Brooklyn Children’s Museum

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM) is a museum for children in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. It was founded in 1899 and is the first museum to be dedicated to children in the United States – and according to some, the first of its kind everywhere in the world. It is unique because of the region it’s located inside, which happens to be primarily an area of residential development. It’s located in an underground gallery that is multi-level. The museum went through an upgrade and expansion, which increased the size of its gallery two-fold. The museum opened on the 20th of September 2008 and became the first museum ever to be green-lit in New York City.

The Museum was established due to an idea from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (now the Brooklyn Museum) on December 16th, 1899, in the Adams House. The museum operated under the direction of the Brooklyn Institute and received approximately $70,000 in donations from New York City each year and gifts from the city. Its visitors to the museum increased each month, and the number of visitors reached 13,000 in October 1905.

In 1930, the Works Progress Administration supplied hundreds of museum employees, which flourished in 1930 during The Great Depression. Ellis Credle, who painted murals before becoming a writer, worked as one of the museum workers. In October, visitors had been as high as 60,000, and by 1939, the museum had been receiving more than 9 million visitors when it opened forty years prior. In 1968 MUSE, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum opened MUSE, The Bedford Lincoln Neighborhood Museum. It was established in 1975 and moved into the space, which was given the distinction of being located under Brower Park at St Mark’s and Brooklyn Avenues, following the removal of the Victorian buildings that were the museum’s previous home. In 1996, the museum was renovated for $7 million and comprised smaller amphitheaters and several new galleries. In the following year, the museum was added to the heart of Brooklyn as part of a cultural alliance that was created to promote tourism in Brooklyn.

The organization was among the forty-six New York City arts and social service institutions awarded 20 million in funding from the Carnegie Corporation, funded by a gift made by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. H&A Power Washing

Exhibits

The museum’s collection and its exhibitions reflect its long-standing heritage, changes in the educational needs of children’s teachers throughout time, and ever-changing environment. The museum’s primary mission was to impart the science of nature to children in urban settings. However, technological advances and an awareness of culture became crucial following World War II. The underground gallery where the museum was housed following the move in 1975 was the ideal space to exhibit rotating exhibits. The museum was not designed to attract an audience of children but rather to stimulate youngsters from an early stage. Children are a major factor in the creation of exhibits at the museum and have contributed to the museum’s design for an extensive portion of the museum’s existence.

Address: 145 Brooklyn Ave, Brooklyn, NY

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