children's museum of manhattan

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan was founded by Bette Korman, under the name GAME (Growth Through Art and Museum Education), in 1973. With New York City in a deep fiscal crisis, and school art, music, and cultural programs eliminated, a loosely organized, group of artists and educators set up a basement storefront to serve Harlem and the Upper West Side. 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. The museum became the Children’s Museum of Manhattan in the 1980s and moved to its current location on West 83rd Street in 1989. Its audience has grown to 325,000 visitors each year, which includes 30,000 children who visit as part of a school group and more than 34,000 children served through offsite outreach programs

The Children's Museum of the Arts is located in Manhattan, New York City, USA, in the museum-rich SoHo neighborhood. It is a museum designed for those from ten months to twelve years old.^[1] Founded in 1988 by Kathleen Schneider as an art outreach program,^[2]the Children's Museum of the Arts is one of the oldest children's art museums in the world^[3]and has been recognized for its collection of international children's art.^[2][4]

As is the case with many museums in Manhattan, the Children's Museum of the Arts had a challenge in securing a permanent location,^[2] and has had to move on several occasions^[1]before settling in its present location.^[5] Despite these challenges, the museum has been a success with locals and other visitors due to its family friendly content^[6] and in 2004 it was a finalist in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's search for organizations to be housed at the new World Trade Center site.

museum expanded exhibit and programming space adding a media center, an outdoor environmental center and an early childhood center. CMOM’s visibility and audience grew with the World of Pooh exhibit, created through a partnership with Disney. Wordplay, the first exhibit designed specifically for children 4 and younger opened. CMOM’s Executive Director, Andy Ackerman, served as president of the Association of Children’s Museum’s and hosted the 1999 ACM annual conference. In 2000, CMOM completed construction to add a new entrance, lobby, and supplement exhibit space.

In 2005, it was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

History