Looking Back to Leap Forward

For over 15 transformative years, Carole Charnow has been the heart and soul of Boston Children’s Museum, guiding the Museum through a period of remarkable growth, innovation, and impact. When she retires from her role as President & CEO in August 2026, she will be the second-longest serving President in the Museum’s 113-year history; an inspiring leader who ushered in an era of resilience, innovation, creativity, culture change, and financial stability rooted in professional systems and practices. Upon her retirement, Charnow will be honored with the title of President Emerita, and her contributions to the Museum, the performing arts, and the City of Boston will be celebrated at a gala on May 2, 2026. We invite you to look back on the extraordinary journey of a leader whose passion turned possibilities into realities.

From the beginning, Carole was a non-traditional candidate for President & CEO of Boston Children’s Museum.  Although she had no museum leadership experience, her background in theater, opera, and music endowed her with a great talent for making each day at the Museum an engaging and entertaining experience. Every day had to be special, every visitor deserving nothing less. Well-known and active in Boston’s cultural community, she demonstrated a deep understanding of the dual nature of the museum’s purpose—to both entertain and educate.  She made it a priority to understand how Boston’s various constituencies regarded the Museum, and committed to raising its visibility and service; creating a meeting ground where all of Boston’s children and families could come together in joyful play.

With Charnow’s inspiration and guidance, Boston Children’s Museum continued its long history as a leader in informal, early education both nationally and internationally, serving as an incubator for the development and dissemination of resources for— and by—schools, libraries, museums, shelters, and community centers throughout the region and across the country. Her leadership oversaw the renovation of three permanent exhibitions, numerous much-needed repairs to the Museum’s 135-year-old building and facility, and the launching of an imaginative climate resilience initiative, that will ensure its future as a destination for its more than 450,000 annual visitors.

During her tenure, Charnow presided over Boston Children’s Museum’s strongest financial period in its history. Employing her great gift for friend- and fund-raising, Carole helped to raise over $75M in two major campaigns, including several significant programmatic and capital grants, and $10M for flood resilience, which will protect the Museum from the threat of climate change. Charnow has also retired two thirds of the Museum’s debt and doubled the Museum’s endowment.

“Carole’s leadership has been nothing short of transformational for Boston Children’s Museum. She has guided the organization through a period of remarkable success and achievement. She combined vision with stewardship, ensuring that the Museum is not only stronger financially but also more deeply connected to the children and families we serve,” said David Healy, Chair of the Board. “Carole has strengthened the Museum’s role as a national leader in early education and community engagement, and her positive impact can be seen in the joyful experiences of children at play in the Museum, in our community programs, and through the work of our exceptional team. The Board is deeply grateful for her extraordinary leadership and lasting contributions.”

With amazing staff, built and nurtured over her tenure, the Museum can point to a number of significant achievements over the past 15 years:

• Working closely with Mayor Michelle Wu and other Museum leaders, Charnow and her team were founders of Boston Family Days, a free admission program for Boston school children and their families.
• The Museum’s recent efforts to combat sea-level rise have resulted in an imaginative resilience masterplan described by civic leaders as an innovative example of how institutions can protect their property and neighborhood, while providing engaging and educational opportunities for their communities.
• As it turned 100, the Museum was awarded the Institute of Museum and Library Services National Medal, the nation’s highest honor conferred on museums for extraordinary service to the community, presented by First Lady, Michelle Obama, at the White House.
• Alongside then-Mayor Martin Walsh and the Richard Family, the Museum established Martin’s Park adjacent to the Museum, a 1.5-acre, accessible park and playground.
• To ensure all children could enjoy its rich exhibits and resources, the Museum founded the region’s first access program for families receiving benefits, the EBT/WIC Discount Initiative, now known as the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Card to Culture Program, which is offered in 450 museums and cultural institutions across the state.
• The Museum’s pioneering new exhibition, You, Me, We, which tackles the complex subjects of race, bias and empathy, won the American Alliance of Museums Excellence in DEAI Award in 2024.
• The Museum’s groundbreaking program on Religious Literacy, founded in 2019, was a first for a children’s museum.
• The Museum established a new science and engineering department, encompassing a STEAM lab, multiple grant programs, and curricular materials which are used in 80 state school districts, and in programs and exhibits. In addition, the Museum earned two major grants from NASA and created the exhibit, My Sky, with the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
• Other inventive programming included: an expanded performing arts program, Explore It Summer Camp, the popular Boston Grown-Ups Museum, an imaginative program of special events such as the Hundred Acre Wood: A Winnie-the-Pooh Experience, the Snowmazing winter festival, the Halloween Spooktacular, and the annual Wonder Ball fundraiser, which has raised millions of dollars for the Museum’s free and discounted admissions, making up a third of its visitation each year.

Prior to her appointment as President & CEO of Boston Children’s Museum, Charnow led cultural and educational non-profits in the US and the UK and was the founder and General Director of Opera Boston, where she produced 50 original opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, including the world premiere of Madame White Snake, which she commissioned. The opera was jointly produced with the Beijing Music Festival and toured to China in the fall of 2010. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2011, the first Pulitzer for an opera in 49 years.

As a 30-year active leader in the Boston Cultural Community, Charnow was a co-founder with Kara Elliott-Ortega and David Howse of the Boston Cultural Leaders Coalition. She is a member of the Community Services Board of the Dimock Health Center in Roxbury, serves as Vice Chair of the Boston Arts Academy Board, and is on the Board of the American Alliance of Museums. She serves as Vice Chair of both the Green Ribbon Commission Cultural Working Group and the Boston Chamber of Commerce Climate and Energy Committee. She is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Non-Profit Practice and was named a Barr Fellow in the class of 2015. Charnow is a recipient of the Emerson College Distinguished Alumni Award, the Berklee College Urban Service Award, the New England Museum Association Excellence Award, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Award, and this Fall, will receive the 2025 Norman B. Leventhal Distinguished Leadership Award.