By Teya Vitu May 8, 2023 for The Santa Fe New Mexican
The Santa Fe Children’s Museum is going on the road with its colorful new Van of Enchantment, a rolling billboard that fulfills its promise to bring “discovery, learning and play to our community.”
The van debuted April 30 at the museum’s Move for the Museum Challenge 5K run/walk and now rolls during museum operating hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
“It’s a way to deliver what we do in a fun way,” said Hannah Hausman, the museum’s executive director. She said the van is spreading awareness about the children’s museum and helping families that may have challenges that keep them from coming to the museum.
“The more we are out in the community, the more the museum will become part of their lives,” she said. “We can pop up anywhere we want.”
The van can transport any of a dozen grab-and-go STEM lesson kits sealed in plastic zipper bags or bring a portable water table or imaginary playground to a community event. Hausman also plans to use the van to deliver produce the museum grows in its community garden and to rent it out for events like birthday parties as a revenue-generator.
The Van of Enchantment emerged from the work of media arts and technology students at New Mexico Highlands, with a push from the late Michaelann Perea
Three years ago, the students picked the children’s museum as a class project; came up with the concept, design and name for the van; carried out focus groups, and handed Hausman both a project and fundraising packet.
Perea, who died last year in a biking accident, was a member of both the children’s museum board and Rotary Club of Santa Fe member.
“Michaelann said, ‘You know, I think the Rotary Club might be interested in this,’ ” Hausman recalled. “What Michaelann was really good at was pulling people together for a cause. She brought the two organizations together. We have never worked with Rotary to this extent.”
Rotary was looking for projects from two nonprofits to support for five years for the club’s centennial celebration but was not enamored with the museum’s van idea at first, said Rotary centennial committee co-chair Dick Jones.
“Michaelann was a shining light,” Jones said. “She was persistent but not pushy. We started seeing the real possibilities. It would have community and New Mexico-wide impact.”
Rotary dedicated $250,000 to the museum, with $100,000 to buy and outfit the van and another $150,000 to fund an amphitheater at the museum, Jones said. As a result, two of the van’s doors are now emblazoned with “Presented by Rotary Club of Santa Fe.”
“For so long, Rotary here has been a quiet organization,” Jones said. “What’s important to us now, when someone looks at the van, they see the Rotary logo.”
(Rotary’s other nonprofit recipient is YouthWorks, which also received $250,000. Funding for both recipients comes from the organization’s Pancakes on the Plaza event.)
“Children are our future,” added Vic Brenneisen, the other Rotary centennial committee chair. “If they get more opportunities to experience art and nature and technology, that’s good for all of us.”
Capitol Ford provided a Ford Transit Connect XL Cargo Van at a “considerable discount” for the museum, and Thornburg Investment Management added $30,000 to support operations of the Van of Enchantment, Hausman said.
“We just have to go to families and show them what we are doing,” Hausman said. “I’ve had parents say ‘What is a children’s museum?’ A children’s museum can be a child’s first introduction to the arts, humanities, culture, literacy. When a child grows up in a children’s museum, you are creating the next generation of support of the arts, literacy, science, math, engineering and technology.”
