Learn About Us

Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago is a hands-on learning laboratory for children ages birth to 8. All of our exhibits and programs are aligned to the Illinois State Learning Standards and are designed to make learning fun and interesting for young children.

Mission Statement

As a leader in demonstrating the role of interactive play in learning, Kohl Children’s Museum creates exemplary, developmentally appropriate, hands-on educational experiences for young children in a fun, intimate environment.

Our Vision

Support parents, caregivers and teachers in their crucial role of facilitating children’s learning through programs, resource materials and modeling.
Nurture creativity and experimentation through exhibits that promote interaction between children and adults.
Encourage children of diverse backgrounds and abilities to play and learn together.
Reach out beyond the Museum building to bring its expertise and exhibits to metropolitan Chicago classrooms, childcare sites and other organizations serving young children.

Key Beliefs

Young children learn best through play.
Creative, interactive play involving a child and caring adults fosters learning and relationship development.
A child’s learning experience is maximized within environments that are fun, challenging but comfortable, and that empower each child to direct her/his own learning and experience success.
Kohl Children’s Museum is a community-based organization that provides opportunities for all children.
A critical component of children’s learning is interaction with children of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
Informal environments augment the more traditional, formal educational structure.

Diversity Statement

Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago is dedicated to a culture of inclusion that inspires children to value themselves and the unique qualities in each other through the provision of environments and experiences that foster cooperative play, inquiry and self-discovery. The Museum will draw upon the strength of its broad service area to achieve institution-wide diversity in all programs, activities and operations.

History

Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago was founded in 1985 as an extension of the Kohl Teaching Center in Wilmette, one of four such centers in Illinois and Israel conceived by Dolores Kohl in 1972 and supported by the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation. Offering creative methods of enhancing traditional approaches to teaching, Kohl Teaching Centers provided training and educational resources to teachers and helped them incorporate hands-on experiences into their classrooms. Kohl Children’s Museum was founded to continue reaching educators and extend its service to meet the growing needs of families and the community at large through interactive exhibits and hands-on programs.

In 1998, Sheridan Turner became the Museum’s president and CEO and Dolores Kohl stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the Museum, expressing a strong desire for the Museum to be funded by the community that had come to rely on its services. With new leadership in place, the Museum’s Board of Trustees, led by Board Chairman Frederick H. Waddell of Northern Trust, conceived and realized plans for a new facility in Glenview, just five miles from the original Wilmette location, which opened to the public in 2005.

Location

Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago is located on an 8.8-acre parcel of land in the center of The Glen in Glenview, at 2100 Patriot Boulevard, Glenview, Illinois 60026.

Facility

Total square footage of the Museum is a 46,700 square feet, with 23,000 square feet of public space. An additional 2-acre outdoor exhibit space, Habitat Park, allows for Museum attendance to be less weather-dependent.

Accessibility

We think it's important that the Museum be equally available to guests with any level of physical, visual, auditory, or cognitive challenge. All public areas are 100% ADA-compliant. The facility and all exhibits have been designed using the principles of universal design, which go beyond accessibility with an approach that uses multi-sensory experiences as educational tools. These experiences allow all guests with any level of physical, visual, auditory, and cognitive ability to experience the Museum and its offerings.

Universal design simplifies life for everyone by making products, communications, and elements of the Museum's spatial environment easier to use for every child, including those with movement differences, reduced vision or hearing, or cognitive impairments. Special attention has been paid to such aspects as labels and signage, accessible routes, and positioning of interactive elements that will enhance the Museum experience for everyone.

A Green Building

It’s important for us to be good stewards of the environment in order to maintain a world that our children can enjoy for many years to come. Kohl Children’s Museum has created an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient facility that has earned Silver-level certification as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Signage and activities provide children and families with hands-on learning opportunities about environmental concerns in both the indoor and outdoor exhibit spaces, accessible year-round.

Exhibits

Kohl Children’s Museum houses 17 hands-on, interactive exhibits that support the strategic direction of the Museum as outlined in its mission statement and key beliefs. Exhibits include:

Music Makers
Nature Explorers
Water Works
A 1,200 sq. ft. Traveling Exhibit Gallery

Visitors

Around 350,000 people visit Kohl Children’s Museum each year. The Museum has over 7,500 member families, who enjoy the purpose-built facility, 17 interactive, hands-on exhibits, and easily accessible location.

Outreach Programs

For many years, the Museum has reached out to underserved and at-risk communities through its Early Childhood Connections program, working primarily with Chicago Public Schools. The Museum is now able to offer its programs to families in Wheeling and Waukegan, and has also developed outreach programs on anti-bias initiatives and healthy lifestyles in 2007 and 2008. >> Learn More