We cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life. The Chicago Botanic Garden opened 50 years ago as a beautiful place to visit, and it has matured into one of the world’s great horticultural display gardens and living museums. In 2014, over one million people visited the Garden’s 28 gardens and four natural areas, uniquely situated on 385 acres on and around nine islands. The permanent plant collection contains about 2.6 million plants of 9,700 taxa.  The Chicago Botanic Garden has over 50,000 members—one of the largest memberships of any U.S. botanic garden. The Garden is known for its innovative education and plant conservation science programs. The Garden is one of only 17 public gardens accredited by the American Association of Museums. The Lenhardt Library at the Garden contains 110,000 volumes—including one of the nation’s best collections of rare botanical books. For more information visit: http://www.chicagobotanic.org/

The Chicago area boasts only one institution that focuses exclusively on providing interactive exhibits and programming for young children ages birth to 8. Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago has long been recognized nationally as a model for its integration of play and learning within a fun environment and one that encourages curiosity, creativity and self-discovery. After 20 years at its original home in Wilmette, the Museum opened a new, $18.1 million Silver-level LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) facility in Glenview in October 2005. More than 330,000 children, their families, caregivers and educators visit the Museum’s 17 hands-on, interactive exhibits each year to direct their own play and learning experiences in a safe, intimate environment. All exhibits and programming align to the State of Illinois Learning Standards for children up to 3rd grade, and adhere to the principles of universal design, welcoming guests with any level of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional ability. The Museum also conducts numerous outreach activities, including its flagship Early Childhood Connections program, providing professional development for teachers and childcare providers along with free field trips for classrooms in low-income neighborhoods and children who are risk of academic failure. Everyone at Play, which opens the Museum exclusively for families with children with special needs, is a program offered several times during the year. Come see for yourself why we're the Place Where Awesome Lives!

Racine Heritage Museum is home to over 200,000 artifacts and an extensive archival collection documenting our area's economic and cultural history. Our exhibit and educational program reflect our commitment to object-centered learning, and to exploring our area's historic and emergent technologies in their local cultural and worldwide contexts. The continuous interaction between people and the land generates the special character that is the spirit of a community. With each exhibit and educational program at Racine Heritage Museum, we strive to capture that spirit for a moment, and share something of our unique heritage of exploration and discovery, of innovation and invention, of entrepreneurship, of craftsmanship, and of diversity - the local stories and global impact of Racine's people and their products.

A historic farm in Lake Forest, IL. Today, our mission is to steward a historic farm that enriches the greater Lake County community as a center for experiential learning to broaden access to education, nutritious food, and our local food system.