The Bakken Museum Electrifies Family Days Out

The Bakken Museum has engaging exhibits for the whole family.

As summer draws to a close and the weather gets too cold for a day at the lake, families may be looking for somewhere different to take their children or younger family members. If they’ve been at Bde Maka Ska, they don’t need to look far — the Bakken Museum is just down the road and has plenty of fun and educational activities for children and their adults alike.

For those who haven’t been to the Bakken since their fourth-grade field trip, it looks a little different now. They renovated the space between 2020 and 2022 while the museum was closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Just past the front entrance is the new Spark exhibit, featuring seven different interactive activities. They include the Bakkenspiel, which includes digital and physical instruments to teach the languages of both music and computers, Personal Prostheses 2.0, which has different examples of prosthetics and how they were invented, and the Bakken Booth.

The Bakken Booth recounts how communication technology has changed over time. However, whether its designers intended it to be or not, its exterior is now a bit of a history exhibit too. Younger visitors often don’t recognize the phone booth, according to the Bakken’s Vice President of Philanthropy, Alex Askew.

Communication has changed inside the Bakken, too. Since remodeling, they’ve added signs in Spanish as well as English and are planning to add Dakota in the future, according to Askew.

Up the stairs on the other side of the Spark exhibit is something that may be more familiar to former fourth-grade field trip attendees: the Frankenstein exhibit.

Bakken Museum founder Earl Bakken was a huge fan of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, even sneaking out to see the 1931 film at the theater, Askew said. Bakken was inspired by Dr. Frankenstein’s use of electricity to create life. That inspiration eventually resulted in Bakken’s signature invention, the first portable pacemaker.

Pacemakers from the earliest version to the most recent model are on display at the Bakken. So too are examples of the art and science that inspired Shelley to write the novel that in turn inspired Bakken.

Past the Mary & Her Monster exhibit is the Frankenstein Laboratory, a show featuring lights, sound and animatronics that tells the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. Be warned, though — the show scares adults and children alike.

“The first time I watched it, I had a glass of wine and I spilled the whole thing,” Askew said.

For those whose interest was piqued by the power of electricity in Frankenstein, the next exhibit will be a treat. The Electricity Party exhibit is inspired by parties hosted by Benjamin Franklin and other scientists of his era that featured gadgets that showed off the power of static electricity. The electrostatic generator will make your hair raise, literally.

If that isn’t enough to keep the children in your life occupied, there’s more — a scavenger hunt for LEGO mini-figures hidden throughout the museum. The mini-figures represent influential scientists from many different backgrounds, places and eras. One of them is Ben Barres, a neurobiologist and the first openly transgender scientist in the National Academy of Sciences.

With its incredibly interactive exhibits, the Bakken is sure to keep children engaged. Yes, even the TikTok generation. For families looking to attend the Bakken, especially for the first time, they host Family Discovery Days.

The Family Discovery Days feature organizations that partner with the museum and bring activities in addition to the museum’s own exhibits. They happen three times a year, Askew said. The latest was in June and the next will be in December.

For those who can’t make it with their children but think the kids would enjoy what the museum has to offer, the Bakken offers summer camps. The week-long camps teach attendees how to use the tools in the Bakken’s makerspace to create a project of their choosing.

“Every Friday we do [what we call] a big show,” Askew said. “Essentially, we invite all the parents and community members in and each kid presents what they invented, which is really cool. It’s really cute to watch.”

For those without children, or anyone looking to get their money’s worth out of a night they’ve paid for a babysitter, the Bakken has you covered, too. Their Bakkenalia events include after-hours access to the museum, drink sampling, a full bar and the opportunity to talk to museum curators about rarely-seen items. The next Bakkenalia is on October 10.

In the meantime, The Bakken’s exhibits provide an excellent opportunity for children to not only be engaged and entertained but also learn. The museum and its programming have lots of knowledge to share, but above all, they emphasize exercising creativity. Whether a child wants to be an inventor like Bakken, an author like Shelley or a scientist like Barres, they could find the inspiration they need at the Bakken Museum like Bakken found in Frankenstein.

The Bakken Museum’s address is 3537 Zenith Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55416, and it is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, except in September, when they are closed Tuesday to Thursday. Admission is $13 for adults, $11 for seniors aged 65 and older, $10 for students, $9 for children aged 4-17, and free for children aged 3 and under, members and Native Americans. Limited income admission is available for $1. www.thebakken.org