About Us

Our Mission

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

The Children’s Museum works to achieve these goals through programming that emphasizes direct and authentic hands-on experiences conducted in a welcoming and pleasing environment. We encourage participation by visitors of all abilities and design special programs to serve as an educational resource through community centers and schools. As a destination, the Staten Island Children’s Museum offers 40,000 square feet of interactive exhibits as well as a 4-acre East Meadow, and a picnic and performance pavilion on the grounds of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Gardens.

Our History

Founded by a group of parents in 1974, the museum opened in 1976 in a small rented storefront with one exhibit and program. A series of “hands-on, minds-on” exhibitions followed about history, the natural sciences and fine arts. 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 and in 1986, the museum opened the doors to its new home. 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, with the addition of a state-of-the-art tented picnic and performance pavilion on the East Meadow, and a vertical axis wind turbine and wind scoop addition to our roof.

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; and offsite in schools, afterschool programs, community centers and at community events.