On a rainy late-July morning, visitors packed the Rochester Museum & Science Center. And it was about to get even busier: Three school buses approached the main entrance, and the line at the front desk was already out the door.
Gabrielle Castellano and her kids, 6-year-old Jameson and 3-year-old Maya, made it in before the rush to play and explore the museum.
“Usually, we only come once or twice a year, but I want to come more,” she said. “There’s a lot of things for my daughter to do; she loves the water table and digging for fossils.”
And Jameson was practicing his reading skills, sounding out the words on each station’s instructions.
Castellano plans to visit the museum more frequently after this week, when the Amazon Free Afternoons program returns to the RMSC. The program, which previously ran at the museum from August 2024 to August 2025, offers free admission on the first Wednesday of each month from noon to 5 p.m. It starts this week.
Funding for the program is provided by a $100,000 grant from the Amazon Charitable Fund for the Greater Rochester Region at the Rochester Area Community Foundation.
Calvin Uzelmeier, the museum’s vice president of programs and exhibits, is excited for the opportunity to bring in community members who may not otherwise visit.
“There’s a report from United Way (showing that) 31% of the population of New York state are living in this economic gray area, where they’re making money,” he said, but not enough to go on family outings that might be considered “extra.”
“They just have enough to get by,” he said. “So just being able to think about, ‘How can you eliminate the economic barriers for enjoying time together?’ I think that’s where this is incredibly important for us."
During its initial yearlong run, the once-a-month Amazon Free Afternoons welcomed about 6,000 guests. Each month drew more guests than the previous one.
Amazon Free Afternoons will cover admission to the RMSC, the Strasenburgh Planetarium, and the Cumming Nature Center. According to Uzelmeier, programming on those days will “look more like a weekend day,” with live experiments and science shows like the popular Electricity Theater, and light shows or star shows at the planetarium.
Castellano, a stay-at-home-mom who visits the museum as an opportunity for her kids to socialize as well as to learn, is excited about what the free events will mean for her family and for Rochester-area residents.
“I think (the program) is a great idea, because it can be cost-prohibitive for some people to come to museums often,” she said. “But giving them an opportunity? I think that there’s only positives to it.”
During their visit, Jameson was already developing plans for a ball launcher in his backyard after he became inspired by the one near the museum’s main entrance.
“He wants to be an inventor now, because of what he’s seen here,” Castellano said.
Excitement and further investigation is exactly what Andi Espenshade, senior director of development, hopes families take with them after they leave the museum.
“Our fabulous education staff embrace a mindset where it’s a good thing to say, ‘I don’t know,’” Espenshade said. “Because ‘I don’t know’ is no longer closing the door off to things that are inaccessible, but rather it opens the door to a journey of discovery.”
