You can take your family on an educational (and fun!) outing to a museum right here in Champaign-Urbana for free
Looking for a nearby, FREE field trip you can enjoy as a family? We have everything you want to know about how much fun you can have exploring together.
Visiting
This is a pretty quiet museum, at any time really. Give yourself the time to stroll and you can probably spend 60-90 minutes here with your kids. Maybe a smidge more if you slow them down.
Enjoying the Museum
There are two floors full of exhibits to see and experience at Spurlock Museum. This isn’t a hands-on, touch-the-things museum, but you are allowed to get up close to the items on display to get a feel for them (without touching that is). This is where exhibit bingo really gets fun! Our kids had a great time trying to make a bingo and then deciding to look for EVERY item on the sheet. There are so many different rooms with permanent exhibits on display (the East Asia room was a favorite) and there are exhibits that are displayed for a period of time in certain areas, too.
Be aware that the Ancient Mediterranean gallery is full of large sculptures of unclothed individuals (especially men), as is typical of art from this time period and region. While your children may be accustomed to this type of art, you may just want a heads up on what is displayed in there before you visit so you can choose if you wander in that room or not.
A visit to the Spurlock Museum is probably best for elementary aged kids and up. Of course, if you have younger kids in the family you can bring them with, too. There are a lot of displays with content to read around the museum and that’s where a lot of the time can be spent on your visit. You can plan on 60-90 minutes for a visit to the Spurlock Museum on the campus of the University of Illinois.
And while you’re there, be sure to check out our favorite places to eat in Campustown, too!