Keeping Thinkery Clean & Healthy
Thinkery’s Health and Safety Guidelines
Our top priority is the health and safety of our visitors, staff, and community.
Thinkery utilizes guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Austin Public Health (APH) to ensure our museum remains a safe, clean, and healthy place for everyone to play and learn. We have adopted a number of enhanced health and safety measures to help ensure the safety of our guests and staff.
Please read carefully as these guidelines are very important and must be adhered to throughout your visit.
All General Admission and Baby Bloomers sessions run a maximum of two hours. Tickets are limited to 25% of normal museum capacity to prevent overcrowding and promote appropriate social distancing.
Masks are required for all guests age 2+
Per CDC guidelines, staff and visitors ages 2+ must wear a mask that covers their nose and mouth to enter the Museum. Scarves, bandanas, gaiters, and masks with vents are not permitted. There should be no gaps between your face and the mask or ventilation valves on the mask itself. We ask that you practice mask wearing with your young child at home to help ensure their comfort and compliance when they visit.
Disposable child-size masks will be available and reusable face coverings are for sale in the Thinkery store. Face masks may be removed when drinking water, but must be replaced immediately.
All guests and staff will have a wellness check before entering the Museum.
- The wellness check consists of two COVID-19 related questions.
- Anyone who answers “Yes” to the wellness questions will not be allowed to visit the Museum.
- Contact our reservations team to exchange your tickets to visit another time.
Ticketing and check-in
- A limited number of walk-up tickets will be held for each session, but guests are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance (Members are also asked to reserve their tickets online in advance)
- Credit/debit cards are preferred, and Cash discouraged at this time
- You may check in up to 30 minutes prior to your ticketed session; no tickets will be sold within 30 minutes of a session’s scheduled end time.
Please maintain social distancing whenever possible while inside the museum
We are limiting for all sessions to 25% of normal capacity to allow guests to maintain appropriate social distancing throughout their visit.
Even at reduced capacity, there may be periods where certain exhibits or galleries are crowded. Staff may temporarily limit access at those times to minimize contact between groups.
Additional Information
We ask that adults stay with their children at all times.
No locker rental or strollers allowed inside the Museum. We recommend leaving all large bags and strollers in your car. There will be an unattended stroller parking outside at our entrance.
No food, except formula and water allowed in the Museum. Our snack area is closed.
- Water fountains are turned off: Please bring your own water bottles.
Physical distancing. There will be signage promoting safe distancing throughout museum and limited occupancy of each gallery based on the size.
Closed Galleries: In order to create the safest possible environment for our staff and guests, we have removed items from our galleries that cannot be thoroughly sanitized multiple times per day, and closed spaces that do not allow for social distancing. The following exhibits will NOT be open at this time: Smile Here, Train Table, Spark Shop, and Kitchen Lab. Bloom will only be open during designated Baby Bloomers sessions.
Extended kindness to other guests and staff
Guests who fail to follow the above guidelines will be asked to leave or reschedule their visit for a later date when the measures are no longer in place.
We need your help to keep Thinkery a safe, fun place to play and learn!
We’re doing our part to keep our community healthy and safe from COVID-19 and other illnesses. There are additional steps that YOU can take to help prevent the spread of germs and viruses.
If someone in your group is sick, please visit us some other time
For the health and safety of all our guests, we ask that any child or adult with an elevated temperature or an illness that may be contagious (such as pink eye, a cold, or the flu) not visit Thinkery until they are fully recovered.
A good rule of thumb: if you’re too sick to go to school (or work), you should plan to visit Thinkery another time.
Be proactive! Take simple steps to protect your child.
- Wash your hands with soap and water frequently. It takes 15-20 seconds to get them clean enough.
- Avoid touching a person who is obviously sick.
- Avoid touching your own eyes and face (viruses can transmit from our hands into our bodies).
- Please cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough. Remember to cough and sneeze into your elbow (the “vampire sneeze“) or into a tissue, not into your hand.
- Get your flu vaccine every year.
Thinkery strongly supports the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that all children receive vaccinations. We request—but do not require—that Thinkery guests are vaccinated for MMR and other transmittable diseases; proof of vaccination is not needed to gain entry.
Thinkery does all we can to prevent illness and to maintain a clean, safe learning environment. This includes an ongoing, thorough cleaning of museum and gallery components.
Museum Cleaning Procedures
Increased cleaning and sanitation protocols that meet or exceed the recommendations set out by the State of Texas and CDC, including the use of disinfectants specifically for use against the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) viruses.
A professional cleaning team uses an electrostatic spray weekly to disinfect the museum.
- A professional cleaning team is on-site during Thinkery operating hours to sanitize and clean the restrooms and common areas.
- Deep cleaning takes place when the museum is closed. The floors are mopped and vacuumed, restrooms are cleaned, and surfaces are sanitized.
- The air in the building is always circulated with fresh air to maintain clean, healthy air.
- Signs are displayed throughout the Museum to remind visitors to wash their hands, wear their masks, and maintain social distancing wherever possible.
- Hand sanitizer stations are located on each floor, throughout galleries and near all restrooms.
- Staff are required to consistently wash their hands.
- All surfaces that hands touch are cleaned daily to eliminate the spread of germs.
- Visitors are welcome to notify Thinkery staff if an area or object needs attention.
Gallery Cleaning Procedures
- The Guest Services Team sanitizes all exhibits daily, including loose parts such as play foods, blocks, balls, and acrylic light pegs.
- Water exhibits utilize filtration systems and UV sterilization on a constant basis. They are treated daily with bromine, which is like chlorine, but milder. They are “shocked” weekly with a non-chlorine, potassium monopersulfate.
- It is developmentally appropriate when babies and toddlers put things in their mouths. Thinkery provides bins for these props and objects to be placed for disinfecting before being cycled back out for play. Dirty props and loose parts are constantly replaced with clean ones throughout the day.
There is no 100% effective way to prevent illnesses, but we can all take steps to minimize risk and spreading germs. If you see an area or object that requires cleaning or attention, please notify Thinkery staff.