Maker Space at the New York Hall of Science – Corona
47-01 111th Street at 47th Street
Free with admission: $11 for adults, $8 for children ages 2-17, free for kids under 2. Little Maker workshops cost an additional $8 per family.
The New York Hall of Science hosts the World Maker Faire every fall, but you can get a taste of this super-creative fest all year round at Maker Space, which opened earlier this year. This hands-on project lab has everything little builders need to work on high-tech projects like amazing 3D printer renderings, as well as no-tech creations like quilts or paper buildings. Although the museum hopes to add drop-in hours, for now Maker Space is only open during scheduled workshops which you can find on the website. To get visitors excited for the upcoming Maker Faire, the NY Hall of Sci is hosting Maker Weekends in August throughout the museum, when kids can tinker with a Bucket of Junk, make flip books, create molds and more. There are also special Little Makers workshops on select Wednesdays and Sundays when families can weave, make paper and do block printing.

NYC Design Studio at the Children's Museum of Manhattan – Upper West Side
This studio has closed but CMOM still offers lots of hands-on activities.
212 West 83rd Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue
Free with admission: $11
Closes Sunday, September 30
CMOM's recently opened NYC Design Studio focuses on style and design. Artwork by architects, set, apparel and interior designers is on display to inspire young visitors as they fashion paper hats, cardboard skyscrapers and dioramas in daily workshops. Featured designers also lead special workshops on select dates. Sadly, the NYC Design Studio is temporary and is set to close on Sunday, September 9, so make plans to visit soon.

Cooper-Hewitt Design Center – Harlem
111 Central Park North near Lenox Avenue
FREE
Fifth Avenue's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is currently undergoing a massive facelift, but while it's closed you can visit the Cooper-Hewitt Design Center, an auxiliary hands-on studio at the northern edge of Central Park. The famed Todd Oldham designed the space, which offers Saturday art workshops led by local professionals where kids can craft everything from posters to clocks to puppets. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings the center hosts Design Tales, an interactive storytime for tots, and in the afternoons, older kids can work with educators in Drop-in on Design workshops. Although all of these programs are FREE, you must register in advance on the website.

Drop-in Moving Image Studio at the Museum of the Moving Image – Astoria
36-01 35th Avenue at 36th Street
Free with admission: $12 for adults, $6 for children ages 3-17
The museum opened this permanent media-making studio in July, 2012. Every Saturday from noon to 5pm, children ages 7 and up can stop by to work on simple animations like flip books and thaumatropes as well as more high-tech stop-motion and computer animations, or even video games. Kids can also take a peek at the insides of video game consoles, VCRs and other gadgets. The studio is only open on Saturdays from noon to 5pm and admission is first-come, first-served.

Material Lab at the Museum of Modern Art – Midtown West
This studio has closed.
11 West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
Free with admission: $25 for adults, free for children under 17
Closes Friday, August 31
MoMA's Material Lab is a drop-in creative space, no reservations required. Although it opened back in February, 2011 and was only supposed to stick around for a year, it proved so popular its run was recently extended through the end of August. The focus here is open-ended design with kids working with color and texture in a variety of mediums. There are also special Friday workshops when visitors can explore different materials like string and velvet. You can read our rave review for more info. If you want to visit, hurry! It closes at the end of this month.

Children's Museum of the Arts – Hudson Square
103 Charlton Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets
Free with admission: $10
CMA isn't a small design studio within a larger museum; it's 10,000 square feet of hands-on art projects. Kids can paint, draw, sculpt, make and animate clay creations, and draw inspiration from the artwork on display. In addition to year-round drop-in creative fun, the museum also offers camps, classes, after-school programs and FREE summer art outposts on Governors Island, the High Line and in Hudson River Park. We can't say enough great things about CMA, it's a Mecca of creativity.

Find out about other cool interactive exhibits in our Museum Guide.