We are designing an immersive, hands-on journey through Staten Island’s unique natural and cultural environment. Visitors will be invited to explore the ways people, animals, and ecosystems interact — from the tidal wetlands to urban bridges — and to experience the challenges and triumphs of protecting this island community.
Each interactive station mirrors a vital part of Staten Island’s ecosystem or heritage. Children climb a bridge like the Verrazzano-Narrows, construct sea walls to combat coastal flooding, count migrating animals as Park Rangers, and help oysters return to cleaner waters. The exhibit combines gross motor activities, creative building, environmental science, and local history, turning play into a vibrant exploration of how nature, people, and infrastructure interconnect.
About Staten Island Children’s Museum
More than 50 years ago, a group of tenacious, forward-thinking families led by Portia Diamond founded The Staten Island Children’s museum in a small-rented store front with one exhibit and one program. In 1980, after outgrowing the space, 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.
Our mission 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.
Planning, funding and renovations for the new home at Snug Harbor Cultural Center took six years to complete. In 1986, the Children’s Museum opened the doors to its new home. In the intervening years we’ve expanded to 40,000 square feet, 10 exhibits, and multiple programs. We serve more than 100,000 people each year through admissions, field trips, in school residencies and community outreach events.
Why Now?
Institutions such as ours stay relevant through careful maintenance and strategic change. For example recently, the age, structure, and needs of the buildings had limited ability to provide comfortable climate control throughout the building. This problem was tackled recently with generous funding from the NYC Mayor’s office and City Council which enable us to conduct a major renovation of the HVAC system in the building.
It’s no surprise that our beloved building has seen a lot of play. Decades of visitors, staff and volunteers can speak to the endless delight and learning that have filled these walls. Parents and Grandparents today first visited the Children’s Museum as a child themselves. Our exhibits are designed to endure a lot of use, but that takes its toll. We make a point to refresh and bring in new components to exhibits periodically. However, one space is ripe for renewal: the Great Explorations exhibit with its focus on different climates has been a popular destination for daily visitors and school groups for 25 years. We are ready to give it the TLC and upgrade it deserves. Next year it will be transformed into Staten Island Explorations.
Key Unifying Themes
- Connections Across the Island: The Bridge, Ninja Course, Migration Island, and Ferry Raft-pull all evoke movement, transit, and human-made structures linking land and water.
- Ecosystem Stewardship: Activities like Sea Wall Build, Save the Oysters, Park Ranger Station, and Pollen Cleanup emphasize caring for local environments and species.
- Hands-On Learning: Each element uses active play — climbing, building, experimenting — to bring concepts like storm resilience, biodiversity, and pollution cleanup to life.
- Local Identity & History: The History Mystery, bridge, and ranger activities root children in Staten Island’s story, showing how past, present, and future intersect.
Narrative Flow Through the Exhibit
Visitors will enter into a bold, visually striking environment featuring bridge towers, natural textures, and colorful graphics evoking the shoreline and urban landscapes. The first zone will draw them upward — climbing bridges, crossing rope spans, and navigating boulders in a parkour-inspired course. Next, they encounter activities focused on nature stewardship: building sea walls, counting animals, and restoring oysters to local waters. Migration Island introduces the flow of goods and wildlife across the region. Finally, interactive science stations (Bernoulli Blower, Pollen Cleanup, Noodle Forest) will spark curiosity about air, water, and movement while tying back to Staten Island’s living systems. Throughout, every component reinforces how human choices affect the environment — and how kids can be part of positive change.
Help You Can Help Us Build
The new exhibit will cost $1.3 million dollars to build. State, city, and local governments are supporting the effort with grants totaling $200,000. Additionally, we are investing $225,000 in grants from foundations, $225,000 from received bequests, and $500,000 from our limited endowment. The $150,000 remainder we need to raise from the community.
If you can help us raise $50,000 through new fundraising avenues, the Staten Island Foundation, Diamond Matching Grant Program will match it with $100,000, totaling $150,000. Here are ways you can contribute:
- Round up your ticket transactions and membership purchases with a donation
- Make a donation via our Text to Give Campaign: Text “bridge2future” to 44834 to triple your donation.
- After you donate, ask your employer to match your donation, their gift too can be tripled!
- Join us at a Family Fundraiser in 2026
Diamond Matching Grant Program of the Staten Island Foundation
All new and increased gifts given through the avenues above will be matched 2:1 by the Diamond Matching Grant Program of the Staten Island Foundation.
We are fortunate to have been designated a beneficiary of the Staten Island Foundation’s Diamond Matching Grant Program until June 30, 2026. This is an extraordinary opportunity for you as a donor to leverage your gift to raise more.
A donation of $5 becomes $15, of $50 becomes $150, of $100 becomes $300.
This is the year to support our vital hub of play learning and discovery for children in Staten Island. To enable us to make this grand improvement, we need your financial support. Every contribution to the project is significant.
Join us to help provide amazing new learning experience for children and their families by making a financial contribution this year.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our donors for their unwavering support of the Staten Island Children’s Museum. Thank you to all potential donors for considering this project. Your belief in our mission will allow children to access meaningful learning experiences for generations to come.