maintaining the historic elements and esthetics of the ground.

Painting the exterior of the oldest surviving train-repair building in Manitoba — a 1889 roundhouse built by the Northern Pacific and Manitoba Railway Company — was a no-go.

As a compromise, the museum was permitted to install a giant purple snake to the chain link fence of its enclosed outdoor area.

“At least it looked a little kid-like, instead of a brick building with no colour,” Hanson says, adding there was some internal head-scratching when the colourful Manitoba Theatre for Young People venue opened on the grounds five years later.

The new Children’s Museum location, with its iconic train engine and giant oak tree, allowed for more visitors, classes and special programming.

Many of those exhibits were replaced in 2011, the building’s last significant transformation, to create the interactive, open-concept space that exists today.

“The people who were coming to our museum in 1994 are now coming back with their kids, which is awesome. But these people, they need to be on the donor list.”

On Monday, one-year-old Jack was enjoying his first-ever visit to the museum.

“It’s nice to have somewhere to go where I can get out of the house and we can see other kids and parents. We’ll be coming back for sure as he grows,” mom Selina Brewster says.

While watching Jack climb the foam blocks in Tot Spot, aunt Nadine Lowes was fondly reminiscing about her own childhood memories of the Children’s Museum.

“I remember the fox in the beaver dam. It was really nice to have all kinds of different things to explore. It’s great to come to a place that has the nostalgia, but has also been updated,” Lowes says.

Along with fundraising and appealing to corporate sponsors, new and existing, Hanson believes an important part of the museum’s financial future will rely on tapping into that nostalgia.

“The people who were coming to our museum in 1994 are now coming back with their kids, which is awesome. But these people, they need to be on the donor list,” she says, adding that if the museum were to close “it would be a huge loss for Winnipeg. That is where kids can go be kids.”

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