“PlayWorks,” a new 4,000 sq. foot addition for kids under the age of 5, opens at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) on September 21, according to an August 8 New York Times article.
The key to the exhibition is its interactive nature: “a huge transparent wall whose surface is for fingerpainting; a climbing structure with hidden dioramas; a sand laboratory with buried treasures; a construction area for building gadgets; and, among many other displays, a mechanical baby dragon that will say words when children drop letters into its mouth.”
PlayWorks was designed to foster literacy, cultural literacy, and mathematics through play. There is also an integral research laboratory with cameras to study the children’s interaction with the exhibits as well as the parents’.
CMOM is helping to bridge the economic gap between museumgoers and non-museumgoers by offering low-income familes annual memberships for $5 (normally $145) and free admission to families involved in Head Start.
