Children's Museum of Manhattan

The Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) was founded in 1973. The mission of the Children's Museum of Manhattan is to inspire children and families to learn about themselves and our culturally diverse world through a unique environment of interactive exhibitions and programs.

Growth of the Children's Museum

With a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a city-owned courthouse was renovated into a small exhibition, studio, and workshop and renamed the Manhattan Laboratory Museum. It was later renamed the Children's Museum of Manhattan in the 1980's and moved to its current location in 1989.

The expansion of the Children's Museum has included a media center, outdoor environments, and an early childhood center. The museum's visibility and audience grew with the World of Pooh exhibit, created through a partnership with Disney. In 2000, CMOM completed construction to add a new entrance, lobby, and supplement exhibit space.

Children's Museum Exhibits

Recent popular exhibits include Body Odyssey, Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are, Art Inside Out, The Magic School Bus, Charlie Brown, The Art of Marc Chagall, and Monkey King: Journey to China. In the fall of 2005, CMOM featured a bilingual exhibit featuring Dora the Explorer and an Alice in Wonderland exhibit, and a new exhibit introducing children to the art of Andy Warhol in November, 2005. In May of 2006, they introduced a Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit and will debut the state of the art PlayWorks exhibit in September.

Education at CMOM

The Children's Museum of Manhattan helps children learn in varied ways and at an individual pace, stimulates their imagination, and encourages exploration, creativity and application of knowledge in fun and challenging ways.

CMOM features an active education program that performs workshops, classes, school trips, and outreach programs. CMOM offers programming for young children through graduate students. Each year, over 50,000 school children visit the museum. Noted visual artist David Rios is the current supervisor of public programs.