This Saturday, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights is rolling out Change Agent Adventure, a hands-on gallery built just for kids 12 and under in downtown Atlanta. The new space is the final piece of the museum’s roughly $58 million expansion and is designed to get young visitors actively practicing empathy, fairness and civic action instead of just reading about it on the walls.
Inside the new Change Agent Adventure, kids step into a “secret headquarters” through a magic elevator and then work their way through different activity zones, including a silent disco, an arcade and a series of mission challenges where they can earn “change agent” badges, according to the center’s secret headquarters announcement. “We wanted to help kids tap their own power to influence the world around them,” Jill Savitt, the center’s president and CEO, said in the release. Museum leaders say the gallery is meant to grow the institution’s reach with younger students and family groups.
Final piece of the $58 million expansion
The children’s gallery caps a multiyear renovation that added six new galleries, classrooms and expanded event space at a cost of about $58 million, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Much of the center reopened in November after a ribbon-cutting and a redesign of its flagship exhibits, which officials say are now more immersive for repeat visitors.
Family programming and sneak peeks
To go with the new space, the museum is launching weekly “Saturday Adventures” packed with story times, art projects, films and rotating activities, and it hosted member and community preview days ahead of the public debut, the Saturday Adventures event listing shows. Advance tickets are already on sale, and the center recommends booking early, especially for opening weekend.
Why it matters for Atlanta families
Museum leaders say the gallery is built to draw more school field trips, camps and repeat family visits downtown while expanding civic-education programs for younger children. The timing also lines up with a broader national moment in which museums are rethinking how they present democracy and human rights, a trend outlined by AP News.
Change Agent Adventure opens Saturday at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, 100 Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd NW. Visitors should check current hours and ticketing details on the museum’s website before heading downtown.
