DuPage Children's Museum named best in area by Nickelodeon

The DuPage Children's Museum has bested four Chicago icons in an online poll to determine Chicago's Best Museum.

According to results of the 2010 Nickelodeon Parents' Picks Award online competition, DuPage Children's Museum is the Best Chicago Museum receiving more votes than the Chicago Children's Museum, Field Museum of Natural History, Museum of Science and Industry and the Shedd Aquarium.

Nickelodeon spokeswoman Nicole Bradley said nominees for this year's Parents' Picks Awards, the third annual, were determined by ParentsConnect members who submitted nominations from April 29 through June 17.

The top five nominees with the most votes in each category became the official nominees in the final voting round which took place from July 7 through August 31.

As the winner, the museum will receive a "Parents' Picks 2010 Winner" seal and will be featured on Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect website until the 2011 awards.

Museum Director of Marketing and Membership, Alison Segebarth said she's hopeful the recognition and relation to Nickelodeon will improve the museum's visibility and lead to increased visitor counts.

"We were honored to even be considered in such a prestigious field, especially since we were the only suburban museum on the list," she said. "We are grateful to our fans, visitors and members for voting. Our fan base is just the best."

Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect is an online resource, for an estimated 3 million users a day, providing parenting advice and community, celebrating the reality of parenthood and making parents' lives easier.