The Children’s Museum of Manhattan is located on West 83rd street on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was founded by Bette Korman, under the name GAME (Growth Through Art and Museum Experience), in 1973. The museum adopted its current name on May 2, 1985, and moved to its current location on West 83rd Street in 1989. In 2018, the museum announced a plan to relocate to a larger space on 96th Street and Central Park West.

History

Childrens Museum of Manhattan 212 W83 jeh

Subsequent to its founding as GAME in 1973, with

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 Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

and the

. With a challenge grant from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, a city-owned courthouse at 314 West 54th Street was renovated into a small exhibition, studio, and workshop and renamed the Manhattan Laboratory Museum. The 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, CMOM's first exhibit designed specifically for children 4 and younger opened in 1998. CMOM's Executive Director, Andy Ackerman, served as president of the Association of Children’s Museums 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 The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...

. In 2019, Andrew Ackerman, the museum's director for nearly thirty years stepped down. Aileen Hefferren is Director as of 2021. As of 2021, it reaches approximately 350,000 visitors a year at the museum, an increase of 25,000 over the prior decade. It was also one of the founding organizations of the

New York City Museum School The New York City Museum School (NYCMS) is a public school for grades 9–12 on West 17th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, United States. It shares a building with the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies. The schoo ...

, part of its outreach efforts that date back to its founding as a community organization.

Central Park West building

In January 2018, the Children's Museum of Manhattan announced that it had acquired the former First Church of Christ, Scientist building at 96th Street and

Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...

, and planned to move to the new facility after making renovations. The church building cost $45 million, and the city provided $5.5 million for a renovation of the church.

FXCollaborative FXCollaborative is an American architecture, planning, and interior design firm founded in 1978 by Bob Fox and Bruce Fowle as Fox & Fowle Architects. The firm merged with Jambhekar Strauss in 2000 and was renamed to FXFOWLE Architects in 2005 f ...

was hired to renovate the church. The original plan for the church was controversial, as residents opposed the addition of a penthouse on the roof and the removal of windows, but FXCollaborative's proposal was ultimately approved in June 2020. The museum publicly presented renderings of the renovated church building in 2020, in which it planned for galleries and exhibitions. In conjunction with the relocation, the Children's Museum of Manhattan began raising $300 million as part of a

capital campaign Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

. By 2024, the museum had raised $200 million and was planning to relocate in 2028.

References

External links

Museum website
{{Coord, 40, 47, 9.1, N, 73, 58, 38, W, display=title Children's museums in New York City Museums in Manhattan Upper West Side