The innovative strategies that allowed children’s museums in Santa Fe and Albuquerque to continue serving youngsters during the COVID-19 pandemic still are helping them expand their reach to students, families and underserved communities.

Both the Santa Fe Children’s Museum and Explora in Albuquerque closed their doors for more than a year when it wasn’t safe to have in-person visitors in such hands-on spaces. And both found new ways to engage with kids, not only shifting to virtual programs but also creating kits that teachers and families could use in classrooms or at home. Those alternative ways to provide STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) programming also are helping to address the learning loss that so many children have suffered in the last two years.

“We started seeing during COVID that so many communities were lacking in services,” said Hannah Hausman, executive director of the Santa Fe Children's Museum.

With funding from Rotary of Santa Fe, the museum created the Vamos Van, a mobile museum and outreach platform to provide services locally and to communities in Northern New Mexico, especially in rural and tribal areas. The van offers programs and distributes Grab & Go kits.

The Santa Fe Public Library also helped get various Grab & Go kits into the hands of those who could use them. Through the partnership, the museum developed butterfly kits to complement the library’s 2021 Big Read program, for example, and children were able to use the kits to make 3-D butterflies.

“It’s a really great partnership,” said Maria Sanchez-Tucker, Community Services Director for the city of Santa Fe.  “It gave us a chance to look at how we can work together because, really, our missions are similar.”

Overall, more than 12,600 Grab & Go kits were distributed to rural and tribal areas in New Mexico. The museum also helped those in need by sharing 1,000 pounds of food harvested from its community garden in 2021.

The Grab & Go kits continue to be a part of the library’s offerings, along with its new virtual planetarium program, which has reached 11,000 kids and teachers across the state – more than could have been served in person.

The Santa Fe Children's Museum – spiffed up and featuring upgraded ventilation systems – is open now and families are flocking to visits with guest scientists, art programs hosted by Santa Clara Pueblo and reading sessions with the Santa Fe Fire Department. Another popular attraction is a new miniature village that young children can play in, which includes an animal clinic, market, firehouse and construction zone.

Perhaps the biggest transformation in the works at the museum is in its acre-plus backyard outdoor space, which is getting a major nature-based renovation that will add 28 new exhibits and explorative environments over the next few years. Highlights will include a music plaza with new instruments, a performance stage and a Hill Play area with climbing ropes, nets and boulders as well as a two-part Bandelier cliff dwelling with ladder, openings and a lookout to honor New Mexico’s history and heritage.

Museum visitors also have returned to Explora, said Executive Director Joe Hastings.

“It’s really starting to get going,” he said. “We’re having days and weeks where attendance is where it was before the pandemic. It sure feels good.”

Like the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, Explora also switched to online classroom visits and teacher training and developed STEAM kits for use in classrooms and homes. Explora also used the time it was closed to upgrade ventilation, add UV lights to kill viruses and refresh its spaces.

A new Nature’s Notes exhibition opened in the outdoor area and the X Studio teen center is scheduled to open in June. The 8,000-square-foot X Studio building will house a “STEM in the Burque” exhibit for teens to learn about science and technology careers, offer special programs and serve as a drop-in center where students can get homework help and hang out after school.

Tara Henderson, director of visitor experience, was the architect of Explora’s STEM kits, which the museum continues to use today. The kits – more than 12,000 of which were distributed throughout the state by libraries, schools and other partners in 2021 – covered topics such as bridge building, bubbles, seed design and animal adaptations, Henderson said.

Explora’s strategy during the pandemic also included virtual field trips for schools and families and online workshops that allowed more teachers and students to attend than when everything was in person.

“It’s a mix of everything,” Henderson said. “It’s given us more tools and more flexibility to work with families and work with schools and work with teachers.”

Still, museum visitors in Santa Fe and Albuquerque appear to be happy to return to in-person experiences.

“People should come and check it out and see how it feels,” Hastings said. “It’s what we all need again.”

For more information: santafechildrensmuseum.org and explora.us