Kidspace Children’s Museum Welcomes Back Families This Week

The Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasadena is reopening Thursday following more than a year of pandemic-induced closure, just in time for both Mother’s Day and the museum’s 25th Annual Butterfly Season, the museum announced Monday.

The museum, 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursdays through Sundays, starting this Thursday, according to Kidspace Museum CEO Lisa Clements. All activities and exhibits will take place outdoors for the time being, as indoor galleries will remain temporarily closed.

Following two weekends in which members were allowed to return to the facility, it will now be open to the general public.

“It’s very exciting and it’s been very emotional for staff as we all got together to begin to retrain and talk about our reopening. Their emotions were high and very joyful,” Clements said.

“We’re reopening with a theme of a butterfly season, and it really has felt like we’ve been emerging in some sort of new and beautiful way,” she said. “It is a celebration for the public, but honestly, it’s been just as much of a celebration for staff.”

The past year has been a lonely one at the museum, according to Clements.

“There’s nothing sadder than a children’s museum without children,” she said. “We’ve been working and hoping for more than a year that this day would come. But now it’s really happening and it’s just wonderful and transformative… It feels like a return to community. It’s been pretty powerful.”

Clements said she hoped the reopening would provide some welcome relief to parents, as well.

“For the last year, parents have been in this role of having to be caretaker and disciplinarian and emotional support system and social structure for their kids. And now they can come back and be playmates and playful parents,” she said. “I think there’s just this huge sigh of relief that we’re experiencing.”

Tickets are for specific times and must be purchased in advance online, according to the museum. Occupancy is being limited to preserve social distancing.

General admission for both adults and children is $14.95, while seniors 62 and older are admitted for $12.95, according to the museum. Members, along with up to four family members, and infants under 1 year old are admitted free.

“We’re managing capacity and keeping it really safe and enjoyable, and there’s lots of room and air and space,” Clements said.

Food service was limited only to snacks and bottled water for the time being, but guests were invited to bring their own food with them, representatives said.

“It’s outdoor-campus only, but this is a wonderful time to be outside, so I think people have really been enjoying it,” Clements said.

The annual Butterfly Season celebration will be taking place at the Kidspace Museum through May at the recently upgraded campus.

“Children can fly by butterflies on the trikes course, add their own artistic flair to a 2,500 square-foot chalk mural, and make butterfly seed balls to take home and plant to attract local pollinators,” Kispace said in a written statement. “Families will enjoy creative, colorful, and active adventures throughout the museum’s 3.5-acre outdoor campus.”

More information, as well as tickets, are available on the Kidspace Museum’s website at kidspacemuseum.org.