Mission

Collecting and Preserving

Strong collects and preserves artifacts and records that illuminate the history of play. The museum owns and cares for hundreds of thousands of objects, books, photographs, documents, and other materials. These enable and support our many educational and interpretive activities and serve students, educators, scholars, collectors, and others who study play.

Educating

Each year the museum provides experiences to more than half a million guests, delivers standards-based school lessons to tens of thousands of school children from hundreds of communities in Western New York and beyond, and extends teacher development opportunities to nearly a thousand pre-service and in-service teachers throughout the region. The museum’s preschool, circulating library, research library and archives, and scholarly publications complement and extend this educational impact.

Serving

Through dozens of community partnerships and numerous outreach programs, the museum is accessible to financially challenged families, children, and other guests with special needs. These programs include Summer SUN (Strong’s Urban Neighborhoods), Passport to Family Fun, Foster Family Admissions, Refugee Family Admissions, and Play Therapy Access for Children with Disabilities. The museum also provides a Pediatric Residency Play Observation Program.