Discovery Center Welcomes 800,000th Visitor!

Tim and Meeka Jordan of Beloit, Kansas visited the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center on June 17, 2022 and were surprised with a confetti celebration in their honor as the museum celebrated the 800,000th visitor to the museum since it opened in 2011.

The Jordan family was visiting the museum for the first time and used the Sunflower Summer app for admission. Thousands of museum visitors have already used Sunflower Summer, an app from the Kansas Department of Education that provides free admission to nearly 100 Kansas museums, zoos, and historic landmarks. The app is available until August 14, 2022.

The nonprofit children’s museum opened in 2011, and in the past decade has grown significantly, gaining prominence as a regional tourist attraction and community anchor for families. The museum has hosted six major traveling exhibitions. Access Discovery Programs, which ensure museum access for all children, now account for more than 10 percent of admissions, and thousands more children are served in community outreach events. Since opening in 2011, the museum has hosted visitors from all 50 states and 23 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to the privately funded museum, which lost 93 percent of projected admission and membership income in 2020. Despite the losses, the museum served families throughout the pandemic and reopened successfully. President/CEO Dené Mosier has led the museum since 2015.

The Discovery Center also announced an all-time single day attendance record in March, with a total of 1,152 visitors. The last attendance milestone of 700,000 visitors was set in February of 2020.