Kate Wells
With a passion for pint-sized Phoenicians, Wells co-founded Children’s Museum of Phoenix in the late 90’s, now one of the top kid’s museums in the nation. This fall, the museum expects its three millionth visitor to come through the doors of its fun-filled Downtown Phoenix outpost.
You co-founded the Children’s Museum of Phoenix 10 years ago. Tell me how this came to be.
Although the Children’s Museum of Phoenix as we all know and love opened in 2008, it was actually founded in 1998. It took us 10 long years to open it during which time we were a “museum without walls” while we raised money, renovated the historic Monroe School which became our permanent home, and built our terrific exhibits that are all inspired by education and play and designed and built by local artists. Our founding is very humble–a group of us that all shared a passion for young children, early childhood education and art got together in a living room, threw money into a bowl, and used that money to file our start-up nonprofit and our first traveling exhibit. The rest is history!
What is the most rewarding part of your career?
The work that we are doing here at the Children’s Museum is challenging our community to value and invest in the most important years of a person’s life–birth to five years old. Upwards of 90 percent of a person’s brain develops in that time, and all the important things we do to survive and thrive as adults is wired in us during these years. Every single day here at the Children’s Museum, kiddos have the opportunity to wire up their little brains with all the good stuff of childhood–and the grownups also get to learn about the vitally important things they can do to help children thrive during childhood.
You traveled the world in 2009. What were some of the great takeaways from your travels?
Indeed we did; 22 countries in 14 months when our daughters were 9 and 12. One takeaway was how children and women are treated around the world, and that in so many places they have no voice in their own destinies. Also, man’s impact on the environment is in-your-face all over the world—and not in a good way. Both of these issues–equity and the environment–were the two things that have stuck with all four of us. On a positive note, we were awed and inspired every day with the generosity of humanity, people’s ingenuity, and that people all over the world really just want the same basic things that we want.
What influence do you hope to have on the Valley?
Last week, a little boy who comes to the museum regularly as part of a Head Start program was here for his pre-school graduation fieldtrip celebration. I said to him, ‘You’re going to be a kindergartener now.’ He said back to me, “Yes, but I’m a Museumer too.” This is the impact that I hope to have on our community—that every child that comes through our doors sees themselves as something bigger and different and aspirational.
