MY Town Wraps Up Summer Fun

Summer was a bit more exciting this year with the opening of the MY Town Children's Summer Pop-up Museum. This family-friendly exhibit came to a close on July 21 but not before providing interactive and playful experiences to thousands of children and families in the community. MY Town came to life through the support of partners that included CSUMB Salinas Center for Arts and Culture, MY Museum, TAMC, Salinas Public Library (City of Salinas), Hijos del Sol, and First 5 Monterey County. All sponsors wanted to create a space where children could learn about the world through play and exploration with their families. Through this vision, the museum delivered activities where children could "drive" cars, create art, play with natural materials, become a grocer, and be their own librarian. By providing opportunities like My Town, young children have the chance to take the lead, discover new information about problems, and create solutions. Parents followed the lead of their child and got to interact and ask questions--and most of all, have fun!

My Town served not only as a learning playground for children and families, but other organizations partnered to do different activities. These included offering a safe space to support family reunification and a destination for south county families learning to use MST.

First 5 Monterey County's funding supported the Weaving Wall and Thank You Tree exhibits as well as the outdoor space with natural materials.  Also, children leaving the exhibit were able to take a free book home.

---