Our Products

Fast Start Package | $75,000

For Those Who Want to Accelerate the Opening of a Children’s Museum

We provide a thorough orientation to the building and operating process, including a customized outline of the steps required to start a children’s museum in your community.  We examine your market demographics and provide a range of museum size and location options.  You will receive concept drawings, pro forma operating budgets, and customized print materials to support the process of building support in your community.  This package is designed to flatten your learning curve and put experienced children’s museums' partners in your corner as you explore the possibilities of bringing a thriving institution to your community.

Building Package | $1M-2.5M

For Those Who Want a Turn-key Museum at the Lowest Possible Cost

Ready to go?  Or looking for a turn-key alternative to the pricey process of managing museum designers, general contractors, exhibit designers/builders, and education consultants?  With Museum Crafters Building Package, we convert your warm-shell location into a magical space and bring your children’s museum vision to life – quickly and without drama.  We design the interior, giving you exhibit detail options – as well as the full operating impact of those choices.  This allows you to see drawings and prices together so you can quickly select the exhibit elements that make your museum unique.  We also include installation of the admissions and retail software and hardware, security systems and interior and exterior signage.  Our experience saves you from costly design mistakes and omissions that can increase building/operating expenses, future liability, or both.  Museum Crafters will be onsite to ensure your museum is ready to open and hand you the keys on opening day.

  • You have the control. The final price will be determined during the collaborative design phase and be based on factors including space size and layout and the number and type of exhibits included.  Unlike other museum and exhibit builders, once we agree to a price for your turn-key museum, we will not charge for actual cost overages to that plan. 

Operating Partnership | No Cost

For Those Who Want a Successful, Vibrant Children’s Museum Without On-Going Annual Municipal Allocations and Philanthropic Fundraising to Fund On-Going Operations

This partnership is offered to municipalities who want to outsource the daily operation of their children’s museums to a team of experienced professionals.  Museum Crafter’s will take responsibility of the museum’s operation, using a team of seasoned museum professionals to provide daily guidance to the local staff, allowing them to focus exclusively on the vital guest experience.  Your children’s museum’s operation will no longer need additional operating support from government or philanthropic sources, beyond the provision of space and exterior maintenance. 

How is this possible?

Spreading operating costs across a network of children’s museums results in significant savings.  Like most organizations, the biggest annual expense in children’s museums is the cost of skilled labor.  Successful children’s museums need leaders with expertise in:

  1. Management
  2. Finance
  3. IT
  4. Marketing
  5. HR
  6. Facility maintenance
  7. Event planning/execution
  8. Retail buying/merchandising/inventory management
  9. Exhibit design/fabrication/installation
  10. Educational program design and delivery

By centralizing these key functions, Museum Crafters can successfully operate a network of children’s museums using only the earned income from admissions and retail sales.  This model gives each networked museum significantly stronger support than it could otherwise afford, freeing more resources for guest-facing activities including:

  1. More hospitality and on-site education staff
  2. Deeper daily cleaning protocols
  3. Trained event staff to augment high visibility special events
  4. More reduced-price and free admission programs for financially fragile families

This central support model makes each children’s museum stronger than it can be on its own.  Networked museums benefit from a robust schedule of traveling exhibits and highly anticipated, admission-building events.  This not only makes your community’s children’s museum more financially sustainable; it benefits from daily access to expertise developed from years of leading large, regional children’s museums that would be hard to find locally and expensive to employ.  It also has the added benefit of fast learning from other museums in similar markets.

Expert Guidance | virtual $195/hour | in person $1,850/day + reasonable travel expenses

No matter where you are on your children’s museum’s journey, we are happy to provide consultation informed by years of leadership in the field.  From fundraising to governance to construction to operation, we have worked with volunteer committees and boards; municipal staff and elected local, state, and federal officials; museum thought leaders; and, donors/sponsors at every level.  And we are eager to share that knowledge to advance your mission on behalf of children and families.  If you want us to come to you, we will give you an estimate of travel expenses in advance.  We are not fans of surprise travel expenses ourselves, and we strive to avoid creating them for others.

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