About Us

All About EdVenture

Our Vision

Our vision is to create new generations of lifelong learners.

 

Our Audience

Children 12 and younger, families, teachers, caregivers and anyone who has a child’s best interest at heart.

 

Our Funding

EdVenture is a locally-managed, not-for-profit informal educational institution. We are not a state-funded government agency. Our funding comes through three main sources: 50% of our annual operating budget comes from admissions and earned revenue, 30% from members, sponsors and donors, and 20% from local government support. Edventure is supported in part by the City of Columbia and Richland County.

 

Our Exhibits

Behind EdVenture’s doors, we are proud to have six world-class exhibit galleries, a library, learning laboratories, resource centers and other visitor amenities. Two additional outdoor gallery spaces are located just outside the museum’s front doors. Within the total 67,000 square feet that is EdVenture Children’s Museum, there are more than 350 individual hands-on exhibits.
View our exhibits

 

Our Economic Impact

Based upon local analysis and benchmarks from successful children’s museums, long-term projections show EdVenture generating $13 million annually for the local economy. Additionally, 40% of our visitors are from areas beyond the Midlands who contribute to the tourism and hospitality industries here at home.

 

Our Attendance

EdVenture is designed to appeal to families and children around the state as well as visitors to the Midlands. Permanent exhibits and programs along with a vibrant schedule of changing exhibits will entice both return visitors and new arrivals. EdVenture’s average annual attendance is 200,000. Since opening on November 8, 2003, EdVenture has welcomed visitors from all 50 states and 18 foreign countries. Eighty percent of our visitors are families, with the remaining twenty percent attending as organized groups including school field trips, civic organizations and church clubs.

 

Our Educational Programs

At EdVenture, we believe in reaching out to the children of South Carolina through a variety of field trips and outreach programs. Some of the programs we currently offer include Learning Alive, EdVenture To-Go, Camps, Hands-On, Minds On! teacher professional development program and more than 14 standards-based field trip programs. We are continually developing new offerings and, ultimately, our goal is to develop activities with and for the diverse communities we serve.

 

Our Yes, Every Child Fund

EdVenture believes every child deserves the chance to imagine, discover and understand, including those whose families don’t have the economic resources to provide these opportunities. That’s why EdVenture created a scholarship fund for Camp EdVenture, Club EdVenture, fire safety camps and other outreach programs, along with our Afterschool Program. Please consider a gift of any size donation above and beyond a membership to EdVenture to help support our scholarship programs. It’s an easy way to have a positive impact on a child’s life.

 

Link Disclaimer

Within the EdVenture Website there are links to non-EdVenture websites. When you link to third party websites, you leave our website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices nor the content of non-EdVenture websites, and the presence of such links is not intended to be an endorsement of non-EdVenture websites or their content.