There are important connections between child-centered approaches, wellness, and the activist role that art museum educators can play in their institutions and the wider community. While there are practical challenges to achieving these goals within a small institution, the museum educator's positionality in such an institution can allow for certain advantages in a focused, appropriately sized, long-term collaboration with a local school. This paper will address how a small museum can answer Patterson and Gensberger's call for a new, critical children's museology within the practice of museum educators. A case study between a small university-based art museum and local elementary school will be examined to outline the possibilities for such collaborations, highlighting how child-centered approaches can be embraced in these circumstances as well as the intersection with wellness, pedagogy, and activism, and the practical requirements necessary to build such a program sustainably. With the support of management, enthusiastic collaborators, and a queer feminist pedagogical approach, educators in small museums can design dynamic, child-centered programs that are based in deep relationship-building and focused multi-year partnerships.