Your donation goes a long way:

• Just $25 provides admission for a family who can’t afford it.
• Just $60 provides art education materials for 100 children.
• Just $110 provides food and care for our animals for a week.
• Just $180 provides one Interactive Educational program for a school visit.
• Just $490 provides an entire week of education programs for children.

Thank you for your support.

Your donation to our 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable may be tax-deductible.

To mail a donation, please send your check to:
Gull Wings Children’s Museum
418 W. Fourth St.
Oxnard, CA 93030
(Please include your contact information and email address, so we can provide you with a tax receipt.)

Why Support Ventura County’s Only Children’s Museum?

In an increasingly complex world, children’s museums provide a place where all children can learn through play with the caring adults in their lives. There are approximately 350 children’s museums around the world. Gull Wings Children’s Museum is the only children’s museum in Ventura County, and one of the first in the Western United States. Without our Museum, families would have to travel over 100 miles for a comparable experience.

Children’s museums help children develop essential foundational skills. In the past ten years, neuroscience has confirmed what the social sciences have long contended, that the first years of life are essential to future learning. Grounded in well-established study, Gull Wings Children’s Museum is part of a movement that combines specific learning objectives with play in informal learning environments that are developmentally appropriate for toddlers and children.

Children’s museums respect childhood. Helping to balance widespread cultural influences that compress childhood, Gull Wings Children’s Museum produces programs and exhibits that transcend age, IQ and experience, and empower children to set their own pace.

Children’s museums light a creative spark for discovery and lifelong learning. Research from the University of Illinois finds that children feel bored as much as 50 percent of the time while at school or doing their homework. At Gull Wings Children’s Museum, kids become excited about what they are learning while they are playing. As a multidisciplinary institution, Gull Wings is helping to define how to teach the arts, humanities, sciences, mathematics and culture across generations.

Children’s museums are environments where families play and connect in meaningful ways. With today’s workplace demands, adults have less time to spend with children. Gull Wings Children’s Museum is a place away from work and household distractions, where parents and caregivers can spend quality time with children, learn something new themselves and experience the luxury of becoming lost in the present moment as they play.

Children’s museums serve as town squares and build social capital. A landmark examination of civic engagement, Working Together: Community Involvement in America, indicates that children are one of the most likely subjects to motivate community involvement. Gull Wings Children’s Museum engages families and individuals to share their talents and points of view.

Children’s museums are uniquely positioned to help reverse stigma and discrimination. Children’s museums are popular, yet neutral, sources of information, attract a diverse cross-section of people and provide shared experiences through interpretive and interactive exhibits. By exposing adults and children to unfamiliar concepts in a non-threatening, hands-on approach, and ensuring that the museum experience is accessible to those of differing abilities and backgrounds, Gull Wings Children’s Museum creates bridges of understanding.

Children’s museums strengthen community resources that educate and care for children. Gull Wings Children Museum’s exhibits and programs are valuable resources in teaching art, science, math, music and literacy, especially in a community where such programs have been reduced from schools and libraries due to budget constraints. Additionally, Gull Wings Children’s Museum holds workshops about informal learning for parents, teachers and childcare professionals.

Children’s museums contribute to local economies and reduce economic barriers. Gull Wings Children’s Museum plays an active role in the revitalization of Oxnard. Children’s museums are sought-after local and travel destinations, bringing tax revenue and tourism dollars to the area. More than 25,000 individuals annually visit Gull Wings Children’s Museum.

Gull Wings Children’s Museum supports California Standards. Current and future exhibits and programs of the Museum are being uniquely designed to support California State Board of Education Content Standards.

Plus, a visit to Gull Wings Children’s Museum is lots of FUN!

* General children’s museum statistics and studies provided by the Association of Children’s Museums