Greater Wausau Children's Museum

Our Mission: Wausau Children's Museum brings children, family, and the community together to learn through creative, interactive play.

Wausau Children’s Museum began as a “museum without walls” in the summer of 2015 with free, weekly events that invited children, families, and the community to learn together through creative, interactive play. Partnering with Wausau Events, we held our activities on the 400 block during MarketPlaceThursdays, the Summer Kickoff, the Balloon Rally, and many other locations. These events feature active play, music, art, hands-on science, engineering, technology, and sensory play and are now known as ‘WCM Outdoor Summer of Fun!’

November 2015, we opened our first indoor location in the Wausau Center Mall. In 2016, we moved to a larger space at the opposite end of the mall. Continuing to partner with community organizations and the Wausau School District, we developed programming for art, science, literacy, and nutrition. We created the Wisconsin Children’s Farm, the Tinker Lab, and dedicated a space for music, sensory play, active play, and hosting birthday parties. We also began annual signature events, such as ‘Noon Years Celebration’ and the ‘Mother-Son Dance’.

We welcome 20,000 visitors each year. Now, the pandemic and the closing of the Wausau Center propelled our determined and dedicated team forward to find our next location: a 16,000 square foot space to create a destination children’s museum for our greater community.

Every event, program, or activity revolves around our mission to bring children, family, and the community together to learn through creative, interactive play. We have partnered with dozens of local organizations over past five years to provide more than 100 free indoor and outdoor events for our community. WCM Outdoor Summer of Fun events brings thousands of children and their families together as a community to learn through play downtown on the 400 Block each year. 

Our indoor programming for art, science, literacy, and nutrition is creative and very hands-on. Our indoor signature events welcome hundreds of visitors and create special memories for caregivers and their children. As a community partner with the Wausau Public School District, we piloted “Creative Kids in the Kitchen”, a hands-on nutrition program for children ages 5-12.

We participate in Museums for All, an initiative of the Association of Children’s Museums to provide free or reduced admission to families who utilize Food Share or Badger Care Plus; no one is turned away because of the inability to pay. 

We offer hand-on activities and active play for children ages 0-12. We offer  sensory play, active play, music, art, imaginative play, and an Art Studio that rotates between science activities, special art projects, messy sensory play, and themed activities for special events.