In 2010, the Museum began to work with Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center to envision a space designed to challenge and nurture the creative interests of the Museum’s visitors using physical and digital technologies. This enabled the Children’s Museum to marry the strength of its “play with real stuff” philosophy with technology, visitor-generated content and informal learning research and evaluation. This active partnership fosters organizational learning, strengthens institutional capacity and creates an innovative space for informal visitor learning.

MAKESHOP provides children and families open-access to digital media resources and physical materials in a robust space designed to inspire curiosity, exploration, creativity and innovation. A dedicated facilitation team, comprised of skilled makers, artists and educators, introduce visitors to the diverse materials and processes of making and help visitors translate their visions into tangible products.