Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Partnerships topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Marbles Kids Museum outlines school readiness, field trip and access programs for Wake County students
Summary
Representatives from Marbles Kids Museum described school readiness programming, field trip volumes (about 25,000 Wake County students in the last fiscal year), access initiatives and future exhibit plans including Futuropolis and outreach options.
Representatives from Marbles Kids Museum (referred to in the meeting as "Marbles") presented programs and partnerships that serve Wake County families and schools, emphasizing school readiness, field trip programming and access for under‑resourced families.
Nut graf: Marbles described a suite of programs — Preschool family school partnership days, Ready, Set, School, camps, sensory‑friendly hours and field trips aligned to North Carolina standards — and outlined an expansion plan that includes a new Futuropolis exhibit focused on skilled trades and a possible strategy for community‑based programming or satellite locations.
Marbles staff said the museum is a major field‑trip destination for Wake County. Sarah Lyons and colleagues told the committee that in fiscal 2024 Marbles hosted about half of their 50,000 school visitors from Wake County — roughly 25,000 Wake County students — and that the museum subsidizes admission through grants and sponsorships. They highlighted several programs: PNC Family School Partnership Days (pre‑K), Kickoff to Kindergarten events, Ready, Set, School family play dates and community play dates at Wake County Public Library locations.
Janine Esch and other Marbles staff described access efforts such as Play Late for Less (half‑price admission after 3 p.m.), free monthly sensory‑friendly sessions and distribution of nearly 9,800 family admission passes last year. Esch noted the museum recently became a Culture City certified sensory inclusive destination and listed exhibit modifications to improve wheelchair access.
The museum described curriculum support and educator partnerships including the Powell Center for Play and Ingenuity Magnet Elementary School collaboration, free educator access to IMAX documentaries, teacher professional development and opportunities to co‑design play‑based rubrics and classroom supports.
Marbles outlined capital and program expansions: an enclosed outdoor play conversion, a rooftop Skyway and Futuropolis, an indoor play experience about living and working in a future city with a focus on skilled trades. Staff also described community outreach ideas — a play bus, off‑site field trips, after‑school weekly museum visits and the possibility of satellite locations — to reach families who cannot travel to downtown Raleigh.
Ending: Marbles representatives said they are open to co‑designing school‑district partnerships and asked the district to share ideas; board members thanked the museum for its work. No formal action was taken during the presentation.
