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Best Museum Exhibits for NYC Kids Fall 2014: 7 New Installations for Families

9/9/14 - By Stephanie Ogozalek

Fall brings apple picking, the harvest season and a whole new crop of cool culture for families. We're kicking off our coverage with a roundup of the best new kid-friendly exhibits opening at NYC's world-class museums this autumn.

A slew of iconic TV characters are celebrated in a pair of retrospectives: What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones at the Museum of the Moving Image and Somebody Come and Play: 45 Years of Sesame Street Helping Kids Grow Smarter, Stronger, and Kinder at Lincoln Center's New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and both will offer hands-on programs for children. Plus the Children's Museum of the Arts is debuting a language-themed exhibit, the Brooklyn Children's Museum has a new installation featuring interactive STEM stations and the Museum of Modern Art is showcasing Henri Matisse's paper-and-scissor works. And if that's not enough for you, there's still time to see many of the exhibits we highlighted in our spring and summer museum posts, including kid-pleasers like the interactive Marvel’s Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. The Exhibition at Discovery Times Square.

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What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones – Astoria
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets
Through Monday, January 19, 2015
Free with admission: $12 for adults, $9 for students, $6 for children ages 3-12
Mommy Poppins bloggers Alina and Raven have both taken their kids to MoMI's Chuck Jones retrospective and just loved it. Kids can learn about the creator of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and their pals by exploring original illustrations, archival photos, animation cels, storyboards, sketches and other works by the late artist. There are mini-screening areas in the exhibit where you can watch some of his classic cartoons including Duck Amuck and the Oscar-winning short The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics. On weekends, the museum is also showing Chuck Jones matinees in its HD theater. The highlight for aspiring artists is the hands-on animation studio (on Saturdays only though October 14), where children ages 7 and up can create their own rudimentary animated shorts (see below). For more info, check out our full review.

Scattered Light – Corona
New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th Street in Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Friday, September 12-Sunday, September 13, 2015
Free with admission: $11 for adults, $8 for children ages 2-17
In keeping with New York Hall of Sci's maker focus, Dick Esterle's Scattered Light is fashioned from everyday objects like tape, paper clips and metal rods. When you walk into the museum's circular lobby, you're greeted by more than 500 25-foot pieces of fluorescent pink and orange flagging tape suspended from the ceiling. Take a moment to look at it and you'll notice the work seems to change as the sunlight moves around the building.

Drawn to Language – Hudson Square
Children’s Museum of the Arts, 103 Charlton Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets
Thursday September 18-Sunday January 11, 2015
Free with admission: $11, free for children under age 1
The hands-on art museum's new exhibit explores the intersection of text and visual art. Drawn to Language is a collection of contemporary works featuring words used in unexpected ways. It's sure to get viewers of all ages thinking about the relationship between language and art. As always, the museum will host a slew of enriching drop-in projects related to the exhibit.

Somebody Come and Play: 45 Years of Sesame Street Helping Kids Grow Smarter, Stronger, and Kinder – Upper West Side
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza
Thursday September 18-Saturday January 31, 2015
FREE
A collaboration between the NYPL branch and Sesame Workshop, this installation is sure to please Sesame Street fans young and old. Scripts, storyboards, designs, animation cels, photographs, blueprints, vintage branded merchandise and an architectural set model will all be on display, along with a handful of Muppet stars, including Oscar and every preschooler's favorite red monster. There will also be highlight reels, behind-the-scenes footage and iconic celebrity appearances, plus a children's activity area with Sesame Street books, apps and art projects. On weekends, there will be special, as-yet-to-be-determined programming for kids. FREE

More than Meets the "I" – Crown Heights
Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Avenue at St. Marks Avenue
Thursday October 9-Monday January 19, 2015
Free with admission: $9, free for children under age 1
Young kids can learn about STEM concepts at the Brooklyn Children's Museum's latest interactive installation. The gallery includes hands-on stations where kids can explore nanoscience, robotics, molecular biology and 3D printing. My son is particularly interested in checking out the iPad app that lets kids control a school of robotic fish! The Brooklyn Public Library's Uni Project will also set up a pop-up library with thematically related kids' books.

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs – Midtown West
Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
Sunday, October 12-Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Free with admission: $25 for adults, free for children under 17; timed tickets required
While not specifically aimed at children, it's never too early to introduce kids to the masters. Henri Matisse's whimsical paper cut-outs, with their bright colors and bold graphics, are fun and easy to digest. See 100 of his best ones, including the giant "Swimming Pool," which he created for his own dining room in Nice. MoMA will also be selling a children's book inspired by the exhibit, Matisse's Garden, and hosting related family art workshops.

Submerged – Midtown West
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Pier 86, Twelfth Avenue at 46th Street
New permanent exhibit
Free with admission: In advance: $22 for adults, $17 for children ages 7-17 and $10 for ages 3-6; at the door: $2 more per person but click here for a 20% off coupon.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier-turned-museum recently added a 40-foot model of a submarine to its popular hands-on Exploreum. Now kids can experience what it's like to live and work underwater.

And remember, many of the exhibits we spotlighted in our summer post are still on view, including Marvel’s Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. The Exhibition at Discovery Times Square, Jeff Koons: A Retrospective at the Whitney, Spiders Alive! and Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History, Madeline in New York: The Art of Ludwig Bemelmans at the New-York Historical Society and Jazzed! The Changing Beat of 125th Street at the Children's Museum of Manhattan.


Find out about other kid-friendly exhibits in our Museum Guide.

Fall Activities Museums Preschoolers Kids Tweens & teens Astoria Uptown Brooklyn Queens Midtown West Upper East Side Upper West Side Crown Heights New York City

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