Children’s Museum and Fred Rogers Productions awarded more than $2 million to help kids build character

Photo courtesy of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.

Kindness, generosity, compassion, respect, bravery, resilience: These are some of the character traits that children will be able to work on through a series of new exhibits and resources being designed at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh (CMP).

The Children’s Museum and Fred Rogers Productions (FRP) have received a $2.49 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to develop a new permanent exhibit and a traveling exhibit, as well as companion programs and resources to help young children build their personal character.

The project is being funded through a Lilly Endowment initiative called Fostering Character Through Children’s Museums. CMP is one of 15 museums around the nation being funded through the project.

Museum staff will work closely with FRP, tapping into the popular TV characters and messages created or inspired by Fred Rogers, including “Donkey Hodie,” “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The exhibits are slated to open in mid to late 2026.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of this national initiative and embark on work that fosters character development through informal learning,” said Jane Werner, executive director of CMP, in a statement about the grant funding. “It naturally builds on work the Museum has done over the last two decades to build empathy and kindness in children, and we anticipate that it will provide key insights into the vital work of understanding early childhood development.”

The museum has a long history of creating hands-on exhibits that explore and encourage social-emotional development, including “XOXO: An Exhibit about Love & Forgiveness” and its pop-up adjuncts, as well as “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Traveling Exhibit” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: A Grr-ific Exhibit.”

In November 2023, CMP was one of 23 museums that received a one-year planning grant from Lilly to explore ideas for this project. Through community events, talkback boards, visitor focus groups and prototyping of exhibit components, CMP’s staff gained a better understanding of character development in children and families, and began exploring how they might create an interactive exhibit that promotes this.

Like so much that CMP offers, these new exhibits will be open-ended and nonlinear, so visitors can bring their personal experiences into their museum experience, and the traveling exhibit will be welcoming to diverse audiences across the country. The Museum’s research around character development will be added to the growing body of knowledge about fostering character development in kids.

“We are excited to see how the museums funded through this initiative will help children and their families to explore various character traits and reflect together on ways these traits can be practiced and strengthened,” said Ted Maple, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for education and youth programs.

Stay tuned for more details as 2026 approaches.