Eureka! (museum)


Eureka! The National Children's Museum is an interactive educational museum for children in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, with a focus on learning through play. It is run as an educational charity and not-for-profit organisation. Eureka! is based on the North American model of children's museums, aimed at families with children aged 0–11 and encourages hands-on inter-generational learning.

History

The museum was founded in 1985 by Vivien Duffield. Eureka!'s location was partly inspired by Prince Charles, who opened the museum on 9 July 1992 and was its patron until 2002.
It is located on former British Rail land next to Halifax railway station.
The building design was led by Ken Moth of Building Design Partnership, an architectural practice, and the exhibition designs were produced by an in-house team and by design groups who pitched for various elements of the work – co-ordinated by Richard Fowler. Design groups included Imagination and Conran and individuals included Tim Hunkin and Satoshi Kitamura.
Eureka! celebrated its 25th birthday in 2017 by launching the Eureka! Stories website and opening the Spark Gallery, a flexible exhibition space which launched with the European premiere of the interactive art exhibition digiPlaySpace, created by Toronto International Film Festival.

Galleries

The museum has four main galleries: