After more than a year of pandemic-induced closure, Kidspace Children’s Museum is making preparations to reopen for members on April 22, with limited spring camps for students already underway, according to the organization.
“It is so great to have campers back at Kidspace this week. We’ve been working toward reopening for a long time,” Kidspace CEO Lisa Clements said.
Spring camp sessions began Monday, coinciding with the Los Angeles Unified School Disitrct’s spring break, and will continue next week as the Pasadena Unified School District goes on spring break, according to Clements said.
The museum will reopen for members on April 22 at limited capacity, according to the museum. Under the current “red” tier in which Southern California is assigned by the state Blueprint for a Safer Economy, museums are permitted to operate at 25% capacity. If the region transitions into the “orange” tier, museums would be allowed to increase capacity to 50%.
“We are actively moving toward opening, and it’s really exciting because it’s been very difficult for staff, who work at a children’s museum, to work with no children around,” Clements said. “So we’re really looking forward to reopening. We have some very exciting days ahead.”
The museum’s popular 25-year-old butterfly adoption event is ongoing in a socially distanced, order-and-pick-up manner, but an in-person event is scheduled for museum members on April 22, according to Kidspace.
Membership reservations will begin April 15.
“We’re going to have a couple of member weekends, and then by Mother’s Day our outdoor campus will be open to the public in limited capacity. It’s really wonderful,” Clements said.
The facilities have been upgraded quite a bit during the pandemic closure, she said.
Offices and restrooms were updated, Clements said. Hand-sanitizing stations were installed.
“We also had to completely rebuild our digital infrastructure. We have a new website, which is where a lot of resources can be found, but it was also critical so that we could … manage capacity and only have a limited number of tickets per hour available just to make sure that there aren’t any crowded times at the museum,” she said.
“We’re going to take it slowly and be cautious. We feel like we need to create experiences that are safe and wholesome and joyful, and honor the trust placed in us by both parents and staff, so we are eager to open. But we are not dashing to open. We’re being very careful,” Clements said.
“Even if we’re opening only the outdoor campus, we’re really being thoughtful about how we can create joyful interactions for the whole family going forward,” she added. “And when we’re ready to open our indoor campus as well, I think that’s going to be reinvented, too.”
Watching the museum’s response to the pandemic, “It has been really gratifying to see how committed the staff is, how optimistic, how eager they are to make those changes that they think are going to have positive outcomes for families,” she said.
Registration for summer camp sessions at Kidspace was expected to open in mid- to late-April, with early registration available for museum members.
More information on the Kidspace Children’s Museum is available online at kidspacemuseum.org.
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