Children's Creativity Museum

Children's Creativity Museum

Children's Creativity Museum (formerly Zeum) is an innovative art and technology experience for children ages 2-12 years located in Yerba Buena Gardens, in San Francisco, California. The mission of the museum is to nurture creativity and collaboration in all children and families. . The Children's Creativity Museum is well known for its hands-on workshops and exhibits which allow youth to produce their own media through various interactive, creative processes: Stop Motion Animation, Robot Coding, Music Video Production, Design Challenges, Art Projects, and more. The Children's Creativity Museum is a nonprofit 501(c)(3), community-based organization.

History

Zeum opened to the public on October 31, 1998 as part of a major 87-acre (350,000 m2) urban renewal project in the South of Market area by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. It changed its name to Children's Creativity Museum in 2011 to increase awareness about the museum's purpose. In a press release announcing the name change, it stated: "Although the name Zeum sounded fun, it didn’t provide parents with any clues about what they and their children would experience. With that understanding, our verbal branding team identified two primary goals the new name needed to accomplish: It had to be descriptive enough to indicate who it was for, but also suggestive enough to encompass the broad range of imaginative activities participants could take part in. After vetting over 200 names with Zeum leadership, it was agreed that the name “Children’s Creativity Museum” accomplished both goals. "

Exhibits

In the Animation Studio, children can mold clay characters and make their own stop-motion animation movie. In this exhibit, museum educators introduce film making concepts: making a storyboard, building the characters, and producing a stop-motion animation. Afterward, visitors can stop by one of five stop-motion animation stations, choose different set backdrops to set the scene, and capture their footage frame by frame using a video camera. Once the movie is complete, copies of the video are emailed to visitors.

In the Tech Lab, children are introduced to coding by learning how to program a robot to complete a series of tasks, navigate mazes, and play games. Each activity is designed to promote creative problem-solving in novice programmers. More experienced coders can program robots to respond to sensor inputs and use loops to avoid obstacles.

In the Innovation Lab, visitors are invited to take the Mystery Box challenge. This activity provides a space for kids to be at their most creative by putting their problem-solving and critical thinking skills to the test. Working with basic, limited materials, children and families are challenged to create a prototype for a solution to a problem.

In the Music Studio, children can pick from a diverse array of songs, and perform on-stage, where the lyrics pop up, like Karaoke. There is a selection costumes to try on and various stage backgrounds they can feature in their video using green screen technology. Music videos are available to be emailed.

Education Intern program

The Education Intern program is a "youth development internship that combines an integral job experience with a rich mentoring environment for teens."

The program is paid internship for teens ages fourteen through seventeen who are interested in developing advanced creative and technical skills in a museum environment. Teens are selected every year. They are responsible for guiding children and their families through different exhibits.

Under the guidance of CCM's Educators and the Youth Program Manager, they act as facilitators to visitors in the different exhibits.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zeum.

Coordinates: 37°47′00″N 122°24′07″W / 37.783273°N 122.401827°W / 37.783273; -122.401827

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