Fun, Learning, Inspiration, and Play

New Children’s Museum Open Wednesday - Monday in Hillsboro

“Mom, I don’t like this place… I love it!” - 8 year old friend 2/14/25

What’s New?

We’ve Expanded:

  • Main Room: Imaginative play with our green screen stage and Mercado, fort building, cars and trains, infant area, wind tunnels, glow-in-the-dark cave, and more.

  • Cartoon Room: Cartoon-making for all ages, light and color table, and more blocks.

  • Art and Science Room: Rotating crafts and experiments every day, felt art walls, fossils, and mini-cafeteria - snacks and cold brew available for purchase!

Second floor and more coming in late 2025

  • A four or five year old kid wearing a crown plays inside a castle constructed of large blocks that look like stone bricks.

    Build a Castle and Make a New Friend in our Fort Area.

  • A five or six year old kid looks out the doorway of a fort made with giant magnetic tiles.

    Looking for a New Home in Hillsboro? Consider One Made from Giant Magnetic Tiles.

  • A kid sitting behind a wall made of large, colorful, animal-shaped foam blocks plays with blocks that attach to the wall of the museum.

    Or Maybe a Home Made from Animals? To Each Their Own.

  • A stage with a green screen cloth attached to the wall. In front and to the right are child-sized concessions and ticket stands and a television screen showing an oceanic background.

    Bienvenidos al Mercado! Buy Tickets and Snacks for the Show on the Green Screen Stage.

  • The screen of the green screen exhibit shows a Dad and two kids wearing costumes with a backdrop of stars and purple and blue nebulae.

    And What a Show It Is!

  • The screen of the green screen exhibit shows two children wearing dragon costumes walking through a magical forest landscape with a white tiger standing between them.

    In Act 2, We Find Our Heros have become Dragons, Hiking with Tigers.

  • A close-up of hands moving a wooden train along the tracks, passing buildings.

    Some Kids Never Leave Our Hand-Made Train Set - and That's Okay!

  • A three or four year old child races cars down a smooth, sloped wooden structure.

    Race Cars Supa-Dupa Fast

  • Vehicles made from spools, toilet paper rolls, wooden dowels, and colorful feathers sit at the top of a sloped wooden race track

    Or Build Your Own Car-Like Thing

  • A close-up of toy construction vehicles bathed in green slime.

    Yes We Make Slime from Time-to-Time...

  • A close-up of small robots made from vibrating toothbrush heads with googley eyes and colorful pipe cleaners glued to them.

    And Weird Robots that Make Art or Climb.

  • A darkened room with glowing lamps and art supplies on children's tables. Projected on the wall is an image of children's drawings of animals walking around in an African savannah.

    Make Your Very Own Cartoons Too. Color in Dinosaurs, Spaceships, Sharks, and Lions, and Watch them Come to Life on the Wall.

  • Three seven or eight year old kids sitting around a table coloring drawings of animals to project onto the screen.

    And Make a New Friend in the Process

  • Two three or four year old kids aim wind tunnels, sending gauzy scarves flying from transparent tubes.

    Play With Wind...

  • A round table glows with green light. Colorful, semi-transparent blocks are scattered across its surface.

    And With Light.

  • A large, framed magnet wall with tubes that can be moved around to send balls down different pathways. In front of it is a tower of colorful, animal-shaped blocks.

    Have You Experimented with Magnets and Gravity Today?

  • A green pegboard wall. Removable, floppy pegs are attached to the wall, and colorful, different-shaped blocks with holes in them are threaded through the pegs.

    We Encourage Questions at FLIP, but Sometimes "Why" is Not the Right One.

  • A kid wearing a green apron smiles proudly. Hanging from her neck is a paper plate upon which is written, "I work here," and it's spelled "w.r.c.k h.e.r."

    If You Do Need Something, We're Here to Help.

  • An adult sits beside a three or four year old kid and a crawling baby who are playing with blocks.

    We Have Space for the Little Ones too.

  • Two parents holding babies laugh together. In the background, a kid plays with the magnet board.

    Even Adults Can Make New Friends.

  • A selection of snacks on a table: Chomps beef jerky, fruit strips, seaweed, pirate's booty, cold brew coffee, Izzy soda, GoGo Squeeze, Goldfish, and an Honest Kids juicebox.

    Caffeine, Protein, Salty, and Sweet: Take a Break in our Mini-Cafeteria.

FLIP IN THE NEWS

  • Smiling Co-executive Directors Jack Graham and Melissa Hong stand beside a fort made of magnetic tiles. Behind it is a screen showing the title Everyday Northwest.

    We were on TV! Giant THANK YOU to Gresham Ford and KOIN 6 for having us on Everyday Northwest.

  • A close-up of the cover of Hillsboro Arts and Entertainment Magazine. Text says "FLIP the Script on Curiosity and Creativity. More opportunities for creative play are coming to Hillsboro's Cultural Arts District!"

    Hillsboro A&E Magazine featured us! The support and encouragement from the Hillsboro Cultural Arts District has been AMAZING!

WHO WE ARE

We operate a children’s museum in Hillsboro, Oregon as well as a mobile museum program that visits schools, libraries, family shelters, and cultural events throughout the Portland Metro Area. We serve children and their families with a special emphasis on children aged 0-10 and families from underserved communities, including low-income families, children with disabilities, immigrants, refugees, people of color, and families that lack access to stable housing.

We invite prospective volunteers of all backgrounds and abilities to get in touch and get involved.

Please email info @flipmuseum.org for more information.

A cartoon showing a diverse group of kids, including one in a wheelchair and another using a walker. They are smiling, playing with a rocket ship and a balloon, and holding their arms out in a welcoming gesture.

WHY PLAY MATTERS

When children engage in independent, open-ended play, going wherever their imaginations take them, they develop essential skills like critical thinking, emotion management, creativity, leadership, and collaboration.

Play is crucial to healthy development, so it’s a problem that the time children spend playing has declined significantly over the last several decades.

The FLIP Museum is helping solve this play deficit by creating educational play spaces that stimulate children’s curiosity and inspire their imaginations. Because all children deserve enriching play experiences, we strive to make our museums accessible to families and children of all backgrounds and abilities.

Art Credit: Illustration by Edelle Art