Building a Playful Future Through STEAM, Community Engagement, and Fun: A Conversation with Long Island Children's Museum President Erika Floreska

Join us for an engaging exploration of the Long Island Children's Museum (LICM) as we sit down with its president, Erika Floreska. Erika shares the museum's commitment to creating a hands-on, interactive learning environment that emphasizes inclusivity and community engagement.

Discover how LICM celebrates cultural diversity through vibrant festivals like Lunar New Year, Caribbean and South American Carnival, and Holi, bringing together families from different backgrounds to learn and celebrate together.

Erika also highlights their award-winning community collaborations, including partnerships with local schools for STEM and STEAM learning and the Together to Kindergarten program, which supports immigrant families in preparing for the U.S. education system.

Listen in as we discuss the transformative power of theater and the arts in children's development. We highlight LICM's unique children's theater and its role in fostering empathy, storytelling, and communication skills through affordable, high-quality productions. These shows, thoughtfully aligned with the museum's rotating exhibits, offer an enriching experience for families and schools alike.

We also touch on the importance of visual arts in sparking creativity and imagination, and how these activities are crucial in helping children develop social, emotional, and collaborative skills, especially in a post-pandemic world dominated by screens and social media.

Lastly, we explore the concept of the "play diet" introduced by Dr. Amanda Gummer (see episode 96 of the Adventures in Learning podcast) and its connection to informal education and children's museums. As we discuss the importance of varied play experiences for children's development, you'll discover how LICM provides diverse play opportunities that foster independence and critical thinking, benefiting both children and adults.

Erika shares her unconventional career path, illustrating the value of following one's passion and the non-linear progression of careers as part of your adventures in learning. The episode concludes with a celebration of the joyful, playful learning experiences at LICM, from general visits to special events, all designed to create a vibrant, educational resource for the community.

Links:

• Long Island Children's Museum
• Together to Kindergarten Program Resources
• LICM Theater
• Dr. Amanda Gummer and the Play Pyramid (episode 96 of the Adventures in Learning Podcast)

Transcript

00:02 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So if you love children's museums, you are in for a real treat today. I happen to really love this particular children's museum. I got to go and visit it when my daughter was a student on the island, and the Long Island Children's Museum is one of the premier institutions in the country. It is such a cool place. It has earned so many awards for the good work it does. But aside from the awards, what I love about it is its community engagement, and I think that you are in for a treat today as we talk to its president, Erika Floresca. So, Erika, welcome to the show. 

00:40 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here. 

00:43 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So let's talk a little bit about your museum. A lot of great things came to be in the year 2002. Your museum got its permanent home. Eric Carle started a museum for picture book art up in Massachusetts, and my daughter happened to be born that year. 

01:00 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Awesome. Was this 2002? It was, of course. My daughter was born in 2003, and my son in 2004. So something great was starting at that time. 

01:10 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Absolutely. So let's talk about your museum a little bit. What is it that makes this museum such a gem on Long Island? 

01:18 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Well, I think, like all children's museums, these are places where people come together. They get to play hands-on interactive learning, and I think what's really unique about Long Island in particular is we're a place where people come and meet a differences to play, engage, discover, explore all the great things that children's museums have. We have those and it's really special. 

01:53 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, and one of the things I noticed is that incredible commitment to diversity and to welcoming people. Can you talk a little bit about some of your community engagement programs? 

02:04 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
I'd be happy to. We are located in one of the most diverse counties and the most diverse cities in the country, so we really, from when we opened, we wanted to be sure LICM was welcoming to everyone. So one way that we do that is each year we celebrate cultural festivals and we sort of track the new immigrant populations that are coming, the communities that are growing here on Long Island, and we partner with those communities to help celebrate their culture in a sort of all five senses. We do a special weekend at the museum where we have food, we have crafts, we have artisans, we have performances. So this year we're actually planning to do three cultural festivals. We'll do Lunar New Year in January. We're going to do for the first time a carnival celebrating Caribbean and South American culture, and then we'll also do a Holi festival. We did that this past year and it's really fun, a beautiful celebration of spring and what we see at these events is that both people from that community for whom this is a cultural celebration, they come to experience and celebrate together. And we have a lot of people who aren't from that culture and it's a really wonderful way to introduce them, to learn about it and have fun with your family. In addition to that, we have some acts. We have a real commitment to access. 

03:20
So we also have a partnership with a local school district that is mostly English language learners and it's a first, second, third grade and all special education students all committed to learning around STEM and activating hands-on STEM learning. So all year long they come. On Mondays we're closed to everyone else and the museum becomes the West Prairie School District's first, second, third grade classroom. We help train their teachers, their teachers build confidence in taking risks. These are elementary school teachers who may or may not be science teachers, but here we help them learn. Instead of reading about how you plant a seed and how a seed grows, you actually do it and the kids get to discover that. We do fish dissections, cow eye dissections, all kinds of really wonderful hands-on science learning. And we also have a theater so all of those students get to also experience sometimes their first theater performance. It's a professional theater, so it's a STEM program that we add the arts, so we do STEAM. 

04:19
Another program we have that serves the community is called Together to Kindergarten and this started 18 years ago serving our children of parents who are educated elsewhere, so really reaching their new immigrant population to help educate and prepare the students and the parents, the caregivers, for what a US American classroom looks like for kindergarten. So we actually are starting that today. We have 40 new students and their families here. They'll be here for a month. They come for the half day morning sessions. The parents come every Monday and they have a whole curriculum they graduate to. But the students learn about social, emotional learning, how do you get along with your peers? You know circle time and counting numbers and it's bilingual. This term we have Mandarin, Haitian, creole and Spanish all being taught in a dual language way. So that program we actually were recognized with the National Medal of Honor at the White House for that program, in particular in our community initiatives. 

05:20 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
That's so cool. And before you go on because I know there's more, I want to circle to that one for a second. In terms of the parent program or the family caregiver program, what kinds of things are part of that? 

05:32 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
You know it's. It seems it's really basic, like how do you support your child's experience in the schools? And for a lot of folks who come from different school traditions you know the school is sort of the leader and you don't engage. So we say you know, go to the PTA meetings, answer the call. When the call comes from the school. It's not necessarily a bad thing and if it is something that your child needs support with, call back because teachers and the schools want to work with parents, really see parents as a partner in their education. It can be. 

06:02
How do you prepare a home so that you have your child has a space to study, making sure it's a dedicated space. They can go to every. You know every time they have to do a homework, even if it's one. You know little handout, setting students up for having that place to study at home. Also, just food, lunches what to prepare for lunch if the school doesn't provide lunch. How a bus works that buses can come around if there's busing involved and then really a lot of it is. 

06:30
How do you play with your child? And the fact that reading to your child is really important and can make a difference in their education. We give them games to play really fun. Not everybody I mean, we're all learning this Not all parents play with kids there can be different cultural traditions around that and we try to give them ideas and ways and things to do at home whether it's a card game or a guessing game or naming things around the house Really leaving them with the idea that activating and engaging with your child, even a few minutes a day, can really help them in their school success. And all of the parents want their kids to be successful in school. So those are just some of the things we do, and we even get the parents on stage at the graduation ceremony. They always learn a song and sing it to their kids, and they get a certificate too. So the children are also seeing their parents as partners in supporting their education. 

07:25 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, I love all of that and I love the fact that you guys have a theater, because that's unusual for a children's museum to have your own professional theater company based right at the museum. Yeah, it's actually a little bit about that. 

07:39 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Yeah, it's one of the reasons I'm here. I'm personally from a performing arts background. I'm trained as a flute player and worked in New York City for a community music school, jazz at Lincoln Center, a theater company. So when I came out here I live in Long Island and I was a member here with my kids when they were young and to have a theater that is professionally run. So sometimes when you think children's theater or children's museum theater you think like a puppet show and sort of kids acting out, which is wonderful and imaginative. But ours is a full blown professional theater, seats about 140 people. We usually do three productions a year that run for a couple of weeks or multiple weeks at a time. So we serve both the school audience. So a lot of schools come to the theater. They can do a field trip and then go to the theater or they can just come for the theater and for the public as well. This coming year we're also going to be presenting some music series. So on big weekends like Indigenous People's Day and Thanksgiving weekend and MLK Day weekend, where we have larger visitation, we're going to be presenting professional musicians in the theater. 

08:51
And it really is theater, you know is such a way for young children to learn about empathy and storytelling and seeing people take on other roles and imagining themselves in, you know, in the worlds that they're there. We really feel the arts has a way of connecting some of the brain waves. We know there's research all around it, so activating that early in a children's experience is really exciting. And you know we're here in New York City so of course Broadway beckons in the city. But we say our theater is such a welcoming, affordable, high quality introduction to artistic expression and participation that families really love it. And I will say like we get a lot of families that come to every show. We do because every show is different and they're all interactive. So the stage is even built where the actors can come out into the stage. If we have a role for children to come on stage and participate, that sometimes happens. 

09:55 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So it also embodies the values of a children's museum, of interactivity, playful learning and all of that, and it's just extra special. So I'll be there this weekend moving her up. But as we're talking, you know you're hitting all the things that I think are so important. You know, when we're engaging with kids, when we're presenting education, demonstrations, stem so much of that is dramatic and it involves the theater, and you don't have to be an actor to appreciate theater. In many ways, getting to participate gives you the skills you need for any career, because scientists have to be able to communicate, because scientists have to be able to communicate, doctors have to be able to communicate. Folks who clean the streets have to be able to communicate. We all need those skills, and the confidence that comes with theater is so important and I love the fact that you all are building those connections. Where do your shows come from? What do you? How do you decide on your season? 

10:46 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Yeah, Well, we try to integrate with the museum as much as possible. So we look at we have traveling gallery, a traveling exhibit gallery that rotates almost each season. So, for example, this coming year we have we do a village sock skating where we have a polyurethane floor and kids can skate or it's like a nice skating rink inside, and so we're actually going to be producing a snowy day. There's a play, my favorite book. 

11:12
So we're going to do that during that time. Then in January we're going to have a Moon to Mars exhibit, so exhibit all about space. And our theater team was researching, looking and they found a musical called Interstellar Cinderella. It's a play on a fairy tale which of course schools, you know, use. Fair the use of fairy tales to tell children's stories is exactly. But this has a twist where Cinderella is a scientist and an engineer, and actually specifically a rocket engineer, and the prince who's supposed to meet his Cinderella actually just wants to get his rocket into space. And guess what they meet. And so it's a twist on the fairy tale. It's about space, which complements our Moon to Mars exhibit, but it's a musical and it also stands on its own, of course. It's a wonderful story. 

12:02
And then in the spring we'll bring back one of our favorites, elephant and Piggy, which is based on the book by Mo Willems. We've done that every other year about since 2019, and the shows sell out. So this past spring we did Don't Let Pigeon Drive the Bus, which is another musical based on a Mo Willems book, and that was the longest run. We did over 90 shows of that show and they almost all sold out. So it's sort of both connected to our exhibits but also you know what we know the schools want and what's a really fun introductory show. And we do love doing musicals because we also have live. We have a live pianist and drummer and bass player usually, so that also introduces live music too. 

12:46 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So you really are giving families that formative theatrical experience because they've got the live actors, the sets, the costumes and the live music. Yeah, and it's all affordable which, having, uh, done quite a lot on Long Island in the last four years, I can tell you it's not all affordable yeah, yeah, we make it affordable, accessible, um, and it really the theater and the arts here. 

13:10 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
We also have a really strong visual arts program and you know, whether it's performing arts or visual arts. 

13:16
We just opened a new exhibit called the Artist Corner that's going to be rotating different visual arts seasonally throughout the year and it's with artists who do things that we can really connect to. 

13:28
So one of the artists right now she's actually made a series of works that are all about weaving the wires from computers and power cords into like a blanket, and so you introduce, you know, a different kind of medium for visual art, but something that kids can relate to. So we rotate that visual art piece too, because visual arts also offer an opportunity for self-expression and creativity and imagination that are so important for all of our kids. And I think, particularly coming out of COVID and having to find the ways to help kids with their social, emotional learning, with their mental health, with their physical engagement, those are all things that I think got set back a little bit because of COVID and because of the dominance of screens and social media. What we're offering for these particularly young kids, early elementary school, are ways to develop the skills to interact with each other, to collaborate, to get off your screen and be creative and solve. You know, if you're bored, there are ways to be on board, but you have to actually practice that and that's what we let people do here. 

14:38 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I love that and you actually went in a direction I was going to go which was thinking about sort of this post-pandemic era. I know I've seen it as I've traveled the country and you've seen it at the museum where there is a lag and you know kids and families are struggling as we're sort of putting things back together. What are some ways that families and the museum can work together to sort of make up that deficit and take advantage of the strengths that kids did develop during that time? 

15:09 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Yeah, that's such a good question and, I think, an active conversation for all of us in this field. On one hand, just doing what we do is actually helping address all of this. I think the ACM has recently put out a new case statement that talks about museums as economic engines, the power of play, and that play is really the best way that children learn. And how do we help support the mental health and the well-being of children? So, in some ways, just making sure people know and have access to the museum. So I think we're seeing a lot more folks come in through a Museums for All program that makes the museum available for folks who are on SNAP benefits or EBT benefits. They can get $3 tickets to the museum. We also have a new membership for those families. 

15:59
For families with kids with disabilities, we have special programming, free nights at the museum. We have sensory backpacks and sensory room where they can help make sure a visit is enjoyable and accessible to them. We also have a discount program for veterans and military families. We have a huge veteran population on Long Island and really making sure that the word gets out that for parents who are struggling, I mean, I think raising kids today is so much harder than even when we were raising our kids, I think because of the dominance of social media and the availability of information. So how can we support the kids and make sure people know the museum? 

16:39
Just coming here gives you access to you know, we just opened, or we revamped, our backyard exhibit that's open for three months of the year and we have a mud kitchen. Kids can come in and it's sensory playing with the mud and the dirt. You're role playing because you're in a kitchen. You can make cupcakes or a pie. You have to wash the dishes or not. It's really messy, but kids end up interacting and in fact, it's an experience that a lot of parents may want to step back from In this case they don't want to get dirty. 

17:11
So it helps empower the independence of kids and you just see them get it. You know it's just it's messy and dirty and fun. But those are the kinds of things that I think science and research is now catching up and I think there is a message out in the world that get kids off their screens, get them outside more. So we're trying to really emphasize that. We have a new phrase here that we are centering the well-being of children and families through the power of play. I love that. That is it the well-being of children and families through the power of play. And that's the more we can get people aware of it and coming here and using the different resources the museum has to offer. That's one way we're addressing it. 

17:54 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
That makes so much sense. I recently had Dr Amanda Gummer on the show talking about the play diet and she's been doing a lot of work in England, sort of on like we have our food pyramid. She sort of has put together the museum to provide all of these different aspects of the play diet where children and their families can come in and experiment and play together but also develop independence. 

18:27 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Yeah, I am going to look that up because that the play diet sounds exactly in line. We said this is the year of play. You know we've we've been fortunate to recover from COVID and that we're seeing visitation either back to or higher than pre-COVID numbers. You know, we're navigating the financial side of it because we had, you know, some federal funding that's not refundable now. So we're as we navigate that. But this is our focus, it is on play. So I want to, I'm going to look up that play diet because I think that's really interesting and it's also important for adults to play too. I think there's. You know, we may not play as much, but the research is showing that for all of us who are working and caring for children, actually, you know, disengaging from your work brain or your you know, your brain here to engage in a reading activity or a play or some game with yourself or with your children can really, you know, the benefits of that reap over, you know, have that ripple effect, is positive for so much, for so many things. 

19:28 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And recognizing that play takes on different forms depending on where we are in life and what our interests are. You know, for me play might be a walk through the woods and counting how many birds I can find, or it could be kayaking, or it could be doing the New York Times crossword puzzle. 

19:44 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Like we all have different ways that we play, Different ways of playing and I think for adults it's kind of, if you go back to like, look at your play history and what engaged you when you were young, that also how can that come and have a part of your life now in a different format can really be powerful. 

20:04
So we're thinking what are the play opportunities we're giving to all of our kids for all these different ways of playing, so they can start to find what they respond to, because it is, Every kid is different. Every child is going to engage differently, sometimes from day to day, sometimes mood to mood, but really over time they're exposed to these different things, they will start to resonate around a way of doing something or something like this that absolutely can inform where they go in their future and what kind of career path they pick, what kind of community that they want to be part of. All of this has that long term impact. We have another phrase we have, which is the kids that play together today will work and live together tomorrow. I love that. How we're planting those seeds now is really important. 

20:54 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And I think you're right about it's so important to plant these seeds and to give children the opportunity to collaborate, to communicate with each other, to think critically and to be creative. 

21:05
And I think you know you were talking about the stuff you're doing with the teachers. That's a huge part of what I'm trying to do, as I'm working with teachers and students right now is the standards are important. I'm not saying they're not, but it's more about how do we play within the standards, how do we learn how to ask those inquiry-based questions, how do we get our hands dirty as we explore and try to solve problems and I think that that's a natural partnership for museums and educators is to find that aha moment, that wow moment where we think, okay, how do we pull this together and how do we make it fun, because they're going to have their phones, they're going to have all of that data at their fingertips. I think it's less important that they know the facts and can recite all the facts. It's more important that they know how to think critically and can look at the information and figure out how do I use it accordingly, and I think that that's another powerful avenue for museums. 

22:03 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more and I think we're just starting to move into this, right. Then, because I think, you know, with AI coming right, or AI is here, not even coming, yeah, it's here. Yeah, I think we're all trying to figure out, you know one, how do we use it at the museum? But also, how do we, how do we partner with teachers and parents to help kids and children learn how to interact with it, Because they're going to be, you know, there's going to be AI natives, right? So the kids will never know a world without AI the way my kids are digital natives. You know, I'm from the era where there were no cell phones when I grew up you know that that were the Gen X kids who ran around as outside to the lights came on, made up your games on your street, and you know all of those what now seem oh nostalgic. 

22:50
You know childhood elements. So I think in specifically around critical thinking and making choices and questioning why does this happen? What does this do? How do I want to make up this? This is what's going to keep. I mean, this is what makes us truly human and our humanity. That will make you know the critical thinkers that can engage with the technology, whether it's AI or online or things to help, you know, solve the problems of the future. Those critical thinking and creative skills are what's gonna get us there. So I completely agree how we're working together to plant those seeds and cultivate that critical thinking is something for the field to do, absolutely. 

23:31 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So, Erika, I 100% agree. I wanna switch gears a little bit. I always ask this question because folks like to know how people got to where they are. So what are the adventures in learning that have led you to be the president of the Long Island Children's Museum, because you said you started out in the performing arts. That's got to be an interesting journey. 

23:50 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Yeah, it's really my son, who's 19, asked me the same question. He's like Mom, did you at my age, did you ever think you would be running a children's museum? I was like, not in the lead, it didn't even cross my mind. I was a flute performance major in college and I actually have a master's degree in flute performance. But for me, what I started to learn and think about I love playing the flute and I was pretty good in my day, but I also loved interacting with people and I had some opportunities to do arts administration. That I didn't even know was a career. 

24:22
I worked as a production assistant for a summer festival, driving artists around and realizing all of the backstage work of who sets the chairs, who turns on the light, who tapes the music together, who schedules, who gets the artist from the airport to the venue. I was doing all of that and realizing there's this whole administrative world and that led me to Jazz at Lincoln Center, where I worked for 14 years and I started as the assistant to the executive director and producer sort of, and that kind of. That job gave me an overview of how a nonprofit organization works, because I had to do board packets and work with the. You know there's a fundraising area and there's a finance area and there's a programming area and a touring area and an education area. And that's where I found. You know, one year in I moved into the education department and started running their education programs and really saw a real logical bond for me, because I've always been. I thought I'd be a teacher, a music teacher, a math teacher. I did one semester of student teaching and said no, not for me, but being around education. So then when I left there I went to a theater company and loved producing theater but also the education piece and the learning side of theaters where my heart fluttered. 

25:43
And then I ran a community music school and that felt like it's really community based. It's access, a commitment to access. That means all kids, everyone should have a chance to study music. Like we said, the arts are good for everything. They teach you discipline and delayed gratification and community ensemble and beauty. You know just beauty in the arts. And that was where I was commuting to the city and lived in Long Island and thought wouldn't it be nice to be closer to my kids and not have a three hour a day commute while they're hitting high school and I met the president, my predecessor while they're hitting high school and I met the president my predecessor at a meeting and told her I was looking for a job and actually became the development director. So I did fundraising first for three years here and that was my entry point in. And what I learned when I came here is there's a whole field called informal education, yep and you were doing it. 

26:36
We don't refer to that, that's not a phrase. But I was like, oh, that's my whole career. So when I realized that, and because there's a theater here and it's education and there's this community commitment, that we started out with a real commitment to access and diversity and bringing people together, that is a theme of my career everywhere I've gone. That is a theme of my career everywhere I've gone, so it just felt right and but it did. I think in my you know my like people here, I'm a flute player, so maybe I'm a Pied Piper for music and education, arts education or creative learning. But it makes sense when you look back, even though never in a million years would I've said oh, I want to be a head of a children's museum someday but I absolutely love it and that's one of the things I always tell kids when they ask you know, how did you get to be what you are? 

27:25 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
is that there's not really a linear progression, but everything folds back in on itself and at some point you're going to look back and go oh, I see all the steps that led to this place. 

27:35 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
Yeah yeah, no, that's what I'm telling my kids. They're in college now and it's like look to what you're interested in, where your passion is, where you're drawn to, and follow that. And no, it's not going to be linear at all. And I think kids these days the idea of having multiple careers or finding ways to bring disparate interests together. It may be in one job, it may be in a series of jobs that they get to do what they love, but again, this is the creativity being open, finding, you know, really finding what resonates with you, because I think what resonates with one person isn't going to be what resonates with another and we want to celebrate that and we want to help help people to find in children you know, children's Museum find what's unique to them, what each child has a little interest in, or a little spark and feed that, because we're going to need a lot of people with a lot of different interests to help solve the challenges of the future. 

28:34 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So last question for today but, boy, I'm enjoying this conversation. I want to bring you back. If there was one message you wanted to share with educators and families about how and why they should partner with the Long Island Children's Museum, what would you want them to know? 

28:53 - Erika Floreska (Guest)
I want them to know that we're really celebrating play. There's all kinds of opportunities to come in and be a visitor, to be a partner, to have field trips or birthday parties. We run a historic carousel that can talk all about history, and there's joy and play at the center of everything. So, whatever it is, wherever you are, with whatever age group or interest, we have ways of engaging and bringing your children, your students, yourself into the kind of the joyful, playful learning that we offer, and we'd love to have everybody come. 

29:28 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Awesome. Erika, thank you so much for being on the Adventures in Learning podcast. I'm going to drop contact information for the museum in the show notes so people will be able to go to your website and see all the amazing things that you offer, and this has been such a great day to be able to talk about community and play, so I appreciate you being on here.