Is the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine Open?

Museum & Theatre Education and Theatre Director, Reba Asaki, led an “Istar the Humpback Whale” program for one hundred summer campers at Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine

As Maine finds creative ways to adapt to the pandemic, members and friends are asking, "Is the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine open?" The short answer is that our 142 Free Street facility in Portland, Maine is closed to the public currently; the long answer is that our programs and staff remain lively in the community. Here's how.

Although our building is currently closed to the public, we continue to serve our community in many ways. Our educators continue to offer programs that travel to summer and recreational camps to create physically distant, yet fun and educational programs. Our staff is teaming up with youth anchors and reporters to produce Kids Newscast programming which is published on our youtube channel. Livestream educational programs on Facebook offer the ever-popular features with live creatures. We remain active with several community partners, including: Portland's Summer Lunch Program, Indigo Arts Alliance, and the New England Arab American Organization. We welcome more partnerships.

When we are not busy with all of the above, we are finishing up our Imagine Campaign for our new facility at Thompson's Point and preparing for our move in 2021. We miss seeing visitors each day, but we are finding creative ways to carry out our mission and adapt our programming to reflect community needs during a pandemic. 

When will the Museum and Theatre reopen?

We are continuing to determine the appropriate timing for reopening in-person programs. Our staff and board want nothing more than to welcome our visitors back to our facility, but our focus is on opening safely. This means that while we are legally allowed to open, we do need a bit more time. We are in communication with public health experts and our national and regional children’s museum associations to determine how best to implement the guidelines and protocols while maintaining the child-led, play-based experience that is so central to the Museum & Theatre's mission. When we have a better sense of our timeline, we will be asking our visitors and members for input.

Your perspective is important to us.

Thank you for your support during this temporary closure. We will share more updates in the coming weeks and months and we cannot wait to welcome you back to our facility when it is safe to do so.