Discovery On the Move: Bringing the Museum to the Community
The past few weeks have been exciting for Black Hills Children’s Museum as we’ve taken another step toward bringing hands-on learning and playful discovery to children and families across our community.
Dream Big Box Elder
On August 29, Black Hills Children’s Museum hosted Dream Big Box Elder at the Box Elder Community Center. The event gave families a chance to learn more about the future children’s museum, explore our conceptual designs, and get a sneak peek at something new: Discovery On the Move, our mobile museum.
Children were able to jump right in and explore several hands-on exhibits while adults learned more about the vision for the permanent museum. Throughout the event, we also invited community members to share their thoughts about Box Elder, what matters to local families, and different aspects of the future museum.
We are grateful to Coca-Cola Bottling Company High Country for donating water for the event and to Thrivent for supporting materials used in our hands-on exhibits. Community partnerships like these help us turn ideas into experiences children can enjoy today.
Discovery On the Move Makes Its Debut
Just two weeks later, on September 12, we joined the Box Elder community at Salute to Ellsworth for the official debut of Black Hills Children’s Museum’s Discovery On the Move Mobile Museum.
Seven interactive exhibits invited children to experiment, build, create, explore, and, most importantly, play. It was exciting to watch children dive into the activities and to connect with families throughout the day. Thank you to the Air Force volunteers who made sure each exhibit was manned for the event.
And that brings us to a question we’ve been hearing:
What exactly is a mobile museum?
The answer is pretty simple: we bring the museum experience to you.
The idea for Discovery On the Move began taking shape after our team attended the Association of Children’s Museums InterActivity 2026 conference and learned more about how children’s museums use mobile programs to reach families beyond their physical walls.
For Black Hills Children’s Museum, the concept made perfect sense.
While we continue raising funds and working toward our future permanent museum, Discovery On the Move gives us an opportunity to begin fulfilling our mission right now. Instead of waiting for families to walk through our future doors, we can bring hands-on, play-based learning experiences directly to schools, childcare programs, community celebrations, family events, and other locations throughout the Black Hills and western South Dakota.
Discovery On the Move is more than a preview of what is coming. It is an opportunity for children to experiment, ask questions, solve problems, use their imaginations, and discover what happens when learning and play come together.
And we’re just getting started.
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about Discovery On the Move, including upcoming locations, opportunities to bring the Mobile Museum to an event or organization, and ways businesses and community partners can help sponsor experiences for children throughout our region.
The permanent Black Hills Children’s Museum may still be in the works, but discovery doesn’t have to wait.
