About Us

Our Mission

The mission of the Staten Island Children’s Museum is to nurture the creativity and curiosity natural to all children. Recognizing and celebrating different learning styles, we demonstrate vividly that learning can be exciting and fun.

Our Educators

To achieve these learning goals, the Museum’s educators emphasize and encourage hands-on experiences for children of all abilities in a welcoming and pleasing environment. We also design special educational programs for Staten Island community centers and schools.

The Museum Property

The Staten Island Children’s Museum offers 40,000 square feet of interactive exhibits as well as a 4-acre East Meadow that includes a picnic and performance pavilion as part of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Gardens.

Exterior of museum showing sea of boats.

Our History

Founded by a group of parents in 1974, the Staten Island Children’s Museum opened in 1976 in a small rented storefront with one exhibit and program. A series of “hands-on, minds-on” exhibitions followed, focused on history, the natural sciences, and fine arts.

Room for Growth

By 1980, space limitations drove the museum to seek larger quarters. The City of New York invited the Children’s Museum to join the Cultural Institutions Group, which included plans for the Museum to relocate to the grounds of the newly acquired 83-acre Snug Harbor.

Planning, funding and renovations for the new home at Snug Harbor Cultural Center took six years to complete. In 1986, the museum opened the doors to its new home.

Improvements To Date

In 2003, the facility expanded to 40,000 square feet with the addition of the historic barn and the bi-level glass passageway. In 2013, the Museum completed another capital project, the addition of a state-of-the-art tented picnic and performance pavilion on the East Meadow, along with a vertical axis wind turbine and wind scoop addition to our roof.

The Museum Today

Today, the Children’s Museum has 12 hands-on exhibits, 10 inside and 2 outside. We offer interactive art and STEAM programs onsite for daily visitors, visiting school groups, camps, and birthday parties. In addition, we offer in-school, afterschool programs, community centers and at community events.