Support the Museum

Established in 2017, the Every Student Initiative (ESI) is the innovative, flagship program with a goal to engage every student from every public, private and homeschool organization in Central Illinois with a curriculum-connected visit to the Peoria Riverfront Museum every year. The program now includes free family passes for every student and complimentary Museum memberships for sponsored educators.

The Peoria Riverfront Museum invites you to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join with artist Preston Jackson and the museum in support of this artistic masterpiece. The goal is to help lift up our community in a renaissance of optimism, culture and confidence that celebrates our own American stories and our place in the shaping of history.

George Manias has been a Peoria fixture for generations and has promised the contents of his entire shoeshine business to the Peoria Riverfront Museum when he retires. Established in 2020 by museum board member Jim Carballido and his wife, Marci, the George’s Shoeshine Fund was established to support the promised gift of the legendary George Manias shoeshine apparatus in celebration of George’s 75th anniversary of shining Peoria shoes.

Memorial donations are given memory of someone who has passed away as a way to honor both them and their family. When you give a gift in honor of someone, you honor their memory by supporting the museum’s mission to create a culture of lifelong learning and to unleash the full talent and genius of every individual.

The Center for American Decoys is dedicated to preserving the traditions of American waterfowl history through the art of the decoy. Located in the Illinois River Valley, among some of the greatest waterfowl hunting habitats in history, the Center for American Decoys aims to showcase many of the most notable decoy carvers from across the country, with a particular emphasis on carvers from the Illinois River Valley. Your support of this fund will help build the finest permanent decoy show in the home of some of our finest carvers.

The most advanced of planetarium system of its kind allows our guests to fly through the universe from galaxies thousands of light-years away, to detailed explorations of the planets in our own solar system. Your gifts to this fund support our planetarium programming and can inspire the imaginations of the thousands who visit every year.