Acton's Discovery Museum Celebrates Accessibility, Innovation, and Summer Fun

School's out for summer, and spirits are high at the Discovery Museum in Acton - not only because kids are having a blast in the space, but also because they are the recent recipient of a highly esteemed award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services! The museum is known for its efforts to embrace sustainability and inclusivity while providing local children a place to learn and grow. CEO Marie Beam talks with Nichole about the new award and their summer offerings.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend. Each week
we come together talk about all thetopics important to you and the place where
you live. It's great to beback with you again this week. I'm
Nicole Davis. Spirits are high andact in at the Discovery Museum these days.
And not just because school's out andthere's a bunch of kids having an
absolute blessed inside. Well, thatis part of it, but another big

(00:28):
reason is that the museum recently gotsome pretty big kudos. The Discovery Museum
is one of ten around the countrythat recently received the National Medal for Museum
and Library Service. This is thenation's highest honor, celebrating museums and libraries
that make big contributions to where theylive, their cities, in towns.
The Discovery Museum is known for makinglearning, accessibility, and fun all high

(00:50):
priorities. Let's talk about this award. The museum itself. CEO Marie Beam
is here. Marie, great tohave you. This is a pretty big
deal and we'll get into that awardin a moment. But for people who
might not know about what you're doingat the museum, about the museum itself,
tell us what's happening. Yeah.Discovery Museum was founded in nineteen eighty
two. We're here in act inMassachusetts, but we served three hundred cities

(01:14):
and towns across Massachusetts. We specializein joyful hands on early stem education to
family play, so this is aplace where we invite kids and their caregivers
the adults in their lives to havea great time together. We also have
made it a priority to make surethat what we do is accessible to everyone,

(01:37):
so that's focusing on the barriers thatmay traditionally mean that families don't feel
invited to or welcome at a museum. Environment access and accessibility, physical and
other types of accessibility. We've madesure that we that we address those and
that everyone can feel included here.Discovery Museum also has a unique commitment to

(02:00):
sustainability. We are the only children'smuseum in the country that is producing all
of its own electricity on site,so we have an enormous solar array,
a canopy over our parking lot.We produce all of our own electricity,
and we also are community solar provider, making sure that four other Massachusetts nonprofits

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and eleven low income families in ourstate are powered at a discount by our
renewable energy Nicole. We also doa lot of work about getting kids outdoors.
We know that outdoor play is criticallyimportant for children's development and for the
mental health of kids and adults.Our Discovery Wood Space is a beautiful,

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wonderful sort of nature nature immersive experiencewith a centerpiece of a classroom size,
wheels accessible treehouse that is pretty irresistible. Every kid that visits us wants to
get out in that treehouse and play. And lastly, we do a lot
of work out in our community.We have a thirty one year old school

(03:06):
outreach program that was in twenty sevenhundred elementary and middle school classrooms last year
around Massachusetts and beyond. We bringhands on STEM experiences into school classrooms.
Fifty three thousand kids last year weserved that way. It's a really powerful

(03:28):
way to supplement what kids are gettingin their schools in science and math in
particular. And we partner with loadsof community organizations across the state to make
sure that what we're doing is reachingeveryone and that we're learning from folks that
are on the ground representing working withstakeholders in communities to make sure that we're
aware of the best ways that wecan help and respond and meet the needs

(03:52):
of our audience. Not as phenomenalintersectional work. But I'm still just stuck
on the treehouse and almost forty yearsold. I want to go play in
the tree Incredible, absolutely, Ohmy gosh, it's fun for everyone.
Our treehouse is a real it isit is completely unique a in the children's
museum world, but it's just uniquein general. It's a treehouse, that

(04:14):
is. It's a really whimsical structure. It's open twelve months a year,
every single day that we're open tothe public as long as it is safe
to be outdoors in this New Englandweather, and it really just gets kids
and adults excited about being outside again. We fill it with lots of great
sort of nature based science and explorationexperiences, or you can sit in the

(04:38):
corner on a beanbag chair and reada book together. It's a wonderful place
to just be together and sort ofhave that fifteen feet above the ground tree
top, you know, outdoor,lovely rustic experience. One of the problems
I think with younger generations right nowis that they're being raised essentially on screens.

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But I like the fact that youactually straddle the situation because you keep
kids involved in STEM and technology isimportant, but you also provide them a
way to get outside, you know, like when we were growing up,
Go get yourself dirty a little biit, go play in the dirt, and
go discover everything that nature has tooffer. That's going to be difficult at
times, but also it seems likeyou've really been able to look forward and

(05:19):
be more forward thinking about trying tomake sure that kids get both sides of
that experience. It's really true.In fact, what you would see inside
our building as well, Nicole isnot heavily technology or STEM based. In
fact, we call ourselves a screenfree environment. So we believe and we
know from research that kids learn bestwhen they're following their natural creativity and curiosity.

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We capitalize on that, so theexhibits and galleries inside our museum are
filled with things experiences that kids cansort of drive themselves. Right. It's
about figuring out how things work,It's about feeling comfortable trying something, if
it doesn't work, trying a differentway. We are all about building the

(06:05):
early STEM confidence of children that willturn them into future collaborative, creative problem
solvers, people who have great ideasand who are willing to work to make
things better. So yes, it'sscience, engineering, maths, but it's
in a way that works for everykid, all the way down to the

(06:25):
really early years. Well, clearlywhat you're doing in your approach has peaked
the curiosity of people around the country, including the Institute of Museum and Library
Services. You have been named oneof the ten recipients of this year's National
Medals for Museum and Library Service.This is a huge honor. How did

(06:45):
you find out about this? Thankyou? So we knew that we were
finalists. That in and of itselfwas an incredible delight to all of us.
Here I learned that we had won. I received a call from the
acting director of the Institute of Museumand Library Services. It was an incredible
moment. I have to say,the fact that it is a recognition not

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just of our standing in the industrytoday, but of the many years of
hard work and vision and dedication notonly from folks who have worked here at
the museum, but of the manypeople in our broad community that have invested
in us and given their time andgiven their their financial investment to make us
who we are. It is anincredibly meaningful moment. I have to say

(07:33):
that for all of us too.While it does through herald parts of our
work that are particularly unique, thefact that the award is all about service
to the community and impact on humanbeings is what makes it so compelling to
us and what we're particularly proud of. Yeah, so what does this award

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mean? You know, outside ofcourse the accolades and all that. So
what does this mean for the futureof the museum? Does us open up
other doors for you? Like,what what can this help you do as
you move forward? Yeah, it'sa great question, and you know,
we're still kind of wrapping our headsaround that. Most importantly, I think
that this gives us a platform ofpublic recognition that we look forward to capitalizing

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to build and become even stronger andeven more impactful in our work. So
this year we happen to be engagedin a strategic planning process. It will
be the most inclusive plan that wehave ever developed in the history of this
museum. So we're including voices fromacross our community, our audience, our
staff, internal and external. Andyou know, when we think about what

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is possible for us and how wecan best serve, how we can apply
our expertise to meet community needs,whether or not they are needs that are
considered traditionally to be ones that arechill since museum might seek to address.
You know, this award lets usthink really big, very bold, and

(09:07):
gives us, I think, arenewed and even more invigorated sense of the
potential of this organization and the peoplewho work here. Right, and you
obviously have a great team behind you, but being the leader of that team,
what does this mean personally for you? Tell me what it was like
to get that phone call or emailor whatever it was that you found out.
Yeah, it was an incredible moment. So you know, the history

(09:31):
is I've worked at the Discovery Museumfor almost eleven years. I was Chief
Development Officer here for a long time. I've only been the CEO since January.
So this is a nod to alot of people who came before me,
and in particular, I'd love torecognize our just recently retired CEO,
Neil Gordon, who was an incrediblevisionary and the person who really put the

(09:58):
walk in our walks, so tospeak, around sustainability and access and accessibility
and inclusion at this organization. Youknow, he charted sort of the modern
course for who we are. Sofor me to get the call and for
me to you know, for betteror worse, now receive credit and attention
and you know, exposure. Forthis feels a little bit, you know,

(10:20):
a little bit off because it wasnot my leadership that brought us to
this point. But having seen thisorganization over an eleven year ARC, I
just feel so proud and I feelvery honored to be in this role now.
Yeah, like you said, it'sa team effort, right, and
you have been there and you've beenbehind it, and you're there for the
future. You definitely know what's comingdown the pike. Let's talk about the

(10:41):
immediate future this summer. What's comingup when it comes to programs or what
do you have to offer for familiesthis summer. Absolutely, we have so
many fun things happening here this summer, so you know, all the time
we have staff led programs most daysindoors and outdoors. Of course, we'll
be using our outdoor spaces to greateffect over the summer months. But important

(11:03):
to note in particular is that webegin our summer free Friday nights on June
twenty first, we are open atno charge to all from four thirty to
eight thirty pm every Friday night forthe summer. That is a tradition we've
carried on for many years. Here. We'll have a long running visitor favorite

(11:24):
program, dirt Topia, coming fromJune twenty sixth to thirtieth. It is
an enormous pile of dirt on thefront lawne of the museum with tools and
water and mud, and everybody's invitedto get in there and get dirty.
You know, a lot a lotof kids have the opportunity to do that
at home, and so this isabout giving kids that chance, and also

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about sometimes helping caregivers feel more comfortablewith dirty kids and the fun and exploration
that could happen when you're just ableto get in there and get a little
filthy. We are running free eventsduring the summer, as we do during
the year for our families with amember on the autism spectrum who has hearing.
Our vision loss where benefits from acentury friendly environment, outdoor yoga,

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three hundred pound blocks of ice thatyou can do, experiments with nature,
explorations on the conservation land, thatabuts the museum, all kinds of wonderful
things, and so I invite everyoneto check our website and please join us.
There's a ton of fun to behad here. How can people find
you on social media? The websites, on and so forth. Yep,
on social media, We're on allthe major platforms are. Our website is

(12:35):
discoveryactin dot org and our social mediatag is at Discovery Action and yep,
follow us and please keep an eyeout. We always we have a robust
program, calendar, all kinds ofnews on our website, easy to navigate,
and our website is also designed tobe completely inclusive and language translation for

(12:56):
everyone. Beautiful. All right,Marie, thank you so much for your
time, Thank you for being hereon the show, and big congrats on
your award. Thank you so much, Nicole. It's been a real pleasure.
We really appreciate you spreading the wordabout our success. And that is
the end of the show. Thanksagain so much for joining me this week,
and hey, please have a saveand healthy weekend and join me again
next week for another edition of theshow. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News

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Radio on iHeartRadio.