15 Dec Bronx Children’s Museum Open at New Home in Mill Pond Park

After more than 12 years of providing quality enrichment programs to children throughout the Bronx as a museum “without walls,” Bronx Children’s Museum has recently opened at 725 Exterior Street along the Harlem River, this is the first children’s museum facility in the borough. Since programming began in 2010, it has engaged more than 125,000 children and families at 611 different community events and 103 educational institutions.

To complement existing outreach programs and provide the Bronx’s children with an interactive place to learn and play, BxCM, with the City, opened a 13,650 square feet of space in a City-owned former powerhouse in the South Bronx. The Museum facility is located on park land just steps away from the Bronx Terminal Market, Yankee Stadium and near the 161st and 149th Street subway stations. The Bronx is almost the size of Philadelphia, has 190,000 children under the age of nine, and until now was the only borough in New York City without an educational and cultural facility geared solely to young children and their caregivers. ​

Historically the Museum was engaging 16,000 Bronx children and caregivers annually in 11 hands-on arts and science (STEAM) experiences and programs throughout the borough at community-based organizations, schools, shelters, libraries, parks, fairs and festivals. The iconic “Museum On the Go!” purple bus, a roving learning environment with complementary suitcase exhibits and curriculum, was the Museum’s most popular program. In school, after school and festival programs are now back in full swing.

Going forward, the Museum will always operate “with and without walls”. It anticipates engaging nearly 36,000 children and families in 2023–23,750 in the building and 12,000 through outreach programs.

Admission will initially be free, a special introductory offer. Thereafter, prices will be nominal.

The space provides:

• Bright, open theme-based areas with interactive activities exploring the arts, culture, science, community, natural resources, the environment and the richness of the Bronx
• A 35-foot water exhibit, casita, “Nest” area for the youngest visitors, artist loft and classroom space
• Ten large fine art installations created by nine Bronx-connected artists throughout the space, all of which will inform programming
• The Cloud, a suspended multi-purpose performance area with a touchless interactive experience created by a local artist. To open in 2023.
• Offices for BxCM educators and administrators

Mill Pond Park, on which the facility stands, which is undergoing a renovation, offers an excellent outdoor classroom space for the Museum to access and use as a further extension of its walls.

Bronx Children’s Museum
725 Exterior Street, 2nd Floor
Bronx, New York  10451-2028

Website

(Content & Image Credit: Bronx Children’s Museum)