Program areas at WDFM
Operation of The Walt Disney Family Museum - 2023 attendance totaled approximately 185,000 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" followed by "Disney cats and dogs". "spirit of The season: a community art exhibition", "creative conservation: The art of endangered animals", and "chris miller: kaleidoscope", were followed by "pencils and passion: a student art exhibition and "pawsibilities unleashed: a pet portrait exhibition" in The main Museum's lower lobby.2020-2021 special exhibition, "The Walt Disney studios and world war ii", travelled to The national war Museum in new orleans for a successful run in 2023 and will travel to The pearl harbor Museum aviation Museum in honolulu in 2024.the Museum also offers special events and group tours. In 2023, 2,250 guests attended special events and 1,650 attended special group tours.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, storytimes, community days, and workshops, to engage and serve diverse audiences with activities that support and amplify The Museum's mission. Attendance at virtual special events topped 621,000 participants. Public programs were attended by 2,400 visitors in 2023. 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. In 2023, 3,020 school children and 630 chaperones toured The Museum and participated in correlated studio experiences. Our educators also taught students virtually throughout The year and led virtual field trips to The Museum, hosting 630 students and 30 chaperones in online visits by The end of 2023. Educators taught 840 children offsite at partner schools over The course of The 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 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, 1,335 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 345 students also participated in virtual classes and workshops.