Bronx Children's Museum Finds Home

The Bronx Children's Museum has for years been a mobile operation, arriving at festivals and schools across the Bronx to teach children about their community. But now, the museum has broken ground on a permanent home in the borough. 

"Children's museums provide kids with an opportunity to explore things they might not otherwise be able to experience in their own lives," said Board President Hope Harley, "But it's especially important for children of the Bronx to have a location in their home borough they can look to for these experiences."

Until now, the Bronx has been the only borough without a children's museum. But with construction set to begin this year in the Bronx Terminal Market Powerhouse at Mill Pond Park, many arts and science programs for children will have a place to call home. 

"I hope that it will be a wonderous place. I hope that it will be a place that will spur their imaginations. A place where they feel safe to touch and explore. And I also hope it will be a place they feel will be reflective of who they are and where they live. And I hope they'll want to come back again and again," said Harley. 

The museum is enlisting local artists to decorate the space and create interactive works for children. This is part of the unique borough flavor the museum is trying to translate to its new location. "We want artists of the Bronx to have a part in this. We want scientists in the Bronx to have a part in this. We want it to feel like the Bronx, not like a stereotypical museum that you could find in Iowa or something," said Program Director Natalie Wood, "We want it really to feel like the people in the Bronx had a hand in creating this space for their kids and future generations."

According to Wood, who has helped run the "River on the GO!" program, best-known for its converted purple school buses housing dioramas of Bronx river wildlife, the new museum location offers unique opportunities for learning. The Harlem river runs right next to the museum which she says gives children and families a chance to observe the river ecosystem first hand. 

"We hope to inspire kids to leave the museum and go want to experience things for themselves," said Hope Harley.