Conversations with the Grand Rapids Children's Museum

Mark Huizenga: Everybody, it's another podcast with Conversations with Mark, and today we're so excited to be with Maggie Lancaster. Now she's the CEO of the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, and it's such a beautiful space, and so many good times have been had here. Your official title, I have to look it up, it says CEO of Play, but I think it should be CEO of Fun, because every single time I've been here... I've seen more kids smiling, laughing and learning about what play and what fun is and why we do this. And it's really, it's probably one of the most magical places in Grand Rapids for kids. I appreciate you saying that. And really when you came here, it was actually a perfect example of adults can too, because it's just as important. We always talk about children, rightly so, but the adults need it as well. The stresses that we have in our lives right now, the chaos, the fast, the go, go, go, go. Sometimes you can just come here and just play. Well, CEO of fun, let me tell you a couple of my favorite moments. One, upstairs, you've got this huge bubble thing and those little kids just gravitated towards me. We started playing together and we had more fun shooting that video and watching the kids play and learning about what was going on and the mystic mystery of bubbles. Like everyone's used to little ones, but this took everything to the next level. Yeah. You've got colors in here that are vibrant that just stimulate fun and play. And I think that oftentimes people don't understand what play really is. And I used to be the director of pediatric practices at DeVos Children's Hospital. And we had these child life specialists that would work on play, teaching kids to play. And what happens is play is really about learning. To learn, to stimulate the brain. We just came off of March's reading month not too long ago. And we say the same thing about reading. When kids read, the brain starts working and all of a sudden they don't even know it, but things are happening and they learn. Whether it's mechanical, moving devices or seeing what's happening, it's just a wonderful place. Thank you for saying all that and thank you for knowing. What we always want to say to parents or caregivers who are coming in our doors, what you don't realize is you're actually learning. And whether that learning is through... brain executive function. It can also be social emotional learning. It can be everything from also just learning how to work with one another. My favorite story is two kids are in our little cars and they're zooming around and they get stuck facing each other in a area where they one can't move without the other moving. And what you saw was one kid eventually gets out of the car. drags it around and goes, you know, to the other side and then they keep going. It's problem solving. Just think if we did that on our roads today, we'd have a lot less road rage. I've been here before when you've had some really amazing exhibits, whether it's like Mr. Rogers, I remember for one, the Daniel Tiger thing. You have had a lot of different things come through here. And I think when we do this podcast, it's about demystifying what happens, but there's a ton of work that goes into creating an exhibit like this. They don't just happen. They don't just call you up and say, Hey, Maggie, what do you think about doing a blank exhibit? These are well thought out and intentionally designed things. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the historical ones and maybe what's coming in the future? absolutely. And it is, I have to say our team does well beyond their job descriptions. And we are grateful for that. But when you see, let's just say we're we're I'm disclosing right now for everyone. We are having Legos come this That'll be very unpopular, I'm sure with no one. So this summer we'll bring in Legos. Well, we've been working on that for years. It also took our amazing gift shop person, for example, years to establish even a relationship to sell them in our gift shop. This behind the scenes work is always what I admire most about our team because when it is presented, when it comes out, it's like, Oh, wow, this is really nice. Like, yeah, we've been talking about this. for how many years? So you have big exhibits like that. Also, you have traveling exhibits. Those rent out years in advance. And in fact, we just secured and I'm sure my team again is going to be like, why are you saying this to everyone? Don't tell them yet. But Dinos comes next year. So in 2027, we have dinosaurs coming. And that those are created by other museums where you have to get on a list to hurry and say, yes, we want it. And then you have to pay for it. And it's very time consuming, especially getting the funding to bring something like that in. We have to shut our museum down. All the semis come in and all of our team loads it all in, sets it up and moves out. Then you have to remember like we're sitting on our amazing farm. This will all have to go away. You got to put that all in the basement or find other storage. So it has a lot of puzzle pieces to create a museum. Well, and you're also providing a venue for kids of all ages. So you've got to be very cautious on how it's designed so that it's safe. Nothing's going to tip over on them. I mean, even we're setting up here today and to see the tables that are bolted to the ground. Well, of course, no kidding. We don't want tables tipping over on people, but you seem to take the time to figure out. all the details to make it such a special moment. Yeah, we really do. And while we truly emphasize risky play, because risky play is very, very important, we don't necessarily want any accidents to be created here. And I'm going to go off on a little tangent too about how critically important it is to keep clean. So not only are you emphasizing, well, that might do this, so let's do this, that might do this. Is it cleanable? because we go in through almost every hour and then before we open and after we open the cleaning occurs. I'm sure nobody thinks about that honestly, but it's those extra steps that you take to make this such a special place. You have to a safe, special place for everyone. I have to tell you a quick story. My chief of staff said to me on the way over here, he said, this was a place where my daycare provider brought me every summer as a little kid. And it was one of my most favorite places to go. What a great story. Yeah. Because I'm sure that story has been told thousands of times throughout this area. And it's not just Kent County, your extension of where people come from is way beyond Kent County. It is. And in fact, I say we hit every state last year. also almost every zip code except five in our own state and For all my you per friends. They did they were from the UP I'm gonna try to work hard to get them down here and visiting us so it is nationally recognized as a place of destination for Grand Rapids, which as you know We need to make sure that and the ROI is very good for all of us in this area our restaurants our stores and Who live here? don't make it a great spot overall Well, and that's really West Michigan, something for everybody all the time. Winter, spring, summer, fall, you can do almost anything right here in Metro Grand Rapids. It's amazing. You can. And in that also, we talk to our hotel district, you know, you can talk to our neighborhood district. All of these districts help us create what we have today. We're very grateful for them. These kind of places don't exist on their own. They have a lot of support from philanthropy, from other organizations. What kind of, what kind of issues are you guys facing right now that that makes you worry at night and say, boy, I don't know about this. Yeah, I would actually say we do need to look more into more city and county funding. We hope that that will be the work that we are doing. I wear my hat of ACCGR, which is the Arts and Cultural Collective, to get all of us together and say, how can we be sustainable for the long future? Because maybe donors change or they might generationally change as well as their interests change. So how can we be sustainable? We're working very hard with the city and county who's very receptive to that as well as there's no one who knows it more than you, but the MEDC and the funding that has been provided for us has really changed our lives. And I'm going to keep nailing that. home to everyone who will listen how critical important state funding is. Well, it's one of those things where when you bring people in from all over the state, all over the country, there's huge value for the business owners here, the proprietors that own the restaurants, the hotels and other venues, whether it's the zoo or anything else. There's a combination where people say there's a great thing going on right here in Grand Rapids. So it is a good investment. think the return on investment for the state. is really solid. I couldn't agree more and the numbers show it. Just the Seidman School of Business did a study of just the floor of what we bring in annually and it's in not just the Children's Museum, but nonprofits and museums alone is 300 million. That was the floor. so I love to talk about all the corporations and the businesses that do the same. But think about that. Who are we hiring? And Are we create who are we creating and we're creating that next employer for you workforce development is rate critically important in all of our brains when we bring these exhibits in. It's not free to come here and parents have to pay and it's an investment they make in their kids and they love it. But this organization works hard to make sure that people of all socioeconomic levels can come here. Can you talk a little bit about how inclusive you are and saying like. is important regardless of the zip code you live in or what your parents income is? Yeah, because of our team who really pushed me to do this, we incorporated a national program that we have that's called Museums for All. So again, I don't want to take credit for creating it. It was created by the Association of Children's Museums and the IMLS, Institute of Museum and Library Studies, and they shared, we know... There is a certain percentage of people unable to get into children's museums. Can we provide them with a program that allows anyone with an EBT WIC snap card to get in for $1.75? And that rate was decided by us. It's zero to $5 that you can choose. We chose $1.75 and up to 12 family members can get in at that rate. It was so... helpful, I feel, to our families. We then move to pay what you can memberships with the minimum of $20 and people who participate and pay what you can can then get into not only the Children's Museum, but we also have a huge cultural exchange with, you mentioned, the zoo or with I-5 in Lansing or with Ann Arbor Children's Museum. So if you have a museum, if you have a membership, you can also on certain months get in there too. And often we ask for a donation on top of the $20 and they often give it, which is wonderful. Probably because they see such a huge value and when they see their kids play. We talked a little bit earlier about play and why it's important. If you had to have one message to give parents about play and why it's important for their kids to be nurtured and frankly, not watching their phones maybe, what would you say about that? I'll hit on the the tech in in just a second But I want to first state this that this is I don't want to be critical Parenting caregiving is the toughest job in my opinion that I have ever had and if I could go back to my Young self who had young children. I would say stop directing Allow them to naturally move from place to place whether you're in the museum or not allow them to create their own adventure. We as parents, Maggie Lancaster as a parent was very good about scheduling. And I find that if I would have done it over again, I would have allowed them to lead more. And I think that creates so much more autonomy and thoughtfulness, empathy and creativity. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it's almost like you just, if you brought your kids here, you would say wander and do what you want to do. I will follow you. let's prescribing, first we're going to go here, Johnny, then we're going to go there. And let them just find what resonates with them and let them take it all in. And when I've seen kids here, that's exactly what I've seen happen where maybe they pick this farm behind us and they just love it and they spend the whole time here. That's probably okay. It is. Because it's what they love and it gives them a chance to really find a way to express themselves. And to really learn about things and be creative and really get those synapses in your brain going. It is. And that is proven. You know, I when you were talking about the technology, I would also then recommend to any of our families and caregivers, read Jonathan Heights, The Anxious Generation, the data that is in there. And it's heavy data. But if you can get through it, it shows why. Maggie Lancaster can say it all she wants. But here is the data as to why. they at that point in their lives should not be on a screen. And it's very impactful. Meg Lancasters, CEO of the, Greenipus Children's Museum, CEO of Play and CEO of Fun, self-proclaimed by me. Thank you for making such a fun place for everybody, for our community. Thank you so much for supporting it.