Company Profile
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Company Overview
OUR MISSION
To create extraordinary learning experiences across the arts, sciences, and humanities that have the power to transform the lives of children and families.
OUR VISION
To be recognized as the global leader among all museums and cultural institutions serving children and families.
WE BELIEVE IN
• understanding how children and families learn to continually guide our work and meet demands that we innovate to remain relevant.
• creating extraordinary learning experiences that foster family learning and nurture interaction between children and their families.
• the power of family learning to help all children reach their potential and become effective citizens through an environment that encourages hands-on, minds-on experiences with nurturing adults, families, and friends.
• serving a continuum of family interests focusing on children through the age of eleven, and providing special opportunities for adolescents and young children.
• maintaining a commitment to education by effectively reaching and impacting schools, teachers and teacher training institutions.
• sharing our experiences, our treasury of artifacts, and the talents of staff, volunteers, Guild, and youth to positively affect children and families in our community, state, region, nation and the world.
• being a catalyst for revitalizing the neighborhood.
• investing in the development of our staff, volunteers, Guild and youth.
• our responsibility to collaborate with other institutions and organizations and to seek dynamic partnerships which leverage the impact of our museum.
• taking the museum to new audiences through multiple mediums.
• having a safe, clean, positive, quality environment that is affordable and accessible.
• our obligation to be good stewards of our human and financial resources.
• the value of diversity in our staff, the audiences we serve, the programs we produce, and the relationships we pursue.
• investing in research and development to remain relevant and to help us ensure we meet our strategic goals and objectives.
Company History
The diversity of exhibits and programming at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis—widely regarded as the top children’s museum in the nation—is built upon the initial stewardship and inspiration of Mary Stewart Carey in 1925.
After a visit to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Carey was inspired to create a similar museum for the children of Indianapolis—a mission she was able to enact with help from civic-minded friends and contributions from children in nearby neighborhoods.
The museum’s first homes were a carriage house on the Old Northside of Indianapolis and the Garfield Park Shelter House. It moved into its current, permanent home at 30th and Meridian streets in 1946.
The Children’s Museum Guild was formed in 1933. This organization continues to contribute time, money, and service to the museum and created the museum’s first Haunted House in 1964, a successful fundraising event that still thrives today.
Today, the museum’s staff of 400 part-time and full-time employees welcomes more than one million visitors annually. The museum houses numerous temporary and permanent exhibits in 11 galleries, providing more than 4,000 programs and activities each year and maintaining a collection of more than 110,000 artifacts.
The museum’s commitment to the community is steadfast. Each year, museum staff members serve as eager consultants to children’s museums being developed throughout the United States and around the world while continuing to pioneer the museum and education worlds in the 21st century.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the biggest and best children's museum in the world.
Benefits
Complimentary musuem membership, 30% discount in the Museum Store and Food Court, Museum Retirement Contributions after 1 year of employment & 1,000 hours, Museum Retirement Matching Contributions after 1 year of employment & 1,000 hours, Museum-paid Life Insurance, Supplemental Life Insurance, On-site Workout Facility