Talk to the passionate team behind KidSTREAM, a new children's museum in Ventura County, and they'll tell you about the ambitious goals they have for the 21,000-square-foot space that opened to the public Thursday.
They will describe how the museum is the first of its kind in Ventura County and how they hope to make it accessible to as many local children as possible through outreach, discounts and free programming.
They will explain how immersive exhibits highlight the county's unique industry and geography, including an agricultural area where young visitors can pick simulated fruit and sell them at a farmers' market and an ocean exhibit where miniature replicas of the Channel Islands emerge from the blue manakin “Pacific Ocean.”
A drone view of the museum's Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands-themed playground.
Avery Hanchar, right, and her brothers Oliver and Carter test their climbing and balance skills.
They will share that STREAM in KidSTREAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, and talk about activity carts and art projects that will enhance and support young visitors' learning.
But they are also keenly aware that for some families, the still-evolving space will serve a less high-sounding, but equally important, purpose.
“Parents are looking for a good nap on the way home,” said KidSTREAM founder Kristie Akl. “And we can give them that too.”
Akl, along with KidSTREAM Board Chair Bryan Yee and Director of Guest Experiences Dani Hildreth, were giddy with excitement as they took me on a tour of the museum in the days leading up to its opening.
This moment had been a long time coming, they said.
Akl, an energetic former high school biology teacher with a make-things-happen spirit, began dreaming of a children's museum in Ventura County in 2013 after taking her three daughters to KidSpace, a children's museum in Pasadena founded by members of the Caltech community in 1979.
Akl loved Kidspace, but it was an hour away from the family home in Camarillo and longed for something similar closer to home. For two years, he tried to convince others to create a children's museum in Ventura County. When that failed, it formed a fledgling board in 2015 and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2017.
A young visitor chases a cloth that flies out of tubes in the museum's Amazing Airways exhibit.
“I was always an optimist,” he said. “You have to be to do something like this.”
The original plan was to open the museum in 2020, but fundraising efforts were hampered by the 2017 Thomas fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes in the area. A few years later the COVID closures occurred. The delays were discouraging, but Akl and a growing community of motivated believers used the time to develop their proof of concept by bringing science projects to schools, neighborhoods, and local community events, creating online workshops, and giving farmworkers free science kits to help their children explore.
“It was a Herculean task and a huge community effort,” Akl said. “Everyone bowed.”
Today she estimates that the KidSTREAM Children's Museum touched the lives of 70,000 children in the Ventura area before opening its doors.
Luke Delossantos, right, and his son Grayson play pretend.
“They prototyped a lot of ideas,” said Yee, a father of three who replaced Akl as president of KidSTREAM's board of directors in 2022. “That showed us what works and what doesn't, and what we should do next.”
In 2022, the city of Camarillo donated the building that housed the former public library to the museum, and in 2024, the team raised enough money to bring in Hildreth, a children's museum specialist. Construction began in 2025.
In addition to the outdoor farming and Pacific Ocean areas, visitors will find a camping exhibit with an obstacle course, a gratitude tree and a series of tents in different shapes where children can play. There's also a sand pit where kids can dig up replicas of pygmy mammoth bones. (The pygmy mammoth is a dwarf species of mammoth native to the Channel Islands.) A nature area includes a sensory trail designed with the unique needs of neurologically divergent children in mind.
“There are 200,000 children in Ventura County from a wide variety of backgrounds, including many farmworker families,” Hildreth said. “The space is designed for all of them, from newborns to 10 years old.”
In addition to the outdoor play areas, visitors will find an indoor “creation space” with a white Lego wall where kids can create vertical designs, four tables for art projects, and an oversized Lite-Brite.
Visitors walk through a greenhouse in the agricultural area of the museum.
“When you're 3 feet tall, that's your entire field of vision,” Hildreth said.
Admission to KidSTREAM is $16 for adults and children ages 1 and older, $13 for seniors and military, and $3 for families with EBT, SNAP, or WIC cards. Membership options are also available.
Yee said market research suggests the new museum will reach about 150,000 people and there is still room for expansion.
“We now have 21,000 square feet with room to grow,” he said. “We're not going to stop, but we're very excited to open our doors.”
