Topeka, Kansas, March 23, 2023 – The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center announced today the museum set a spring break attendance record last week, with a total of 7,461 visitors from March 10 to March 18, 2023.

A number of factors contributed to the record-breaking attendance. The museum is currently hosting the nationally-traveling Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: A Grr-ific Exhibit. Created by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in partnership with Fred Rogers Productions, this exhibit is based on the award-winning PBS KIDS television series that follows the adventures of 4-year-old Daniel Tiger and his friends. The exhibit is locally sponsored by the Topeka Lodging Association. More than a third of spring break visitors lived outside of Shawnee County.

In addition to a spring break record, the museum saw the single largest day attendance with 1,192 visitors on March 16. March 16 was a free admission night, meaning after 5 p.m., 386 visitors were able to play free of charge with admission sponsored by Evergy. The museum offers free nights monthly on the third Thursday of each month, sponsored by generous local businesses. This is the fourth free admission night Evergy has hosted in the past 12 months, and the organization plans to sponsor two more in the coming year.

Spring break programming included seven different science programs over the course of the week to help children experience engineering, chemistry, art, and math. The museum also welcomed families to a Sensory Friendly Sunday morning in which children with autism or special sensory needs could come to the museum for a calm, sensory-friendly playtime just for them at no charge.

The nonprofit children’s museum opened in 2011, and in the past twelve years has grown significantly, gaining prominence as a regional tourist attraction and community anchor for families. The museum has hosted seven major traveling exhibitions. Access is a major part of the museum’s work and more than 1 in 3 admissions are free or subsidized. Thousands more children are served in community outreach events. Since opening, the museum has hosted more than 800,000 visitors from all 50 states and 23 countries. President/CEO Dené Mosier has led the museum since 2015.