Rachel Teagle likely remembers something you may have forgotten in the year that’s followed–the raging cold that laid waste to her household on the eve of a pivotal cultural event. But The New Children’s Museum, of which Teagle is executive director, opened without a hitch in May of 2008, trumpeting the many (and documented) virtues of art as a learning tool. Teagle’s cold is a distant memory. Not so the 18,000 students served by the museum’s Arts Education Center (AEC) since May 4 of last year. Not so Centre City Development Corporation, the city’s Downtown development arm, and Mommy &?Me, a local activities group for mothers and daughters, both of which have held meetings at the museum. Not so the public, who’s cordially invited to a free museum party Sunday, May 10 as a community outreach effort. And not so the museum’s directive, to expose as many students as possible to the arts. While Teagle is satisfied with the numbers that reflect that effort, she cites a serious caveat in the museum’s progress to date. “In our first year,” Teagle explained, “what we’ve really focused on are the public spaces in the museum, the galleries and the studios. We had 190,000 visitors this year, which far exceeds what we dreamed we would have. “The difficult part being a start-up is that we can’t start everything at full tilt, and we know that our AEC?is at about 20 percent of where we ultimately want it to be. In our first year, everything was a pilot.” For instance, Teagle explained, the museum launched a school-in-residency program that brought in kids during classtime — “but we only did it with [Downtown’s] Washington Elementary. Our ultimate goal is to have schools from all over the county participate. My hope is that one day, in any given year, we will have 12 to 15 schools ­participating.” Meanwhile, Teagle said, “It’s been really exciting to see that the ­visitors have come from all over the county. We have a very strong bilingual core, which is one of our happiest outcomes.” Next year’s exhibitions, Teagle said, will be “awesomer” than before, with a $3 million budget to work from. And meanwhile, don’t forget the party. For more information, see thinkplaycreate.org or call (619) 233-8792.