About
Every child deserves a place where curiosity is celebrated, imagination runs wild, and learning feels like play. For more than two decades, Karen Coltrane has made that her mission — leading nationally recognized children’s museums, pioneering the satellite museum model, and opening new locations that brought these experiences closer to home for thousands of families.
Karen’s unique background — spanning both nonprofit leadership and the fast-paced world of theme parks — gives Museum Crafters a rare dual perspective: the heart of a mission-driven educator and the discipline of a profit-minded operator. She knows what delights children, engages families, and keeps a facility thriving year after year.
Why We Started Museum Crafters
The traditional children’s museum model is capital-intensive, philanthropically funded, and often volunteer-driven. While effective in some communities, it can put museums out of reach for many others — especially smaller cities and rural areas.
Karen and her team saw the same challenges play out repeatedly:
- High start-up costs (often $5M–$20M) that stall projects for years.
- Volunteer-led planning without access to experienced operators during the critical design and build phases.
- Sustainability challenges when operating budgets rely heavily on ongoing donations and grants.
Museum Crafters was founded to change that. Our turnkey build and managed operations models remove the traditional barriers and leverage economies of scale, allowing children’s museums and play spaces to open faster, operate more efficiently, and sustain themselves on earned income.
Our Team
Karen has curated a trusted network of exhibit fabricators, educators, and former museum staff leaders. This bench strength means our clients don’t have to navigate a new world of designers, fabricators, consultants, and legions of vendors without proven expertise in their corner.
Together, our team has:
- Opened more new children’s museum locations than anyone else in the U.S.
- Renovated nationally recognized facilities.
- Designed, prototyped, tested, and delivered exhibits that last longer and cost significantly less.
- Proven the financial sustainability of a networked model.
Our Purpose
Museum Crafters exists to increase the number of children who can regularly visit thriving, vibrant, sustainable children’s museums and play spaces — regardless of whether they are municipally owned, nonprofit, or entrepreneurial ventures.
Because when we remove the barriers, more communities get the joy, learning, and connection great children’s museums and play spaces can bring — and more children grow up with a place they and their families will never forget.
Bring Your Children’s Museum or Play Space Vision to Life
From concept to grand opening and beyond, Museum Crafters delivers affordable, sustainable, turnkey solutions for communities, nonprofits, developers, and entrepreneurs.