Elliot C. Williams
After a long saga of closures and reopenings, the National Children’s Museum officially opened to the public on Monday in its new home.
The new 33,000-square foot space in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was initially planned to open in November. It includes exhibits that all focus on STEAM: science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Aimed at children ages 0 through 12, the exhibits include a “data science alley,” a Nickelodeon-backed art and tech space with a “slime center,” and a three-story “dream machine” climbing structure that both children and parents can slide down. A “tinkerers studio” by Microsoft is a modern designing lab.
https://twitter.com/NatChildrens/status/1204795666851078146
“When we reopen, we will really be a science center and a children’s museum in one,” Crystal Bowyer, the museum’s president and CEO, told WAMU last year.
That promise is now a reality at the new museum, which features STEAM activities for even the littlest of learners—the “little dreamers” and “little movers” spaces are designed specifically for children up to 3 years old, with hands-on activities and storytime programs. Two quiet rooms are available for overstimulated kids to decompress, and the museum offers free sensory backpacks to carry around the museum, containing noise-reducing headphones and fidget toys. According to the museum, all exhibits are wheelchair accessible.
The new museum is open seven days a week, and offers timed tickets at $10.95 for both children (over age 1) and adults. Membership options are available, and come with free admission and access to special events.
This space is the latest iteration of the Capital Children’s Museum, which originally opened in an old nunnery near Union Station nearly 50 years ago. The museum was renamed in 2003 with a designation from Congress. It operated for five years under a new developer, then reopened a year later in National Harbor. It closed in 2015.
The new version of the museum is more science-based than the original (which featured a taco-making station and bubble wands). But that doesn’t mean it’s any less fun: The museum is reopening with a bubble zone where kids can blow up a huge bubble—and, as with all the other fun at the museum, they can be right in the middle of it.
The National Children’s Museum is located at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Open daily from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tickets are timed entry, and cost $10.95 for children over the age of 1 and adults. Walk-up tickets are limited and available based on capacity.
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