About The New Children's Museum

The New Children’s Museum is an imaginative mecca of kid-friendly playfulness housed in a massive space in downtown San Diego. The children’s museum is basically a series of large art installations that kids can climb on, throw things at, swing through, play with, smash, rebuild, and get lost in – all to the vague anxiety of the parents and caregivers. Each installation at the children’s museum is built by a different artist, some local and some international, but they are all incredibly well done and surprisingly kid-friendly. Your child will almost certainly want to do:

– the massive two story slide
– the teatro pinata (a moody area made to feel like a traveling theater caravan with a stage, costumes, and all)
– the anxiety-inducing Whammock! (an incredibly cool giant, multi-layered yarn maze suspended from the ceiling with exactly zero visibility from the outside)
– Wonder and Sound (an interactive labyrinthine tree house spectacular).

The museum has installations for all ages, including areas that only allow children under 3 so they can play safely away from the big kids. The perfect age for the New Children’s Museum is probably six years old, give or take.

Ticket prices are reasonable, $20 to $25 depending on ages. If you live in San Diego, it is probably worth getting a membership – this place is truly amazing and beautifully done.

Best Parts

• Going down a two story slide
• Watching your child act in a traveling theater company
• Losing your child in The Whammock!

Behind The Counter

The New Children’s Museum is operated as a nonprofit organization with a local board of directors and probably some other business stuff that we don’t fully understand. They moved to their downtown location in 2008 and started commissioning contemporary artists then. They host summer camps, workshops, and tons and tons of community engagement events and activities for kids.