SEASIDE, Ca., June 8, 2019 – California State University, Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) Salinas Center for Arts and Culture hosted the MY Town Pop-up Children’s Museum with a kickoff First Friday event on June 7, 2019 at CSUMB @ Salinas City Center.

The MY Town exhibition, open through July 21, 2019, is free, open to the public and welcomes students from all ages with an accompanying adult.

The June 7 kick-off event allowed guests to experience the MY Town Museum, while enjoying free food, story-time with local elected officials, music, face painting and youth art workshops and other assorted activities geared toward engaging children.

The pop-up museum was created through a set of partnerships lead by the CSUMB Salinas Center for Arts and Culture Director, Enid Ryce, in coordination with the Executive Director of MY Museum (Monterey County Youth Museum) Lauren Cohen. The two shared a goal of creating a children’s museum experience in Salinas to create a fun, creative space to serve the children in the community.

The Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC), First 5 Monterey County, Salinas Public Library, Hijos del Sol Arts Productions all played significant roles in the development of this exhibition.

CSUMB will involve students from the Psychology and Environmental Studies programs in conducting research and assessment of the exhibition’s success. The data collected through this learning experience will be used to improve the exhibition in real-time.

After its incubation at CSUMB Salinas Center for Arts and Culture, the MY Town organizers are hopeful this can move throughout the county and are looking for additional sponsors and potential host sites to bring this experience to more children and families.