Children's Museum Executive Director Danielle Ripperton (Photo courtesy Children's Museum)
A bespectacled toddler picks up a magenta plastic ball and places it into a hole. The ball drops before landing on a xylophone pin and ringing out a note.
“Doooh!” he exclaims, throwing up both hands in excitement. Immediately, he grabs another ball — a green one — before repeating the steps. Undeterred by the surrounding noises and kids on a busy Friday night, he continues, mesmerized, for 15 minutes. Each action elicits the same reaction.
One-year-old Isaac Adams is playing in the revamped "Little Farm" exhibit, which opened Nov. 23 at the Children's Museum Downtown. The Richmond Children's Museum was founded in 1977 in the Navy Hill neighborhood before moving in 2000 to its current location on Broad Street. Other new additions to the "Little Farm "exhibit include a lily pad that plays music when stepped on, signage in English and Spanish, and an indoor playground.
The Children's Museum's new "Little Farm" exhibit (Photo by Josh Reid)
The project was unveiled the same month that the museum welcomed its new executive director, Danielle Ripperton, a Kentucky native who hails from the small town of Berea, population approximately 13,500. Ripperton moved to Richmond a decade ago and most recently served as the director of development for the Peter Paul Development Center in Richmond’s East End.
“I was really nervous when we moved here. … Was I going to be able to find my way around town and ever get to know anybody?” she says. A resident of Bon Air, Ripperton quickly discovered that Richmond “is really like a really large small town because everyone knows each other, and I love that.”
After moving to Virginia, she also learned that she missed working in a children’s museum. (In Indiana, she had served as the interim executive director and director of development and marketing for the Children’s Museum of Evansville.)
Even though her daughters, now ages 7 and 11, enjoyed visiting the Children's Museum here, Ripperton says, “My husband finally stopped encouraging my visits to the children’s museum as often because I would cry while I was at the museum because I missed working in that environment so much.” She laughs before going on, “It had been a few years since we had been, especially to the downtown location.”
When the executive director position became available, the search committee encouraged her to apply. After she submitted her application, Ripperton and her family visited incognito. She explains, “We were just trying to fly under the radar and be a family enjoying a museum, and [then after] meeting the board members, I knew that this was the right place for me to be.”
“My vision right now is to learn as much as possible about the museum and its people and who it's serving.” —Danielle Ripperton, executive director, Children's Museum
Ripperton isn’t in a rush to implement any changes early in her tenure. Instead, for the next three to six months, she plans to delve into the operation to better understand the nonprofit, which boasts, in addition to its downtown location, three satellite branches in Fredericksburg, Short Pump and Chesterfield.
Last year, the four branches welcomed 400,000 visitors, with 200,000 guests at the downtown museum alone. This year, the Children's Museum will offer its usual exhibitions and seasonal programming, like the popular Front Yard splash pad in the summer or Legendary Santa in December. Additional upcoming events include a fundraiser carnival for adults on March 21 that takes on the theme of the roaring ’20s and a visit from Daniel Tiger, a character from the PBS show “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” from May 1-10.
“My vision right now,” Ripperton explains, “is to learn as much as possible about the museum and its people and who it’s serving and to really be truly informed about what’s going on here before I say, ‘This is what our vision’s going to be.’ ”