behind the Museum

Elizabeth Prashad, founder of the Children’s Museum of Sound & Color, began imagining the museum after stepping away from her career to care for her young children full time. Like many parents, she searched for enriching weekday activities that offered both learning and connection. While her family enjoyed story times, play spaces, and local museums, she noticed a significant gap: few places allowed young children to truly explore art and music in hands-on, age-appropriate ways. Traditional museums often limited meaningful interaction, and music experiences rarely moved beyond the basics. Elizabeth envisioned something different—a space where children could freely experiment with sound, rhythm, light, and color while discovering actual art and music.

That vision grew into a larger mission rooted in inclusion and accessibility. As she developed learning experiences for her own children, Elizabeth became increasingly aware of how often children from deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, and low-vision communities are overlooked in cultural spaces. From the beginning, accessibility became a foundation rather than an afterthought. The Children’s Museum of Sound & Color was created from the belief that every child deserves meaningful access to art, music, beauty, and creative play—and a space that celebrates the many ways we experience the world.