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Coalition of Greater Minnesota Children’s Museums seeks tiered legacy appropriations
Summary
Sen. McEwen presented a bill with coalition members asking for tiered direct legacy appropriations to 12 Greater Minnesota children's museums to fund exhibits, programming and to address increased fabrication costs.
Senate File 19 o 1, presented by Senator McEwen, would appropriate legacy funds directly to a coalition of 12 Greater Minnesota children’s museums for exhibit development and program support tailored to museum size and operating budgets.
Drew Jensen, executive director of the Duluth Children’s Museum and representative of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Children’s Museums, said the group includes museums in Duluth, Breckenridge, Grand Rapids, St. Cloud, Bloomington, Willmar, Benson, Fergus Falls, Hutchinson, Brainerd‑Baxter, Mankato and Rochester and collectively serves more than 400,000 individuals each year. Jensen said prior legacy grant rounds enabled STEM and co‑designed exhibits and that a direct appropriation model would remove timing problems that have required some museums to accelerate multi‑year projects into a single year.
The coalition asked for a tiered allocation that reflects museum size and visitor counts and cited increased costs for exhibit fabrication. Senator McEwen and coalition leaders asked the committee to include direct appropriations in the FY26‑27 budget and thanked co‑authors. The committee laid the bill over for possible inclusion.
