Reviews of Children's Museum of the Arts (Museum)

alba Corado

A very big waste of money and time. There is nothing special here at all! To make a project out of clay you have to stand in line to sign up and then wait another hour or two. The paper they provide for painting is horrible, of the cheapest kind. I am very dissapointed!! They would not honor the groupon discount since it was spring break. Total Sham!!

Melissa Litwin

One of my favorite places to take kids in NYC. Children make art in a hands-on creative experience that they are likely missing out on at school. Museum staff are respectful of each child and of her creative process. They offer ideas and guidance but the child makes her piece from beginning to end. Children work hard here and are fully engaged in work of their own design. From an early childhood perspective, learning just does not get any better.

Becky Ci Song

We've been there a few times and my daughter loves it. Would have get a membership if there were more activities suiting younger kids and easier to get. I love their wee drop in classes especially their music part in the end. Other than that, it doesn't have enough things for my active 3 year old to do to stay there for a longer time.

Carmen Julia Pineyro

Kids had a blast in the Sound Room and Clay Bar.

Victoria Thompson

The teachers are talented and wonderful with children. Highly recommend.

valorie leah

I really enjoyed it here. nice!

James Mc Cloy-Brooks

Such a fun place

Thaddeus Hackworth

Fantastic place to experience art. Best for children 1.5 to 2 years and up.

samuel shurtleff

This is an excellent museum with some really great hands on experiences for the kids to participate. My grandson loved the music room and making clay sculptures. I recommend this museum to any who have kids and are in NYC or visiting, great experience!

charles Yehonni

My kids had a great time. We were gonna star for 3 hours and my kids didn't wanna leave. we stayed for 6 hours. its kind of pricey, but well worth it. if you not from the city make sure you plan in advance. overall very good experience..

Arturo Haney

Brought the kids here and they had a blast and they love every moment of it. The staff here are great and there's a lot to do here for the kids to keep them busy.

Ugur U

Kids loved the olace

Brian Bigda

Kids and parents had a blast. Planned on staying 2 hours but ended up being there for 5 immersed in all the exhibits/activities.

cwr6679

My kids love it, can definitely spend hours...love it!

Joe Korea

Excellent place for kids to experience art. Hands on.

Gustavo Machado

Excellent place to take your children to explore their artistic interest and talents

R Greenberger

Great place to spend the day for children 2-10 year olds.

naoko inman

All the instructors are really nice. There is a lots of great programs that you have to sign up in advance. We'll be back again.

ee t

Our first time there. A little small museum with arts n crafts to keep busy!. I wish when I signed up for the clay room the staff would have told me about the music room. My son would have enjoyed both. He didn't get to do it because it was booked for the rest of the day when I finally found out about it. Overall my son had fun at the museum.

Apple Diamond

So unorganized! Admission was expensive yet the place had no markers and art materials that seemed to work! The staff were not helpful and seemed unintrested in their work! Its not fit for anyone over the age of 6!!!

Mindy Ramirez

The membership seems worth it. The place is very interactive and has a number of activities for all my kids' ages. Really good place to go with the kids.

nanette white

A place to go to so kids can be artists and parents can participate in fun activities.

Abby Bloch

Wonderful hands-on activities. Staff is great

Chakerie Mitchell

Fun and creative place for you children

Ahmed Ali

Worth a visit. Great for kids, specially those who love arts.

Ken Lama

Family friendly and educational. My kids actually looked forward to attending! Love this place.

Ron B

Our family thought this place was overpriced and pretty lame. Everything looked quite dated and was not very interesting.

Dan The Man

another one of my kids' faves, really cool place

Joni Blackman

My daughter and I brought my two young grandchildren last Saturday. It was a fun and interactive experience with a lot of hands-on things to do. The reason I gave a four star rating instead of five, is that I was disappointed that the sound booth was not available and they told us we had to wait an hour JUST to sign up. Not to get into the sound booth, but to have someone there available to sign our granddaughter up for a time. I’d think with technology the way it is, signing up for a time to get in would be easier. In my opinion, it’s a great resource for parents, however, making sure all amenities are available when open and paid for should be a high priority.

Itz_ SugarMelon

It's very fun I went there for a class trip. It's very fun because u get todo stop motion vidios u even create ur stop motion cartoon

Jeremy Janas

Fun and interactive museum for kids. From painting, crafts, music and digital animation the kids had a blast.

Tara Murray

The children museum is great. I love the way they do sing to the children. They expresses the idea of art in different ways. My nieces and nefew love the museum.

Kalapothakos Efstathia

Was pretty packed since it was spring break for many but the staff were very friendly and kids loved getting to paint, draw, make clay figures and do music. Definitely for kids that love crafting.

Termino Dlamins

I never been to this museum but you or they can another attraction for the kids like from the animated characters for example a house or a variety of houses how ever you or they like want or can like the house from the barbie from the matel barbie doll,a house of the Cinderella, a house the little mermaid,a house of snow white and 7 duarfs, a house of hello kitty for the girls and for boys a superman house, a Batman house,Spider-Man or avengers house something like that because if you want to know in Florida they have the united kingdom house, in Orlando Florida in Disney world they have the Cinderella house and in China or Japan they have the hello kitty house. You can also check that information if you want/yo nunca a venido a este museo pero se puede a ser mas attraciones infantiles como por ejemplo una o varias casas de la muneca barbie, Cinderella house,snow white(Blanca nieve) sleeping beauty(la Bella durmiente) ,hello kitty para las ninas y para los ninos una casa de superman una de batman, una de Spider-Man,una de avengers puede ser de cualquier muneco infantil que se pueda o quieran aser porque en orlando Florida en Disney world ay tienen una casa de Cinderella(la senicienta) o united kingdom y en China o japon la casa de hello kitty .cheken esa information si quieren

Jonathan Martin, MD

Essentially a number of rooms which provide paints, clay, and a few other tactile and creative experiences for kids. Basically your kids will spend a couple hours painting pictures, drawing with markers, gluing pieces of randomness to cardboard, and perhaps playing with clay. Not impressive by any means, but serves a purpose nonetheless. This would be a great place if you lived down the street and needed something to do to pass the time on a rainy day, but not something any tourist should waste their time on. To be honest the use of the word museum is inappropriate since there is only one very small exhibit hall, which is actually a gallery.

uwu_owo

It was quite easy to watch the children i could see through the front windows

Aleks Kap

Awesome place

Johnathan Hagen

Great place for younger kids with lots of stations and materials to play with. They do have a very strange and off-putting policy of asking for your email address if you are using a credit card, with no reasonable explanation why. Otherwise a great place, can get crowded quickly.

Beyondlifeonlyourdawgsstand

Very open exciting experience.

Audrey Leigh

Great museum but terrible staff. Male receptionist was playing on his computer and couldn’t be bothered to answer questions. Spent over 30 minutes trying to find out how to sign up for the sound room. Staff member in the sound room would avoid eye contact and look away whenever we looked in from the outside. No one frequented the sound room the entire time we were there since no one could figure out how to get in. We were told to find someone with a iPad so we could sign up. When we found someone, she told us to go ask the front desk. We won’t be coming back.

Tiarra Riddick

Loved it!

Aleksandra Rowan

Fun. More cool stuff for kids over 4 than under. Kind of pricey. Dont let you stroller in there .

Rosa Olivo

A lot of activities for children and great customer service

Purnur Schneider

My 3 and 5 yo kids love the museum, in spite of the staff being sometimes nice, sometimes rude, and I also find there are too many things they are not allowed to touch: artwork, iPads (then why are they even placed at their reach?), paper presses.

Juan리ㅕㅕㄹ티 Villalba

My son loved this place. He wants to go again

Kevin Murphy

Terrific for kids and adults.

Fatmata Camara

The staff is super sweet and helpful. There are tons of things to do and a great place for kids

Selina V

Took my son here yesterday and he had a great time. Museum is small but lots to do. The staff worker Ian at the clay bar was great to my son and the other children as well!

Jone Hop

Nice place for child

EXPRESS TRUTH

I went on a class trip inside is beautiful however the rush tour an the extra fees for the kids to play in the touch screen area is ridiculous especially group trips you guys need to change that policy of pay extra if your in a group everything else is great

K.N. Granger

Awesome place to spend a rainy winter afternoon

Eric Lorenz

Great place for kids! hands on entertainment. Painting, Clay molding, homemade playdough (its the best playdough ive ever used

Dasi Pin

This museum don't have much activities for kids to do. Literally just four different activities to do. My money was not well spent.

Matthew Gibbon

Super fun time! Great rainy day spot. Loved the powerful strong women's focused are exhibit!

Kay Hooshmand

I just spent $26 so my 2 year old could play with magnatiles, paint with watercolors and play doh. Just like day care. Very small museum with little for the under 4 crowd to do. I hate giving negative reviews but the title of the place is misleading. It’s a children’s art center, not necessarily a children’s museum.

mesut paca

More like a art workshop for children. Not bad.

Jennifer Graciano

It’s cool but not worth full price

Dr. Eric McEntire

Incredible place for kids to dive into art of all types!

Chiraag Gupta

Nice small museum hidden in the village. My kids loved the painting station and the clay bar. Decent amount of street parking. Good for half a day

Ryan Jerchau

Really fun space with lots of places for kids to be creative. It's nice and unstructured for the most part but there are some crafts that require signing up for a time slot, so do that early.

Michael Linn

Great small interactive children's museum

Toya Burris

Love the art activities. Something for various ages. Great staff and an awesome vibe. My new kid spot!

Jonathan Médor

Good place for learning and fun.

Stephanie Rodriguez

Highly recommend taking the children here! Good for children of ALL ages! Staff is extremely polite and Birthday parties seem to be a big hit!

Jay Knox

I loved the exhibit and the employees were all very nice and excited to be there. My only issue was the under 5's drop in class had A LOT of kids and caregivers in a small space. At one point I thought it might have been a fire hazard.

Kelly M

We enjoyed out visit. All staff were very friendly and interacted with the children in a sweet, appropriate manner. I was thinking it was larger than it is. We spent less than 2 hours there. All of the crafts you get to take home are well worth the admission fee.

Simona Sivkoff-Livneh

Over priced, usually crowded, and the exhibits are not interesting.

Wendy Castillo

Closed section but the girls had a nice time painting and using their hands on activities

Oscar Rivera

Brought the kid over and omg so much fun! we had a blast! will be back with the kids soon

J Vanburen

Keep in mind ..parent are not allowed to occupy a chair in the clay bar but you can make a clay item with ( next to) your child

Elena Cesaro

Amazing experience!

K O

Huge disappointment for a visitor. Perhaps locals like the various classes they offer which might explain the good reviews. It's not a museum so the name is misleading. I was surprised to find going in, there was no map of rooms to explore/interact with as typical in most children's museums. After paying for 3 adults and one child for admission I was confused as to why adults had to pay at all. There was one room with used arts and crafts scraps and some eisals - something I'd easily be able to do at a local library for free. There was a "clay bar," that we had to make an appointment for, and had to wait more than an hour to do. It's basically modeling clay and a couple of people assisting. There was a sound studio that was unavailable during our visit. When we complained to staff, they said it was just an open art studio for kids. Staff was unenthusiastic, parents looked miserable.

Thomas Zheng

So many good activities for kids

s k

Nice place for the younger kids... they can do all type of Arts, paint, and messy stuff without the worry

Kieana Joseph

There is something for all the kids to do . a station in each part . however u have to sign up 30 minutes prior. So be on the look out and grupon has discounted tickets

Lita Goldsboro

Such a nice place and the staff amazing!

Starlyn Wins

Great place to take kids. I took my 4 year old twins and they had a great time.The employees there are great! One of my girl's were ready to go and he did an excellent job engaging her. The same with another female employee who made a rose out of play dough for the other twin. It was pretty peaceful vibe amongst the visitors and all the children and parents that I encountered were mannerable and sharing.The venue was smaller than expected but definitely is worth a visit. There are also really cool postings in one of the studios for the children 5 and under on how to explore art with toddlers or young children. Overall, I would return again.

Yakov Biegeleisen

An awesome place to spend a few hours with young kids.

Nillie Hardcore

Nothing like I expected. Pretty boring for my kid. In my opinion they should incorporate more adequate children's art and more imaginative curriculum.

Wayne John

Great experience! Cozy and fun for the kids!

Beata Bednarska

I went today to the museum with my 2 years old boy and our experience was poor. This place is not appropriate for toddlers or children under 3-4 years. There is only one room for small children where they can paint or make some art. The other rooms in the museum are dedicated to children above 4 years and older. The museum Staff is generally nice, however, I really didn't like the situation when my son was playing, touching the objects on the play board under the desk while woman( with ginger short hairs) was cutting a paper using a paper cutter over my son's head. She did not care at all! He could easily lose his finger if I did not take him away from that board. I am still wondering how a person like this can work with the smallest children in this museum?

Gavin Fehler

Kids loved it!

Svetlana Nikitina

Loved it! Was a perfect place to be during the rainy day for my art-loving kiddo.

Hollys Review

Great place for sensory driven kids and small children. Wish this place was there when my son was 4.

blenellchaney

Great museum to take the kiddies

Peter Braunwart

Good for a day visit of an hour or two, esp if your kids like to paint and draw. Really helpful people who work there. The entrance fee is reasonable. It can get a little crowded on hot and rainy days.

Geoff Bailey

fun place for the kids to get creative, make a mess and goi crazy for an afternoon

Feruze Khadija Faison

lovely hands on classes

Stephanie Lugo

I really enjoyed this place.

HEATHER BAKE

Great place for kids between 4-6. somewhat small and crowded.

Zax Glavor

Great

Joyel Abdul

Overall good for kids, time pass

Marc Zuccaro

Super place for kids to explore and play with different materials

Paul Chen

Fun, early education, birthday party.

Padmanabh Srinivas

Fantastic

Reyan Sutherland

Museum is a fun place for kids but there are more activities for the kids at this one. Who doesn't love painting?

Yoni Tabak

Interactive exhibits, fun activities, you can spend here hours with the kids.

Jerry Christian

Nice place for kids but you need to sign up for the sculpture class early because it fills up fast.

Timothy Lum

Great for keeping children busy and being creative

Janeen McMurray

Very creative. We went on a class trip and I really enjoyed it here. This place is great for kids. I had a lot of fun going around. They had a lot of things for children to do including many art projects.The atmosphere is very welcoming. I would recommend it to families.

Cindy Lee

Fun place for kids to create art.

YI Zhang

Really fun place for children and even for adults! They offer open course every afternoon with clay, painting, slow motion film, book binding and so on.

Valdimar Santana

More things to do for children ages 5 plus the day we visited. Still, looks like a lot of fun. We will definitely return when our son is a little older.

Kevin Richards RPM Vocal Studio

Awesome place for creative kids. Get there early and sign them up for the Clay Bar.

William Saunders

This place is great! Music room, several arts and crafts areas, a super cool room with computers that the kids can do stop motion animation, and a hall of normal museum type art exhibits, and more. And those "top" chairs that you can spin around in and not fall off. There's a coat check. Plenty of friendly staff on duty. Overall, I think it's a bit better for kids over 4 as it seems there is more to do for them, but, my 3yr old had a blast regardless.

EMILY AMENDA

Used to go there all the time as a kid, it was always a very fun experience. Definitely catered to kids on the younger side, a great place to go for a family outing.

Khiyah Fequiere

Great for all ages. Great place to go for a relaxing day with kids or a companion if you enjoy drawing

Corinne Dabney

The Children's Museum was really good. There were lots of activities to do for various ages. There is a quiet room which I found very cool. I joined for a year and the price was rather reasonable

Niki and Tom Cheng

Great little museum for kids of all ages. They have different sections but definitely sign up for the classes when you get there such as clay building and sound lab. They were interactive and fun, plus my kids got to take home their creations. I like the separate area door toddlers where they can draw, paint and explore. The imagination blocks area was good to burn some energy. Also like their climbing up slide. Would be nice if they offer a place to eat but you can eat on the 1st floor near front entrance. Admission can get pricey but get a Groupon which we did and saved a lot!

Jonathan McIntosh

Wonderful space for inquiry and play.

Will Lee

Great place for small kids to play, learn and do art. One of the two best museums for kids. Check out the recording studio, where your kids can record their own music!!

Luis Productions

I work around there lol. I see buses lined up for this place.

Carlos Balbin

Great Space for Children Creativity

Jake Abramowicz

While visiting NYC my 3-year old and I were looking for something fun and interactive to do. The morning 10:45 to 12 drop-in class for $25 was literally perfect. I wish it was longer which is my only beef. The instructors were very easy going, friendly and amazing with kids of all ages. The art element was open meaning we could do any form of art we wanted. The music element was very good as well, all the kids were highly engaged. We visited the museum after for a bit and it was probably better for someone older than him, but that's not what we came for nor what this rating is about. Hands down a fantastic institution in NYC that we will absolutely visit again.

Roe Z P ReZ

Visited with my niece and my sister although the place was kind of tight and very warm, it was a great experience

Erika Dominczak

Great time for younger kids

Superdumpling Photos

Lovely little museum- kept our 3 and 6 year olds very busy! True that there aren’t many activities for kids below 5 year olds, but my 3 yo was quite content playing in the stArt Studio. My older child did the clay bar and did projects at the fine art studio as well. We went on a weekday, went in shortly after 12, and 3 hours later still can’t get our kids to leave. Will definitely visit again when we’re next in New York.

David G

Lots of fun and activities for the kids a little small though. Parking on street not bad on the weekend too.

RVMJ

As a member for 4 years and a big supporter of the Arts, I as well as our nanny has come here several times a year. It has always been a positive experience until today. It was pretty crowded by 12pm. A parent decided to aggressively push aside my child who was waiting to paint, so her child can skip 3 other kids who were also waiting. Never again. I refuse to renew my membership and we will not be returning until there are strict rules applied to parents who are aggressive towards other people's children and parents who try to skip. Although Two other parents saw it and told the staff, they refused to escort this woman out. This woman should of been escorted out immediately. Also, we signed up our kid for the clay bar and when we arrived, someone made lines through our daughter's name and another kid's name put their kids name instead. Disgusting. I am honestly disgusted by the behavior of grownups who act like this Sparta or something. After this sour experience and the lack of security, I can say that CMA is not worth any price, even if it was free.

Sarah Southgate

Had great activities but was super expensive considering you pay for both adult and child Vs experience.

Yossi Atia

great for nice afternoon with 4 years kid

Ms. Z R

Wow I was pleasantly surprised as to how much fun this was. Definitely returning.

NYC Birthday Clowns

Love the clay bar and the painting stations! There is an African market, an Italian pizzeria, a Mexican bakery and a whole lot more to explore! The exhibits upstairs are also fun, educational and unique.Great place to visit! Take your kids to explore their creative side!

Ryan Nichols

Lots of fun for kids who like to get their hands on things.

Sophia Chew

I have been here twice and just love it. There is a lot of different varieties of art for kids to do. My siblings and I had lots of fun there. The only thing I find bad about this place is the location. It is very hard for my family and I to get there. Hopefully they open another museum somewhere closer to home.

Carole Goldstein

Very creative. We went on a class trip and the children enjoyed it a lot. The atmosphere is very welcoming. I would recommend it to families.

Jennifer Snuffleupagus

CMA’s birthday party removes all the stress of party planning and breaks down the experience to its essential core: celebrating the birth of a child through fun activities that bring together a group of children to share a fun, creative 2 hours together. The children will make memories as they explore the creativity within themselves, and parents will watch with wonder as the CMA staff seamlessly whisk these children into a loose activity structure that keeps the children engaged and motivated. The activities are not complex and they are open to any child’s interpretation. Our birthday party, about 25 kids large, ages 3-6, featured the clay bar. The kids spent the first half hour there rolling around and laughing their heads off on the spinning top chairs. They then enjoyed manhandling slime, playing with the other activities, and then joining together to sculpt their favorite animals. Kids could spend as much time as they liked sculpting or could return to the spinning top chairs that brought endless joy to many of the children. Before we knew it, it was time for cake, which the CMA staff masterfully chopped up (cutting large cakes up into perfect slices is such a marketable skill) and disbursed. CMA then helps with cleanup and keeps the game rolling as the party draws to an end and they prepare for the next birthday party in their day. Remember to bring cash to tip your very deserving cast of CMA artist educators. You're going to be impressed, so make it a good tip. And relax and be ready to throw the most relaxing birthday party of your life.

Misha Bluvshteyn

Nice place to bring kids over 5 years old. Lots of painting activities, clay, building blocks, music and story time and other teacher lead activities. Not much for kids under 5 to do. This is a great place to come with kids on a rainy day.

Yossi Berkowitz

There are so many great activities for the children to do, including a sound room animation room, and a few others that kept the children very busy and happy

Dany Gauvin

Nice little place for kids, be sure you get coupons otherwise it’s expensive for what it is.

Random Username

Amazing

Rosa Janotha

Is nice children have fun

Josh Woodward

For the right kid, this might be great, but the price is pretty steep for their offerings in my opinion. The media lab and sound booth were closed, too.

Weekee Chew

Plenty o supplies for your kids to do art stuff. Personally I hate art stuff and music.. In general a complete waste of time but this is a must bring you kid to place.

Viktoriya Basina

A very big waste of money and time. It may be okay if you have no paint or markers at home, otherwise there is nothing special here at all! To make a project out of clay you have to stand in line to sign up and then wait another hour or two. The paper they provide for painting is horrible, of the cheapest kind. I am very dissapointed that we wasted time on this

Katalena Mermelstein-Knox

This is a rather small museum, which I guess is fine since kiddos have a limited attention span. The installation they had up was very beautiful, all different kinds of sculptures and paintings made from books, but my toddler wasn't that interested in it. The best thing about this place are the two active studios where employees are ready and happy to assist you and your kids in exploring and making their own art. The only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is that I have and have had access to active art classes for tots for some time, and they're a lot less expensive than the museum since I'm only paying for the kids. So the thing that makes this museum special is something that I can get for cheaper in my own neighborhood.

Duffee Maddox

This place is on cool. Def bring your kids.

Haewon Latorre

Great place for little ones.

Peter Hort

Great for kids

Michael Nicosia

Neat little diversion if you have the time. The media room is great for the older kids because they can make their own stop-motion animation.

Sandra Ciosek

Small place, great Canvas studio and the clay class was really cute. The kids enjoy it. we stay for two hours

Christine McIntyre

Good for small children not older then 8

Brenn St. Peters

Lots of great opportunities for kids as young as 2 (with supervision, 4 is better) to create and build. Kids loved every square inch of the place. Easy to spend half a day doing all the activities.

Rutger van Faassen

Amazing hands on museum any artistic kid will love.

Todd Bracher

Fun activities, flexible staff, nice atmosphere.

Who1emi1k

Brilliant. Took my daughter here and she loved it

Madhu Srinivasan

Daughter liked the summer camp they ran... Mid-range pricing, authentic... The roads around cma all blocked up with slow moving traffic, avoid driving.

Richard Engel

Hidden gem in the west village below Houston Street. Completely interactive museum with art projects for kids of all ages including watercoloring, clay molding, stop action animation, recording studio, and more. They always have work by real artists in the main hall and themes for hands on creative work in the art studio. We've been a few times and brought friends with their kids. Everyone has a great time every time. Sunday mornings are a very nice time to visit.

Cher Bear

I really enjoyed it here. This place is great for kids. I had a lot of fun going around. They had a lot of things for children to do including many art projects.

Natalie Kakhidze

This place is amazing. Even though it's called museum, it's a place where kids actually get to create art. Multiple station with all kinds of different projects, friendly staff and just so much fun for kids and adults for that matter. We popped in for a free afternoon not really knowing what to expect, but it's definitely worth it, and we'll try to be back.

Aisha Jafary

I like

Ben White

Totally hands on for kids

Mirna Alvarad

The Staff is very receptive and kind. Great overall

umesh suraiya

Nice place and good enjoyment

Antonio D'souza

Great clay bar!

Binyomin Bendet

A fun place for kids to do art projects. Mostly for younger kids, aged up to 10, in my opinion

Marlene

The most wonderful place for kids in NYC!!!

Pradeep Nair

Great place for kids of all ages. Clay bar and stop motion animation studios are pretty cool. Not to mention the arts and craft area for small kids