By James Windell
One of South Haven’s museums has just announced it will be closing. The Mitten Children’s Museum, which was established in Fennville but came to downtown South Haven in April 2022, had – ironically – one of its best years in 2025.
“We had a great summer,” says Pam Leiter, The Mitten Museum Board President. “I mean, we do great volume during the tourist season, but when school starts and the tourists are gone, our admissions are way down and it’s not enough to support the museum.”
The Mitten has had a mission to encourage children of all abilities to experience hands-on learning by offering safe and fun exhibits and programs. In the past, the Museum featured Michigan-themed spaces such as the Great Lakes room, Farmers’ Market, Motown & Me, MakerSpace, I Heart South Haven room and more. The hands-on activities were designed to promote learning through play among young children and their families.
The museum’s roots go back more than 17 years to Fennville, where it began as the Forever Curious Children’s Museum. In 2022, a second location opened in South Haven. For nearly a year, both sites operated, but with limited resources and growing demand in South Haven, the Board made the difficult decision to sell the Fennville property in hopes of establishing a permanent home. That goal, unfortunately, has not been achieved, and the museum has continued to rent the Conger House at 246 Broadway, South Haven.
“We had some great donors, but we didn’t have the ability to put together a strong fundraising campaign,” Leiter says. “A lot of factors were at play in our closing, but the big one was not finding a new space.”
Leiter says that she spent the last few years meeting with people in South Haven trying to locate affordable space. “Honestly, it seemed like there was not going to be anything we could find under a million dollars,” she says, “and we really thought that the museum couldn’t be successful if it wasn’t downtown.”
Although the Museum will be closing, Leiter says that they will be transitioning to mobile programming, funded by The Community Foundation Grant. She says that several exhibits, which were put together under the creative leadership of Acting Executive Director Joie Barnhart, debuted at this summer’s popular Play Palooza event. The plan is that these mobile exhibits will continue to be offered on a rotating basis at community partner sites this winter, preserving the museum’s educational mission in a scaled-down format.
“We’re proud of the programming Joie spearheaded this year,” Leiter says. “From the Easter Egg Hunt to the successful rollout of our mobile exhibits, she brought energy and imagination to every corner of the museum, especially during our busiest season.”
In the meantime, all permanent exhibits are being carefully inventoried and stored, and funds remain in the museum’s account should a new group wish to relaunch the museum in the future. “Hopefully, somebody will step in and will have access to funding sources and will take it over,” she says. “We just need someone with the vision and contacts to come forward and help us relaunch.”
Although Leiter says that she will be stepping down as Board President after serving two terms, a new president will take her place, and the Board will stay together. “We’re keeping a small Board together to explore any opportunities that might be presented to us,” Leiter says. “We are deeply saddened to announce the closing of The Mitten Children’s Museum. This has been a labor of love for our board, staff, and volunteers, and we regret that we were unable to find the right mix of space, funding, and community support to sustain it year-round.”
