On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I wish to thank you for partnering with MOMI and helping us create innovative,
hands-on learning experiences for over 2,000 children and their families within the past two years. As a volunteer-only
nonprofit organization, we will be forever grateful for the opportunities you have provided us to move our mission forward.
As such, we have some important changes to our strategic plan that I would like to share with you.
For the past two years, MOMI’s focus has been on designing the Morris Marketplace Thinkscape in Morris Township and
generating community awareness and support of our mission by creating hands-on experiences for children and their
families at various events in Morristown and Bridgewater. And while we enjoyed talking to parents and caregivers about our
vision and joining them and their children in playful learning, we now know that this path will not lead us to building a
world-class hands-on museum for children and their families in New Jersey. Therefore, in recent consultation with a
widely-respected museum consultant, we have decided at this time to not conduct any family-friendly programming for
2023. Rather, our focus will be exclusively on museum planning.
What does this exactly mean? In 2023, MOMI will focus its efforts on identifying a site for the permanent museum. We
have worked with the museum consultant to identify four geographic locations to focus on based on selection criteria such
as market size, market competition, adjacent uses, quality and aesthetics of the area, potential socio-economic impact, and
existing or potential for new development of family-friendly, cultural attractions.
These four geographic areas include:
● Jersey City or Hoboken (Hudson County);
● Newark (Essex County);
● South Orange (Essex County); and
● Greater Bridgewater Area (Somerset County).
Our change in approach is attributed to investing our limited resources in areas where we believe will lead to a greater
opportunity for success. Our ultimate goal is to make a larger community impact and create innovative hands-on
experiences for hundreds of thousands of children and their families annually – and we can only do that with building a new
museum. To accomplish this, our immediate goal is to identify a potential site(s) by January 2024. Once a potential site(s)
has been selected, we will continue the museum planning process with a market economic analysis and a feasibility study to
determine museum specifics and whether resuming family-friendly programming or opening “TinkerLAB” as a preview
space in the area is necessary.
How can you help? We appreciate your continued support as our partner and collaborator. A key factor in successfully
building a new museum is obtaining support from influential individuals who are willing to champion the project at the state
or local level. As a trusted partner to MOMI, I know you want us to succeed. I will reach out to you within the next few
weeks to talk specifically about how you can help us connect with other community leaders to help move our mission
forward to building a world-class hands-on museum.