Ruth Shelly was bitten early by the
museum bug. And with the new
Madison Children’s Museum, which
opens August 14, she can be sure that generations to come will find joy in the museum experience.
Ruth, executive director of the Madison
Children’s Museum and a Milwaukee native, credits her mom for starting her off on her career path. “She would pack up my three brothers and me in the car and take us on field trips,” Ruth recalls. “Through a family friend, we were able to take a behind-the-scenes tour
of the Milwaukee Public Museum. That
opened a wonderland — I was fascinated by how exhibits were built.”
Ruth was 13. “I remember writing to the
director of exhibits asking how to get involved.
He wrote back and invited me to volunteer,” she says. “Since that time I’ve held close to my heart the worlds that volunteering can open up for people. If the exhibits director had never written me back, my life would be completely different.”
She volunteered at the Milwaukee Public Museum for years, even while earning her graphic design degree from UW-Milwaukee.
Ruth began her professional career in exhibit design, eventually moving into museum administration.
She worked in museums in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Santa Barbara and San Diego before coming back to Wisconsin in 2003.
Ruth met her husband in San Diego, and their daughter, now 16, was born there. “We realized we didn’t want to raise our daughter in Southern California because all of our
quality time was in the car,” Ruth says. The couple also wanted their daughter to develop stronger connections to extended family, who had remained in Wisconsin.

When the executive director position
opened up at the Madison Children’s Museum,“it seemed like a good fit,” Ruth says.
Her first task as executive director was to find a new building for the museum. “We realized that our space at State Street was inadequate.
And we were really limited with
our age range — we could only have kids up to age seven or eight because our space was so small we had to gear our exhibits to younger kids. We dreamed of a facility for everyone in the family.”
The new Madison Children’s Museum
was supposed to be part of the Overture Center, but was eliminated due to space constraints.
However, Jerry Frautschi, who
funded Overture, said he would give the museum $5 million to buy a building if it were within walking distance of the Overture Center.
It took two years to find, but “this is the
absolute best location we could ask for,” Ruth says from her new light-filled office, with a terrific view of Lake Mendota.
“We really wanted to recycle an old building, but so many properties had limitations of one or another,” Ruth explains. “We got an entire city block with two levels of parking and a location right on the Square — a quiet
corner. We feel we’ll bring life to this corner of the Square.”

A community effort
While Ruth was the primary contact with the new museum’s architects and contractor, she says the museum has been both a team and community effort.
“The museum staff is very creative. I
came into an organization that had everything it needed except for an executive director. I see my job as to grease the skids and get out
of the way,” she says. “Our exhibits director, Brenda Baker, was heavily involved because we were designing the exhibits as we were doing the renovation. Museums are often de-

signed as black boxes. But in our case, the museum is one giant, organic work of art.”
The rest of Ruth’s team includes Kia
Karlen, director of education; Jenni Collins, director of development; and Jen Neuls, director of visitor services. “The five of us approached the building not only about the exhibits, but how the exhibits would integrate with the education program, and how the visitor
experience would tie in with it, and how to pay for it. It was very much a team effort.”
Then there was the community effort.
“More than 15,000 community members have contributed to some aspect of the museum, from the kids who made bottle caps for the mosaics to those who have donated $1 million.
They all feel invested and that gives us a unique identity,” Ruth says.
“My favorite aspect of the museum is the community contribution,” Ruth continues.
“Some museums go to a big outside architect or a far-off exhibit design firm. That process works for some organizations, but I’m proudest
of the fact that the Madison Children’s
Museum truly reflects Madison. People can come here and find a piece of themselves — because they’ve given us something or they see something that sparks a memory or they
have been part of the museum as a volunteer or donor. It’s not like bringing a museum and plunking it here, but the museum has grown here. It’s only the beginning because certainly our local focus will continue for generations
to come.”

Dane County Lifestyles editor Debra Illingworth Greene can’t wait to visit the museum opening weekend and try out the human-sized gerbil wheel.