The Madison Children’s Museum, a community hub for children and families in downtown Madison where play is serious business, will host its annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration tonight from 5-8 p.m. featuring music, food, arts activities, cultural performances, and playful programs.
“We are excited to host our annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration. It’s one of those special events that really highlights how rich our culture is in our community. We really want to uplift all of our communities, but especially during this month, we want to uplift our Hispanic friends and neighbors,” Charlotte Cummins, director of community partnerships at the Madison Children’s Museum, tells Madison365.
The night of activities and performances, called Noche Gratuita en Celebración de la Herencia Hispana in Spanish, is free and open to the public.
“The Madison Children’s Museum is just such a fun place that we want the whole community to know about,” Cummins says. “We really love that we are able to collaborate with people from the Hispanic community and have a budget to actually pay artists to come and perform. So we have three different performers with music and dance, and then we also are having free samples of food from the local Venezuelan restaurant La Tagura.”
Duo Pukra will provide music from Peru at 5:30 p.m. at Wonderground while dancing and music from Ballet Folklórico de Maria Diaz will take place in the Wildernest at 6 p.m. Angela Puerta, a Colombian singer-songwriter and guitarist who is a six-time Madison Area Music Award winner, will perform at Wonderground at 6:30 p.m.
There will also be free salsa and chips from 5-6 p.m. on the Rooftop Ramble. “We’ve got bike blender salsa to go along with free chips on the rooftop,” Cummins says. “We have these bikes that kids get on and they use their own energy to mix up all the ingredients.
(Photo: MCM)
“We are going to be showcasing the histories, tradition, food, dance and music and we will have all of these countries in Latin America represented,” she adds. “Free admission starts at 4 p.m. and most of the activities start at 5 p.m.”
Sugar skull craft with Mariposa Learning Center will take place 5–7 p.m. in the Art Studio and Flags of Latin America craft will take place from 5-7:30 p.m. in the Art Studio Classroom.
Other activities planned for Hispanic Heritage Night include:
- Maraca making with Play and Learn, 5:30–7:30 p.m. in the Art Studio
- Monarch mariposas (butterflies) growth and migration in Mexico craft, 5:30–7:30 p.m. in Celebrations Room
- Papel picado craft, 5–8 p.m. in the Art Studio
- Scavenger hunt, 5–8 p.m., throughout the museum
“The scavenger hunt is going to be really fun,” Cummins says. “We will have notable people from the Hispanic community that kids and families will search for their photos and learn more information about them throughout the museum. And then we have little prizes.”
The Madison Children’s Museum will hold similar events in the future hosting a Black History Month celebration in February of 2025 and an Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month event next May.
“It’s going to be fun and the weather is looking really nice right now. All of the dancing and music we are planning on having outside so there will be plenty of things going on both indoors and outdoors for Hispanic Heritage Night,” Cummins says.
