All work and no play? No thank you, says Cassie Coffey. For her, work is play.
Coffey is the Director of Playful Experiences at DuPage Children’s Museum in Naperville, Illinois. She oversees a team of over 50 employees whose primary job is to facilitate joyful play experiences and open-ended learning with the museum’s tiny guests and their families.
Coffey, who is a two-time graduate of UW-Milwaukee – in 2014 with anthropology major and a certificate in comparative ethnic studies, and again in 2018 with a master’s degree in anthropology and museum studies – says that the best part of her job is that “Play is encouraged. I can literally walk out my door and play any time of day that I want to.”
She sat down to talk about working in a museum, her favorite exhibits, and the importance of playful learning.
You started small at DuPage Children’s Museum and today are in a director position. How did you get to where you are now?
You’ve got to be willing to start at any level you can and then work your way up to where you want to be. I started as a Visitor Services Team Lead, so I worked for our guest-facing operations. I was able to do that because I had past retail and membership services experience through working at the UWM Klotsche Center, and I had experience working with kids.
I loved being as curious as possible about all different avenues inside of the museum, and I just continued to ask for help and learn about everything and anything that I could get my hands on. I offered to pitch in or take the lead whenever an opportunity arose. I think showing that I had a willingness to learn and grow and develop these skills stood out in my organization. So, when opportunities became available that maybe weren’t exactly aligned with where I started at the Museum, people trusted in my ability to take on those responsibilities.
What exactly does a Director of Playful Experiences do?
From the people that you greet at the front desk to the level of cleanliness and facilitation that you get on the floor, our team is tasked with engaging and playing with the guests that come into the museum. We’re always coming up with creative ways that encourage more people to come into the museum, different ways that we can engage children at our STEAM-based learning exhibits.
I work closely with our exhibits team on how we manage experiences and materials on the floor. It’s a great role for me because I don’t like to be in one box. One day, I might be spending time on the floor, playing with families, and the next day, I might be planning promotions with our marketing department or buying new facilitation materials for our young explorers.
Every day is a little bit different, and I keep learning. I think if I ever stopped learning, that would be the time to say, okay, now it’s time for the next thing. But I haven’t reached that point yet.
Tell me about DuPage Children’s Museum.
At DuPage Children’s Museum, we are all about STEAM-based exhibits – so Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math – and how these subjects intersect, and exploring that through hands-on, child-led play. We have about 300,000 visitors every year. We have about 17,000 square feet of exhibit space. We provide a more hands-on, open-ended way of learning that I think a lot of kids benefit from, and their adults too! Adults can be just as much a part of the play as the kids can, and we as adults learn a lot through play.
It’s not like a traditional science museum where you might have a docent or a demonstrator that’s leading you through experiments. When the kids come into the museum, they manage their learning experiences. We can scaffold that learning through facilitation, but our job is to bring joy and play into learning. We want to get kids excited about things that might otherwise seem scary, like math and science, and provide opportunities for families to socialize and connect.
Is there a specific exhibit at the museum that you really love?
Our exhibit, The Questioneers: Read. Question. Think. PLAY! is immersive and fun! “The Questioneers” is a book series that was written by author Andrea Beaty, who is local to the Naperville area. We worked with the author and the publisher to develop an exhibit based on each of those individual characters from the book series. Each of the characters are second-grade children that have their unique interests and personalities like “Aaron Slater, Illustrator” and “Ada Twist, Scientist.”
I love that exhibit because not only is it a great representation of STEAM and how it’s applied in the real world, but it also is a celebration of what makes every individual child unique, no matter their background or their circumstances. I love that our visitors can seem themselves represented in the characters from the book series.
What’s your metric for success? How do you know when you’ve done your job well?
It’s going to sound weird, but sometimes, tears! When children are crying on their way out of the museum, that can be a true metric of success. They have had such a good time that they’re heartbroken to leave for the day, and that means we must be doing something right.
How did UWM help put you on the path to success in your career?
Working and going to a university where there was such a diverse set of experiences and perspectives helped me build a lot of respect and understanding for working with people that don’t come from the same background that I do. I think that was helpful and a cool part of going to UWM.
I also really loved my classes in the Honors College and the Museum Studies program in collaboration with Milwaukee Public Museum. I had some fantastic, creative, hands-on learning experiences that challenged me to think critically and benefited my continued love to be curious and try new things. These experiences helped shape how I approach my professional work today.
Do you have advice for students who are just starting their career journeys?
Stay curious. Sometimes people say you should stay in your lane…focus on what you went to school for…focus on what you know really well.
That is just so limiting in my experience. I could not have gotten to the role that I’m at today if I did not push myself into conversations and projects and ask to help with things that were outside of my role.
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science