Your NEW museum is ready!

Your new museum is ready!

It’s time to celebrate, to take pride in what we’ve accomplished, and to express tremendous gratitude to everyone who helped us get here. For so long, this day seemed impossibly far away. Now that we’ve made it, we can take a collective breath and simply savor this extraordinary moment.

It’s been thrilling in recent months to watch the building transform from a construction site into the museum we’ve been envisioning: a place that’s new, but honors our past; a larger, more accessible building that’s still comfortable and welcoming; a place with exhibits that are fresh and modern, yet still inspire children the same way we always have, through the simple joys of hands-on play and discovery.

At the Discovery Museum, there’s a lot that’s new: Brain Building Together, a space dedicated to children from birth through age three and their caregivers, focused on healthy early brain development; A-Mazing Airways, a 13-foot-tall interactive sculpture of tubes and blowers for exploring the properties of air flow; Yes! It’s Math, a gallery that uses real-world, visual interpretations of math concepts to show that math is all around us, and it’s fun!; and so much more.

Visitors will also find familiar favorites: Backyard at Night, the Ship Room, the Train Room, Bessie’s Diner, and a reproduction façade of the much loved Children’s Discovery Museum exterior—complete with a mini Bessie. What’s new about these spaces is that they’re fully accessible to visitors of all abilities, ages, and learning styles. Our long-time commitment to creating inclusive learning experiences is unwavering. This new museum lets us demonstrate that in exciting new ways to our growing and increasingly diverse audience.

None of this would have been possible without the support of our donors, Board of Directors, and staff, our wonderful home community of Acton, and our many supporters at the State House and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Central to the success of the Campaign for the Discovery Museum was $4 million in matching grants from The Manton Foundation. The campaign also received significant gifts from the Sheth Sangreal Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund. It also benefitted from the generosity of more than 300 individuals and organizations, 56 of which contributed $10,000 or more. Of our campaign supporters, 33% of were first-time donors to the museum.

Finally, I must acknowledge the unfaltering dedication of our staff throughout this long, but rewarding, process. Every detail, from the kid-sized stools in Bessie’s diner to the 11-foot- wide da Vinci Ornithopter was meticulously planned, a testament to the devotion our staff has to giving families a playful place for hands-on learning. We invite you to come explore for yourselves. Welcome to your new Discovery Museum!