All The World Under One Roof: Exploring the World At a Museum

Ashley Young
July 26, 2012

Summer is officially half over, and you and your kids may have reached the end of the charms your house, neighborhood, and town have to offer. Perhaps you have watched your kids zone out in front of the TV one too many times and would love to combat summer brain drain with a little global culture. However, the expense or other challenges of travel with preschoolers might be keeping you firmly in your own land. You can still introduce your kids to other cultures or expand their knowledge of their own with a visit to a nearby museum.

Many of us live within a day's drive of a metropolitan area and most metropolitan areas are a melting pot of cultures. Here's a (small) coast-to-coast sampling of cities and the culture-focused venues you'll find in each:

Boston: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Museum of African American History.

Atlanta: King Center, The Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum.

Nashville: The Parthenon at Centennial Park, Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Phoenix: African American Multicultural Museum, Heard Museum.

Denver: Museo de las Americas, Mizel Museum.

Portland: Oregon Jewish Museum, Portland Japanese Garden.  

Whether your closest metropolitan area is listed above or not, be sure to check out our places page to find the full list of museums near you.

If you want to stick closer to home than the nearest metropolitan area (or it isn't included in our directory), the search page of the American Association of Museums is a great resource for finding a museum near you. There's even a drop-down menu where you can indicate that you are looking for a culturally specific institution.

However, you don't need to find a "culturally specific" museum to bring a little global flair to your summer fun. Any museum, even the smallest local museum, will have exhibits on the cultures that comprise the tapestry of your corner of the country. The AAM page above will help you find a museum by location. If you want to find a museum by a specific type of culture, like Irish, Asian, Swedish, or Hispanic, try the People page at MuseumSpot.

Whether you hit the road for the nearest big city or stick close to home, a cool afternoon in a museum is a great way for your kids (and maybe you!) to learn about the cultures of the world.