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CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- With more of Illinois reopening Friday with the state moving into Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan, parents looking for a way to take their children somewhere might have thought a children’s museum would be just the thing - but, not so much.
The DuPage Children’s Museum has been closed to visitors since March 13 and there’s no indication when it will be ready again to receive visitors. It all has to do with guidelines the state has set for museums, according to the museum’s CEO Andrea Wiles.
"One of the critical elements is that there is to be no hands-on exhibits. No touching. So, that means that 98 percent of what we do is not currently able to open, even under Phase 4," she said.
Wiles said she and her staff have known for a while that children's museums would not be ready for Phase 4.
"We weren’t quite there yet thinking we could operate a children’s museum in a way where we could eliminate the touching, the hugging, the running around, and doing what little kids do," she said.
In the meantime, Wiles said the DuPage Children’s Museum will continue to serve families online, with story times in English and Spanish and a blog for parental support during this very stressful time.
Wiles said children’s museum revenue is 60-to-70 percent admission-based and that there’s no question children’s museums in Illinois are going to need financial help.
"The state and our policymakers and our families really need to think hard about, do they want to reopen to a world in which their children’s museums aren’t there anymore?" she said.