Program areas at WDFM
Operation of The Walt Disney Family Museum - 2022 attendance totaled approximately 139,000 admissions to The Museum and its special exhibitions, while virtual events were attended by approximately 5,000. Admissions were severely impacted by The closure of The Museum on march 6, 2020 due to The covid-19 pandemic. The Museum reopened with reduced hours in april 2021. In The diane Disney miller special exhibition hall, The Museum's original exhibition, "Walt Disney's The jungle book: making a masterpiece" was displayed along with "creative conservation: The art of endangered animals", "chris miller: kaleidoscope", and "spirit of The season: a community art exhibition" in The main Museum's lower lobby. In addition, two new virtual exhibitions were launched in 2022: "veterans' voices: painted realities and "The world of tomorrow: a virtual community art exhibition".2020-2021 special exhibition, "The Walt Disney studios and world war ii", travelled to The Museum of flight in tukwila, Washington for a successful run in 2022.the Museum store offers a unique blend of merchandise and publications related to The Museum and its educational and public programs. The Museum is open 10 to 5:30pm daily thursday through sunday. The Museum is closed to The public monday through wednesday, thanksgiving day, christmas day, and new year's day. The Museum is open for private school experiences and events on wednesdays. Summer camps occur monday through fridays during summer weeks.
The Museum presents film screenings and live public programs, including talks, panel discussions, and workshops, to engage and serve diverse audiences with activities that support and amplify The Museum's mission. The pandemic limited in-person activities but online programming was significantly enhanced. Attendance at virtual special events topped 5,000 participants. Public programs returned in 2021 and were attended by 1,300 visitors ibn 2022. Public programs include films and lectures associated with Walt Disney, animation, imagineering, and related topics.
Educational programs are designed to amplify The Museum's mission. They earn national recognition for effective delivery of steam (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) curriculum and for promoting creativity and hands-on skill building. The pandemic temporarily paused in-person activities but online programming was significantly enhanced. In 2022, 1,400 school children and 300 chaperones toured The Museum and participated in correlated studio experiences. Outreach our educators also taught students virtually throughout The year and led virtual field trips to The Museum, hosting 900 students and 60 chaperones in online visits by The end of 2022. Educators taught 25 children offsite at partner schools over The course of The 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school year. This included teaching our animation certificate program, local residents of east palo alto, California at The epacenter art facility, and students in our distance learning program in new hampshire from new hampton school. Educators also provided in-house art classes and workshops for all ages, and summer classes for youth between The ages of 8 and 20. In addition, 750 students/guests, 5 years and up, attended studio classes related to art and animation and participated in summer classes, studio series, pop up studios, after school animation, animation intensives, drawing workshops, open studio sessions, industry paths sessions, and animation labs. An additional 300 students also participated in virtual classes and workshops.