New director takes over at Discovery Playhouse Children's Museum

The new executive director at Discovery Playhouse Children's Museum, Jennifer Mullix, said she always wanted to work with children outside a traditional classroom setting.

With a firetruck protruding out of the wall, a plastic hippo in the middle of the floor and tables full of toys and trains, the Discovery Playhouse qualifies.

"If you just sit down for a second and close your eyes and listen, you hear the funniest things that just make you smile," Mullix said.

Before coming to Cape Girardeau, she worked as director of education at The Children's Museum of Denver. "During the six years I was there, I was exposed to every aspect of the museum. I worked with our exhibits staff, our development staff on grant-writing and with our board members and committees," Mullix said.

Before Denver, she worked as curator of education at a zoo in South Bend, Ind., and with zoo education programs at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla.

Mullix is a native of Maryville, Mo., and has a psychology degree from Columbia College in Columbia, Mo.

She said she'll be implementing policies and procedures she's learned while working at and visiting other children's museums.

"Her education coupled with her wide range of experience really impressed us all," said Kevin Priester, president of the Discovery Playhouse board of directors. "We were all really impressed with her depth of knowledge across the board. She had all the right answers and then some."

Mullix started July 26, replacing interim executive director Janet Livingston, who was hired just before the museum opened in April.

The search for a full-time director took nearly five months, during which the board had several qualified candidates, Priester said.

Mullix had never heard of Cape Girardeau before she learned about the Discovery Playhouse job while looking for traveling exhibits on the Association of Children's Museums website.

"I found it fascinating how the children's museum was incorporated into the city's downtown revitalization plans," Mullix said. "This is the start of something bigger. Just reading about it in articles online I got caught up in the community's excitement."

Mullix moved to Cape Girardeau with her husband, Saen, a former zookeeper, and their twin children Nate and Evie. Saen Mullix has a photography business he is relocating here.

"We want to show our children we are willing to take leaps, even across the country, to pursue our passion," Mullix said.

The potential for future growth at Discovery Playhouse drew Mullix to the position.

Discovery Playhouse now has exhibits filling about 7,500 square feet with room to expand to 18,000 square feet.

"It's a wide-open blank slate," said Mullix, who is working with the board to finalize a master plan for the museum designed for children ages 2 to 12.

Donations have already been secured to fund a new water play area and carpeting for the second floor of the facility, she said. Those improvements are planned to be completed no later than spring 2011.

Mullix also will be hiring additional part-time staff to keep up with the museum's growing attendance. During July, the museum had more than 6,300 visitors, Priester said. In its opening month of operation, the museum had about 3,000 visitors.

"We felt we were pretty conservative in our projections, but we were all optimistic. It's exceeded any of our expectations," he said.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

502 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO