The idea for a Children's Museum in Laredo began in the 1980s when the late Cecilia Martinez Claflin, as a curator for the Nuevo Santander Museum, saw the need for a place where children learn with hands-on experiences versus the traditional exhibits-behind-glass model. She researched the concept and soon invited a group of educators and concerned citizens to establish goals that would determine the direction and feasibility of such a museum. The museum incorporated on November 26, 1990 and applied for and received a 501©(3) non-profit educational institution status.  The Laredo Children's Museum officially opened its doors on September 11, 1991. Since then, the Museum has provided families of Webb County, South Texas, and Northern Mexico a bi-cultural and creative learning experience through hands-on exhibits and outreach programming. Children’s museums are a growth phenomenon today with over 220 nation-wide and between 80 – 100 capital projects planned. Children’s museums are uniquely dedicated to providing a safe place for inquiry- based learning that explores the natural environment and encourages the creativity and individual expression that is necessary for personal growth and self-esteem. The informal learning environments they provide are increasingly being recognized for their important contribution to the overall education of our children and of their communities as a whole. A children’s museum is a unique resource which engenders a learning culture for the entire community.

The Laredo Community College hosted the Laredo Children’s Museum since its inception in the space occupied previously by the Nuevo Santander complex. The Laredo Children's Museum has established an impressive record of accomplishment throughout the years, in the breadth of quality, hands-on exhibits that have passed through our space and in our collaborations with community organizations to bring educational, inquiry based programming to our children. We have hosted thousands of school children through school tours and seasonal camp programs, and thousands of families have passed through our doors taking full advantage of educational traveling exhibits and creative workshops. In 2007, The Laredo Children’s Museum adopted a new name to better describe our goals in the community and became the Imaginarium of South Texas. Along with the name change, the museum found a new home in the Mall del Norte. We are currently developing additional programming, all of it research-based and learner centered, with Texas A&M International, the Texas Migrant Council, the Laredo Center for the Arts, the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Quad-City Community Center in Mirando City.

The Imaginarium of South Texas is a current partner in TexNET, the Texas Network of Exhibit-based learning and Teaching is funded by the National Science Foundation and designed to create a network that will build leadership capacity in all partners through exhibit and staff resource exchange. We are partnered with the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Tyler’s Discovery Science Place and Lubbock’s Science Spectrum.

This unique collaborative provides state-of-the-art learning experiences to the rural and Hispanic audience by providing interactive science exhibits and training in inquiry learning methods with the goal of stronger learning opportunities within the communities served by the smaller museums. The exhibits we have hosted as a result of this partnership began in October 2005 and included the exhibit sets “Sound Around”, “Wild Weather”, and “Move It!”. Each set is fabricated and developed by the Exploratorium. Only through a partnership such as this one are we in Laredo able to experience this fabulous exploration of scientific phenomena. Click Here to learn more out TexNET, and our partner museums.