John Pearce
1998

£8.00 + p&p, 144 pp
Col illus
ISBN 978 0 903319 78 2
Buy from Central Books

Children’s Discovery Centre, Imaginarium, Wonder Workshop, Exploratory, a Please Touch gallery or a Discovery Factory – these are some of the many names given to the very special institutions known generically in the United States as ‘children’s museums’, but which defy easy description in one word or phrase. They combine learning with fun, discovery with play and engage children and adults together with inter-linked exhibitions – natural history with cultural diversity, heritage with science, history with contemporary social issues, art with mathematics. They also play important community roles in their towns and cities, serving as education resource and child development centres, offering parenting and family support.

This report describes the growth of these US centres and looks at what is happening in Europe, particularly at the work and approaches of related institutions in Britain. Crucially, it examines how the US model might be relevant to Britain, especially when such centres are developed and run as community-based enterprises, serving the needs of the children in their local areas.

John Pearce has been involved in community-based development work for over 30 years. He runs his own consultancy – Community Enterprise Consultancy and Research – and is an active director of the Community Business Scotland Network and also associated with COMMACT (Commonwealth Association for Local Action and Economic Development) and the European Network for Economic Self-help and Local Development. Publications include At the Heart of the Community Economy: Community enterprise in a changing world (1993) and Social Enterprise in Anytown (2003).