This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(January 2024) |
Established | 2 October 1976 |
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Location | Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park 4231 Avenue of the Republic, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 39°58′46″N75°12′33″W / 39.9795°N 75.2092°W |
Type | Children's museum [1] |
Accreditation | American Alliance of Museums |
Visitors | 566,000 (2011) [2] |
Founder | Portia Sperr |
President | Patricia D. Wellenbach |
CEO | Patricia D. Wellenbach |
Public transit access | SEPTA bus: 38, 40 Philly PHLASH |
Website | www.pleasetouchmuseum.org |
The Please Touch Museum is a children's museum located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special events, [1] mostly aimed at children seven years old and younger.
External videos | |
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All About Please Touch Museum, Please Touch Museum, November 2011, 2:53 | |
Opera Company of Philadelphia Please Touch Museum Random Act of Culture, Opera Philadelphia, April 2011, 2:31 |
The museum originally opened at the Academy of Natural Sciences on October 2, 1976, in a 2,200-square-foot (200 m2) space, and moved to another location on nearby Cherry Street two years later. In 1983, the museum moved to 21st Street near the Franklin Institute. On February 14, 2005, the museum received an 80-year lease for Memorial Hall (in Fairmount Park), the last major building left from the 1876 Centennial Exposition. This came after plans to relocate the museum to a location at Penn's Landing fell through. [3] Renovations at Memorial Hall began on December 15, 2005, and the museum closed its 21st Street location on September 1, 2008. On October 18, 2008, the museum opened at its current location with a larger facility and more exhibits. [4]
The museum's financial projections related to its move to Memorial Hall proved to be over-optimistic and it was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2015. [5] It emerged from bankruptcy in 2016 [6] and, with the help of new major donations, was able to announce that it was now debt-free. [7]
On September 24, 2018, the Philadelphia Flyers introduced their new mascot, Gritty, at the Please Touch Museum. [8] A furry purple monster mascot, Squiggles, was introduced at the Please Touch Museum on October 7, 2018. [9]
The Association of Children's Museums initiated the Great Friend to Kids Award in 1991, to honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions toward strengthening education for children. National Great Friend to Kids Award winners include Fred Rogers ("Mister Rogers") and Marian Wright Edelman (president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund).
In 1996, the Please Touch Museum began presenting its own GFTK award, to coincide with the museum's 20th birthday. The awards honor individuals and organizations making outstanding contributions to enriching the lives of children. The 2009 awards were designed by Philadelphia artist Leo Sewell, creator of Please Touch Museum's own "Artie the Elephant" and the Statue of Liberty Arm & Torch created entirely from discarded toys. [11]
The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official world's fair to be held in the United States and coincided with the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.
Frank Heyling Furness was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often inordinately scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago-based architect Louis Sullivan. Furness also received a Medal of Honor for bravery during the Civil War.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval. The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin. The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor, and decorative arts.
University of the Arts (UArts) was a private arts university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its campus made up part of the Avenue of the Arts cultural district in Center City, Philadelphia. On May 31, 2024, university administrators suddenly announced that the university would close on June 7, 2024, although its precarious financial situation had been known for some time. It was accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with the two sections together totalling 2,052 acres (830 ha). Management of Fairmount Park and the entire citywide park system is overseen by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, a city department created in 2010 from the merger of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation.
The Phillie Phanatic is the official mascot for the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team. He is a large, furry, green flightless bird with an extendable tongue. He performs various routines to entertain fans during baseball games at Citizens Bank Park and makes public relation and goodwill appearances for the Phillies. The Phanatic is widely acknowledged as one of the best ballpark mascots, and one of the most recognizable mascots in North American sports.
Sanford Robinson Gifford was an American landscape painter and a leading member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. A highly-regarded practitioner of Luminism, his work was noted for its emphasis on light and soft atmospheric effects.
The Centennial District is a 700-acre section of West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States that contains the Philadelphia Zoo, the Please Touch Museum and the Mann Music Center. The neighborhood sits on a section of town that was the location of the 1876 Centennial Exposition, which was 100 years after the founding of the United States with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The McMillan Memorial Library is the municipal library of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin and serves southern Wood County. It is a member of the South Central Library System, which serves seven counties in Wisconsin.
Captain Noah and His Magical Ark was a television program for children and was generally broadcast around the Philadelphia area. The series aired from 1967 to 1994. It was filmed and produced at the WPVI-TV, Channel 6 studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Orlando Science Center (OSC) is a private science museum located in Orlando, Florida. Its purposes are to provide experience-based opportunities for learning about science and technology and to promote public understanding of science.
Memorial Hall is a Beaux-Arts style building in the Centennial District of West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built as the art gallery for the 1876 Centennial Exposition, it is the only major structure from that exhibition to survive. It subsequently housed the Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art.
The Bartholdi Fountain is a monumental public fountain, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who later created the Statue of Liberty. The fountain was originally made for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is now located at the corner of Independence Avenue and First Street, SW, in the United States Botanic Garden, on the grounds of the United States Capitol, in Washington D.C.
Howard Roberts was an American sculptor based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time of the 1876 Centennial Exposition, he was "considered the most accomplished American sculptor." But his output was small, his reputation was soon surpassed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and others, and he is now all but forgotten. Examples of his work are in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the U.S. Capitol.
Margaret E. Foley (1827–1877) was an American sculptor who worked in a Neoclassical style. In addition to sculpture, she is known for cameo carving, medallion portraits, and direct carving.
Melissa Dunphy is an Australian-American composer best known for her vocal, political, and theatrical music. Born in Australia and raised in an immigrant family, Dunphy herself immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an award‐winning and acclaimed composer.
The Philly PHLASH Downtown Loop is a visitor-friendly public transit service in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, managed by the Independence Visitor Center Corporation (IVCC). PHLASH vehicles are ADA-compliant, temperature-controlled New Flyer MiDi buses. The IVCC contracted Krapf Transit to manage vehicle operations.
The National Museum of Industrial History, abbreviated NMIH, housed in the former facility of Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is a museum affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution that seeks to preserve, educate, and display the industrial history of the nation. It holds a collection of artifacts from the textile, steel and iron, and propane gas industries.