Free Family Days with Chicago Children’s Museum

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Free Family Days with Chicago Children’s Museum is back for 2023!

In partnership with the Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM), Navy Pier guests can enjoy five fun-filled days of activities for families and children (ages 10 and under) on the last Thursday of each month from January – May and two additional days of activities in September & October.

Admission to the Chicago Children’s Museum is free, in addition to the Pier’s workshops, programming, activities, and other resources stationed throughout the Pier. This event is made possible by generous support from the Pritzker Foundation.

2023 Scheduled Free Days

Thursday, January 26

Explore the wonders of sound! Listen to unique sound performances by artist, Barbara Silverman; explore the surprising sounds that everyday objects can make with the Chicago Children’s Museum team; discover the science of sound at a Curiosity Station hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry; try out different musical sounds in an “instrument petting zoo” hosted by the Old Town School of Folk Music!

Thursday, February 23

Dance, Dance Celebration: Celebrate good times, come on! Dust off your dancing shoes with performing arts partners from around Chicago. Groove to the melodies and rhythms of West Africa with Kolaam Dance, move your body joyfully with Black Girls Dance, and find your inner superstar with K-Pop dance from the Korean Cultural Center of Chicago.

Thursday, March 30

Let’s Roll! Get your wheels spinning! Practice your skateboarding stance, make and decorate your own fingerboard, and play in a miniature skate park with Natty Bwoy Bikes & Boards. Explore skateboarding-inspired movement and poetry with performance group Every house has a door. Hold tight to a circus wheel and defy gravity with CirquesExperience. 

Thursday, April 27 – Playful by Nature 

Celebrate Earth Month with Chicago Children’s Museum! Get creative with trilingual artist Selva Aparicio (who speaks English, Spanish, and Catalan) and contribute to a large-scale collective art piece that incorporates natural and recycled materials. Interact with live animals from the Flying Fox Conservation Fund, including a lionhead rabbit, a pancake tortoise, and special guest Roxy the Sloth. With educators from Chicago Children’s Museum, use your senses to engage with natural materials such as a turtle shell, a sea star, and a rabbit pelt. 

Thursday, May 25 – All the World’s a Stage! 

Do you have a flair for the dramatic? Explore the theatrical arts with our friends at Chicago Children’s Theatre as they perform their interactive stage show, “The Red Kite Friendship Tour.” Experience the joy of dramatic play through puppet-making, puppetry performance, and theatrical sensory play.

Thursday, September 28 – Puppet-palooza!

Explore the joyful and creative world of puppetry! Join the performance group Puppet Wonder Wagon for a stage show of dynamic, experimental puppetry. Then, create your own shadow puppets and put on a performance with the help of artist Anna Villanyi. Little Amal will also make a stop outside Chicago Children’s Museum, to greet the 16‑foot‑tall “Flyboy” sculpture by Chicago artist Hebru Brantley.

Schedule

• Puppet Wonder Wagon stage performance
  Fifth Third Bank Family Pavilion at Navy Pier
  10am, 11:30am, 2pm
• Shadow puppet making with Anna Villanyi
  Great Hall at Chicago Children’s Museum
  11am-1pm, 2pm-4pm 
• The Walk with Little Amal
  Starts on South Dock outside Chicago Shakespeare Theater
  5:30pm

Check back soon for details on the following dates!

• October 26

Schedule subject to change.

*Admission to Chicago Children’s Museum will be free. $10 Navy Pier parking available with museum validation.