The New Children's Museum, Art and children's museum in downtown San Diego, United States.
The New Children's Museum is an art museum in downtown San Diego designed for young visitors to explore contemporary installations across multiple floors. The space features interactive exhibits where children can climb, build, and directly engage with large-scale artworks.
The museum opened in 1983 in La Jolla as The Children's Museum of San Diego. After a decade it moved to a downtown warehouse and became Children's Museum/Museo de los Niños. In 2008 it reopened in the Marina District as The New Children's Museum, with 'new' marking a shift to commissioning contemporary artists for full-scale installations.
The museum's name marks a 2008 relaunch, when "new" signaled a shift to commissioning contemporary artists for room-sized playscapes. Its opening show, childsplay, referenced Allan Kaprow, and later exhibitions drew on themes of animals, waste, food and California. Employees unionized in 2019.
The museum is conveniently located downtown and easily accessible by car or public transportation. Plan to spend at least two to three hours exploring, as the interactive exhibits encourage extended engagement.
The museum features Whammock, a three-dimensional textile installation made of crocheted circles designed for exploration and play. Visitors also encounter a 40-foot slide and geometric climbing structures that invite playful interaction with art forms.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,633 contributors worldwide.
