05/26/2026
More than 11 years ago, the Greater Wausau Children’s Museum began as a “museum without walls” — a grassroots effort focused on bringing meaningful play, learning, and connection to children and families throughout our community.
Before we ever had a permanent space, we created experiences wherever we could: parks, community spaces, outdoor gatherings, and special events designed to make childhood more joyful and accessible for local families. Over the years, we have organized more than 100 free outdoor events for children and families to enjoy, all rooted in our belief that every child deserves opportunities to learn through play and community connection.
Eventually, that vision grew into a physical children’s museum — a place where children could explore, imagine, create, and learn in an environment built just for them.
Today, it is with tremendous sadness that we announce that the Greater Wausau Children’s Museum will be closing at the end of this month.
Despite serving more than 2,000 visitors each month and having strong community support, the financial realities of maintaining operations in our current facility have become unsustainable. This has been an incredibly painful and difficult decision.
For more than a decade, this museum has been built through passion, sacrifice, creativity, and the support of countless families, volunteers, staff members, and community partners. Together, we created a place where we brought children, families and the community together to learn through creative, interactive play and joyful memories could be made every single day.
We know this museum has meant something special to so many families in our community. We have had the privilege of watching children explore, imagine, create, laugh, and grow within these walls, and we are deeply grateful for every person who walked through our doors and became part of our story.
While this chapter is coming to an end, we remain proud of what this museum brought to our community over the past 11 years and the impact it had on thousands of children and families throughout Central Wisconsin.
We sincerely thank everyone who supported us, believed in us, volunteered with us, donated to us, attended our events, and shared in our mission over the years. Your support made this dream possible.
Please enjoy the images from our earliest days as a “museum with walls”.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Greater Wausau Children’s Museum
