Alhough Kidcity is, by definition, a children’s museum, it is by no means a museum in the traditional sense. Instead of paintings hung on the walls, it is an interactive setting for parents and their children to play together in elaborate created environments.
Located at 119 Washington Street, the museum was founded by Wesleyan alumna Jennifer Alexander ’88, who first conceived of the idea for a children’s museum in 1994. Four years later Kidcity opened its doors to Middletown and the greater Connecticut area.
Alexander said that one of her desires is to help the Middletown community to grow. Kidcity has helped her meet this goal.
“I wanted to make Middletown a harder place to leave,” Alexander said.
Over 80,000 people come to Kidcity each year, and while a large percentage of the visitors are from out of town, there is a large contingent of visitors who live in Middletown. The museum is a non-profit organization, that places emphasis on hands-on learning.
“We worry more about ideas than we do about money,” Alexander said.
Kidcity’s museum exhibit consists of several rooms, each with different themes. Many reflect some of the experiences Alexander herself has had in Middletown and at the University.
One of the first rooms in the children’s museum is designed after the interior of O’Rourke’s diner on Main Street. The exhibit contains small tables and a counter for visitors to sit at, recreating the atmosphere of the tin-inspired diner.
Another room is based on Alexander’s Wesleyan experiences with the music department. In this room, children and parents can play the rainstick, woodwind instruments,and even a small model of a Javanese Gamalan. This allows them to imagine they are on the stage of the World Music Hall in the Center for the Arts.
Kidcity hosts permanent exhibits, for the most part, but there is one temporary room. It is currently a corn-maze with aisles for small areas for children to play in between the rows of corn. In one of these aisles there is a visual replica of students walking down College Row, including the Memorial Chapel, the ’92 Theater and North and South College.
One of the most elaborate rooms in Kidcity is meant exclusively for children under the age of three and their parents. The entire room has been painted pastel colors to give the effect of being under the sea. Adorned with a blue carpet, there are miniature caves to create adventures in and rock-like walls for them to climb.
While Kidcity has many complex settings on which children can play, it does not have many props for them to use.
“It’s about using your imagination,” Alexander said. “We want interaction between parents and their children.”
Kidcity is in no way a “babysitter,” as it is more about parents being able to play with their children in a new, creative and dynamic setting.
The cost of admission to Kidcity is $5 per person for visitors. Infants under 12 months can enter free.
Leave a Reply