The Spark
Muse Knoxville is a nonprofit children’s STEAM museum with a seven-day-a-week operation and a staff built largely around working parents and former classroom teachers. CEO Allison Comer knows the child care math personally: she has two young sons, no family in the area, and a background in public education where she felt the cost constraints firsthand. But the business problem was just as sharp: Muse needs its team on-site to run field trips, exhibits, and educational programs. When school is out (for breaks, in-service days, snow days, or Knox County’s three-week staggered kindergarten start), Muse’s employees face the same care gap as every other working parent in the region. If Allison couldn’t solve that for her own staff first, she couldn’t keep her operation running.
The Solution
Muse’s answer started with its own workforce. Employees receive 50% off all camp rates and sign up before the public, priority enrollment that guarantees their children have a spot before a single community seat is sold. For a staff of working parents running a seven-day operation, that isn’t a perk. It’s what keeps the building staffed on the days it matters most. As Allison puts it: if we cannot get this right for our own people, we’re not doing it right.
From that employee-first foundation, Muse built outward. Over five years, the museum systematically expanded its camp program to cover every day Knox County Schools is not in session: summer, fall, winter, and spring break, then in-service days and election days, and finally same-day closures for snow, ice, and illness. Each addition solved an internal staffing problem before it became a community offering. The camps run through 3:30 p.m. with aftercare available, serve Pre-K 4 through fourth grade, and are themed around STEAM concepts (robotics, biology, civic engagement) with rotations through the exhibit floor, planetarium, and tinker lab.
Staffing is built for agility. Muse’s education team is cross-trained across field trips, outreach, and camps. When a snow day hits, the educators who would have been leading school field trips pivot to camp instead. Background-checked University of Tennessee student volunteers (over 6,500 hours this fiscal year) bolster ratios and keep quality high. The model requires no additional facility; the museum’s existing classroom and exhibit space serves double duty.
Pricing is kept affordable through tiered memberships, including special rates for families participating in TennCare or other safety net programs. When stakeholders urged Muse to triple prices after a snow-day camp sold out in 18 minutes, Allison held the line: camps are mission-aligned, not revenue-maximizing. The accessibility is deliberate, but so is the business logic. Affordable camps fill fast, which means more families in the building, which means more visibility and membership growth for the museum.
The Results
The employee benefit pays off in recruitment and retention. Muse attracts former licensed educators who want to leave the full-time classroom but stay in education, and the child care discount is part of what makes a nonprofit salary workable for them. In a labor market where finding qualified people to run children’s programming is a constant challenge, that matters. Allison has built a team that cross-trains, stays, and can mobilize a camp on three hours’ notice, a capability that doesn’t exist without workforce stability.
The community impact reinforces the business case. Muse surveys parents after every camp, and 100% of respondents said the camp allowed them to go to work that day. On the last snow day this winter, Knox County Schools called the closure at 5 a.m. Muse had a camp open by 8:30 and sold out in 18 minutes. A major expansion, quadrupling classroom space by 2028 in partnership with the Clayton family and the City of Knoxville, will let Muse say yes to far more families while deepening the employee benefit that makes the whole model run.
THE BLUEPRINT
Investment: Camps are funded through registration fees at affordable member and equity-based rates. Employees receive 50% off plus priority enrollment. University of Tennessee student volunteers (6,500+ hours this fiscal year) supplement paid staff and keep ratios strong. No new facility required; the museum’s existing classroom and exhibit space serves double duty.
Timeline: Built incrementally over five years. Summer camps first, then school breaks, then in-service days, then same-day snow and illness closures. Each addition solved a specific staffing gap before it became a community offering.
Partners: University of Tennessee (recurring background-checked student volunteers), Knox County Schools (calendar alignment drives programming). A major expansion with the Clayton family and City of Knoxville will quadruple classroom space by 2028.
Key Decision: Treating the employee child care benefit as a non-negotiable operational requirement rather than a perk. Allison’s standard: if we cannot get this right for our own staff, we’re not doing it right. The 50% discount and priority enrollment came first; the community program was built on top of that foundation.
Their Advice: “Any movement moves the needle. Every year we asked, what other need is there? Where’s the low-hanging fruit? There’s low-hanging fruit everywhere.”