Curating the Story Museum: A Resource for Educators

Children's Own Museum

The Children’s Own Museum was first introduced in 1997 as a temporary exhibit at the Harbourfront Centre. In 1998, it moved to a space at the ROM in the McLaughlin Planetarium until it shuttered its doors in 2002. But this wasn’t the end of the Children’s Own Museum, or renamed, Children’s Own Media Museum. It remained in operation without a fixed address until 2011 when it aimed to return as the Children’s Mobile Media Museum; a travelling museum that could set up shop at numerous locations across Ontario. The endeavour never really came to fruition and the museum hasn’t been heard of since its last Facebook update in 2014. Its initial premise was simple: “what does blank space mean to you? We want to know!” The project aimed to make their children’s visitors the central curators of the museum experience and a number of interactive and open-ended activities were available during the museum’s operation from 1997–2002. Children’s Own Museum took learning through play to an entirely new level through its innovative mission.

The first and only museum that highlighted the child’s experience so completely in Toronto
Gave children more freedom than most museums so that it feels like they are curating their own experiences just through the use of the museum’s space
Links to articles/photos/images/websites:
https://www.facebook.com/Childrens-Own-Museum-116379783376/?ref=page_internal
https://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2011/10/16/childrens_own_museum_to_return_on_wheels.html
https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/438487645?pq-origsite=summon
https://slab.ocadu.ca/community/che-marville
https://mcluhangalaxy.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/more-on-the-childrens-mobile-media-museum-toronto/

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