Dipping its toes into the reopening pool, the Kohl Children’s Museum next week will welcome back small groups of children, and only on the outdoor part of the Glenview institution’s campus.
Billed as “Kohl Kids Live!” the sessions for groups of no more than 10 people at a time, including kids and parents, begin July 23 for members and July 25 for the general public.
A session in the 2-acre outdoor park “is an approximately 100-minute imaginative journey through five interactive play stations, each with an activity led by a Museum educator,” the museum says, and the themes include “Be a Music Maker” and “Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!” Activities will be moved inside the museum building if the weather turns bad, the museum explains on its website.
“It’s going to be a great, very intimate, customized field trip,” said Donna Biernadski, vice president of marketing. “It’s still interactive. It’s still fun. It’s still educational. And it’s still a place to get out of the house.”
The new scenario, she added, represents a “baby step” on the road back to normalcy.
Like virtually all of Chicago culture, the museum has been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Area museums have been reopening cautiously throughout the month as Chicago and Illinois have moved into Phase 4 of their 5-stage pandemic recovery plans.
Kohl promises “a safe, contactless environment.” Masks are required for everyone aged 2 and over, and Kohl outlines a whole series of other safety and sanitary precautions on the event page.
Advance, timed-entry tickets are required for adults and children. The events are built on the success the museum had with similar online events during the closure, it says.
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