
Keeping Thinkery Clean & Healthy
Thinkery’s Health and Safety Guidelines.
We are very excited to welcome you back to Thinkery!
We have been working under the guidance of 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. Below are the enhanced health and safety measures we are taking to ensure the safety of our guests and staff.
Please read through carefully as these guidelines are very important and must be adhered through the duration of your visit.
Timed entry tickets for a 1.5-hour visit. Guests participate in our Path to Play experience which limits gallery capacity while maintaining social distancing. Our one-way Path to Play allows you to experience the following galleries for 15-minutes each: Let’s Grow, Currents, Light Lab, Our Backyard, and Innovators.
Buy Tickets in Advance!
- Guests who purchase tickets online will be able to verify their ticket purchase by presenting the email confirmation on their phone or presenting the print-out.
- A limited number of walk-in reservations will be held for each session, but guests are expected to purchase tickets via their phones.
- Credit/debit cards are preferred, and Cash discouraged at this time
- Members are also expected to reserve timed sessions online
Arrive 15-minutes before your session time for a wellness check, ticket check-in , and debrief on your Path to Play exhibit exploration experience.
- Check-in occurs outside so dress appropriately
- Have your Path to Play tickets ready to be scanned or show us your email confirmation.
- Guests who arrive after their suggested check-in time (15 minutes prior to the ticket time), risk forfeiting their tickets.
- If one is available, guests may be transferred to a later entrance time.
- Thinkery reserves the right to charge Members a $5/ticket surcharge for reservations that are scheduled but not used.
- Unused tickets are non-refundable.
All guests and staff will have a wellness check and their temperature scanned before entering the Museum.
- The wellness check consists of two COVID-19 related questions.
- Anyone who answers “Yes” to the wellness questions or with a temperature measured at 100 degrees or greater will not be allowed to visit the Museum.
- Contact our reservations team to exchange your tickets to visit another time.
Face covering required for all guests over 2+. Following CDC guidelines, staff and visitors ages 2+ must wear a mask that covers their nose and mouth to enter the Museum. There should be no gaps between your face and the mask or ventilation valves on the mask itself. Disposable child masks will be available and washable face coverings for sale in the Thinkery store. Face masks may be removed when drinking water or consuming the formula.
Additional Information
We ask that adults stay with their kiddos at all times.
No reentry. Guests are not permitted to leave and re-enter during their visit.
No locker rental or strollers allowed inside the Museum. We recommend leaving all large parcels 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 and
- 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 Town, Spark Shop, Featured Gallery, Kitchen Lab, Bloom, and Move! Studio.
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.
When you’re ready, we’ll be here. In a place where you can feel safe while having fun.
As a hands-on learning environment that caters to children and families, Thinkery is committed to keeping the museum clean and safe for guests. Below, you’ll find detailed information about our cleaning procedures, as well as suggestions for how you can help us keep Thinkery a clean, safe, and healthy environment.
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, cafe, 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.
- 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.

Plan your next trip to Thinkery
Learn more about our new “Path To Play” experience and review Thinkery’s health and safety information.