Make Me A Thriver: Hallie O'Connor

Make Me A ThriverHallie O’Connor

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL PLAY

By HOLLY DODGE

The mission of the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) is to ignite the natural curiosity of every child through the power of play in a dynamic, awe-inspiring environment.

Tucked behind that dynamic, awe-inspiring environment is a master of play and strategy: Hallie O’Connor, the museum’s exhibits manager.

O’Connor has been the exhibits manager for a decade. Her position requires a high level of strategy, problem-solving, skill, creativity, and fun. She studied fine arts at college and specialized in welding, metal casting, woodworking, and public art.

Even as a child, O’Connor was heavily exposed to the creative arts. While growing up in Excelsior, her mother was an artist in residence. O’Connor began teaching art courses during summers and after school when she was only in middle school.

Although she eventually pivoted away from teaching, she remained committed to creatively responding to challenges. After some time working with the Minnesota Children’s Museum, she heard that the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota was seeking an exhibit fabricator. With her extensive woodworking and fabricating experience, she took a chance and applied.

Well, Mankato got lucky, and O’Connor was hired to lead the charge and help spearhead the interactive and educational exhibits that the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota hosts. She moved to North Mankato with her partner, Matt, where they still reside with their two cats.

Her job at the museum always varies, but with a chuckle, she admits that most of her job consists of exhibit repairs.

O’Connor specializes in creating safe, engaging, durable, educational, and creative exhibits and components. Recently, she updated the Healthy Me exhibit, sponsored by the Mankato Clinic Foundation and the Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic (OFC).

The Healthy Me exhibit allows children to step into the roles of surgeon, lab technician, nurse, or patient within a doctor’s office, lab, and operating room. For this exhibit, O’Connor built an interactive wooden neuron pathway that young visitors can physically travel, one synapse at a time, as they participate in a scavenger hunt.

She also hand-cast and painted miniature 3-D fruits, vegetables, and legumes attached to parachutes that shoot up inside the popular wind tunnel. In her workshop at the museum, she displays a squishy, handmade 3-D replica of a liver that young ones can use on a nearly life-size operation game in the Healthy Me exhibit. A replica of an oversized mouth hosts a complete set of teeth she cast, as well as a spatula-sized toothbrush for young patrons to polish the pearly whites.

O’Connor’s job requires a lot of creativity, but even more so, logistics. She regularly tests molds, paints, cures, and finishes in the museum’s workshop.

Flanking the edges of the workshop walls are interactive snowmen cutouts that youth can complete with pegged accessories— including hand-carved wooden noses, coal eyes, and buttons. All meticulously made to endure endless hours of imaginative play and handling.

O’Connor has created countless elements that make the museum especially entrancing to the younger population: a snowmobile, a little red Corvette, an electric car, and youth-sized ice fishing poles. A few lifelike pigs rest under her workshop paint station, awaiting the most durable and realistic finishes to withhold thousands of pats and pets from tiny hands.

The Northwoods Cabin exhibit changes each season, ensuring young guests can enjoy the great outdoors no matter the weather. In winter, youth can enjoy ice fishing on little ice-covered ponds, dressing their best ‘Frosty the Snowman,’ or they can relax inside the log cabin with realistic cocoa and roasted marshmallows.

In addition to her innovative creations in Mankato, O’Connor travels the U.S. three times a year to install Minnesota Children’s Museum traveling exhibits. This allows her to see other museums and libraries throughout the country and explore new ideas and concepts. Her most recent installation was at the Exploreum Science Center in Mobile, Alabama.

O’Connor admits she is task-driven and thrives with the physical challenges of making things work. Her creative mind and logistical considerations can be seen throughout the museum’s unique exhibits, but even more so in the excited faces of the young visitors.

To learn more about the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota, visit cmsouthernmn.org