The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Opened July 2021 · 2632 S. Michigan St.
Three mothers planned it; one boy's name is under it. In the summer of 2018, three friends from a Michiana mothers group, Emilie Utigard, Natalie Shafer and Julie Lovisa, began planning a children's museum for South Bend. Utigard's son Finn had died that March 28, of complications from influenza, aged five, and the museum was conceived in his honor: not named for him, by the founders' own choice, so that it would belong to the whole community, with an exhibit inside to carry his name. The planning took three years; the board acquired its space in early 2020, on South Michigan Street; and in July 2021 the Children's Museum of South Bend opened in a soft opening, reservations only in the pandemic's terms, a hands-on STEAM museum of building, water, light and pretend.
The row it joined. The founders' 2018 planning sessions named the county's existing children's-museum row their museum would join, and it is the row this section has now walked end to end: HealthWorks! downtown, the Kidsfirst Children's Museum inside The History Museum on Washington Street, whose building and history belong to this site's MUSEUMS section, and, across the city line in Mishawaka, the Hannah Lindahl Children's Museum, named here as a pointer only, since Mishawaka's own history is a separate build on this site. A city that started its children's century with a duck pond had, by 2021, four rooms built for children alone. The newest of them is a memorial that plays.
Sources
- South Bend Tribune / Notre Dame Insider, July 6, 2021: Children's Museum of South Bend soft opening, reservations only; 2632 S. Michigan St.; three years in the making; hands-on STEAM exhibits.
- South Bend Tribune, August 4, 2018: founders Emilie Utigard, Natalie Shafer and Julie Lovisa; dedicated to Finn Utigard, died March 28, 2018, influenza complications, aged 5; space acquired early 2020; planning coverage names HealthWorks!, Kidsfirst at The History Museum and Mishawaka's Hannah Lindahl Children's Museum as the existing children's-museum row.