Promising Practice Replication Award

MetLife/ACM

Greenexhibits.org was funded by MetLife Foundation in partnership with the Association of Children's Museums as part of the Promising Practice Replication Award presented to Madison Children's Museum in 2004 so that Madison's sustainable design knowledge could be shared with the field. Greenexhibits.org is the culmination of 8 years of research, ecological thinking and idea gathering, which would not have been possible without the enormous generosity of ACM and MetLife Foundation, as well as our numerous mentors, teachers and colleagues along the way. The site is designed, developed, and maintained by Madison Children's Museum.

Madison Children's Museum's Sustainability Efforts

Madison Children's Museum (MCM) began embracing a sustainable design philosophy and incorporating green building techniques in 1998 in an effort to develop exhibit environments that were truly safe for children. The museum sought to build environments that were safe, not only from sharp corners, but also from myriad toxins most museum fabrication shops commonly employ.

Our landmark exhibit and early childhood space, First Feats: Celebrating the Early Years (1999) was designed and developed using almost entirely nontoxic, non-synthetic materials that support children's developing immune systems and their innate connections with nature, while simultaneously supporting the life-giving world around them. Since 1999, MCM has built all of its exhibits using sustainable design practices and has presented its practices routinely at museum, education, and early childhood conferences and community gatherings.

In 2004, MCM's Board of Directors expanded the institution's vision and values and adopted a sustainability mission that helps steer future thinking and strategic planning. MCM is just beginning a green expansion project that will apply sustainability principles to the renovation, operation, and exhibits of our new home, a historic 1929 Montgomery Ward building on the Capitol Square in Madison.