Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh's mission is to provide innovative museum experiences that inspire joy, creativity and curiosity. We are a partner and resource for people who work with or on behalf of children, youth and families.

The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is a premier cultural and educational resource for a rapidly growing audience. As the third most visited museum in Pittsburgh and one of the top ten children's museums in the nation, the Museum's attendance has skyrocketed over the past fifteen years. The Museum reached over five million people last year through local and national initiatives. This includes a record-breaking 302,000 children and families that visited the Museum's historic North Side location to experience an ever-changing array of high quality, hands-on exhibits and programs. Over 38,000 children, families and schools visit the Museum annually though grant-funded, subsidized admission programs, such as free days and field trips. At the same time, Museum programming extends beyond its walls, taking critical cultural resources to over 50,000 people in schools and neighborhoods across the region. The Museum serves all 42 Allegheny County School Districts (120 schools) and provides over 250 educators with professional development each year. Proving its draw as a tourist destination, last year, the Museum welcomed more than 118,000 families visiting from outside the Pittsburgh area (from all 50 states) to the experience the vibrancy of Museum and our region. Proving the Museum's national reach, more than three million visitors saw five Museum-produced traveling exhibits, including its most recent hit, Very Eric Carle: A Very Hungry, Quiet, Lonely, Clumsy, Busy Exhibit, at more than 15 venues across North America, Mexico and Canada.

High-quality, interactive exhibits and open-ended learning experiences are at the core of the Children's Museum experience. The Museum features ten permanent exhibits, including the Attic, Backyard, Garden, Garage, Studio, MAKESHOP, Nursery, Outdoor Classroom, Theater and Waterplay, and hosts a rotating slate of traveling exhibitions throughout the year. Each of the Museum's exhibits designed in-house embody its Play with Real Stuff philosophy, which asserts that children need a solid foundation of developmentally appropriate learning activities that are concrete, real and relevant to their lives. The Museum also develops in-house one-of-a kind traveling exhibits to rent and share with the field, leads the nation on the conversation around making and learning and its impact on education, commissions new interactive art and partners with hundreds of local working artists, and engages in accessibility and inclusion programming for all families.

Testimonials

"In the midst of a busy week at the Museum, I became acutely aware of the reason why we do the things we do. My husband and I attended a celebration in the new makerspace the Children's Museum launched in the Uptown Lofts, an apartment building built by ACTION-Housing for young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. The party was part craft workshop and part eating extravaganza. The residents were working in their very own makerspace, which they designed with the help of our Teaching Artists. In this amazing space, young adults can learn to sew, silkscreen, make jewelry and much more. The silk-screened T-shirts were wonderful, the wood-burned earrings were lovely and I learned how to make aprons out of old shirts. But even more valuable were the conversations. These men and women have not had easy lives, yet they were making gifts for friends, talking about what they learned through making and voicing ideas about what they wanted to make next. They were envisioning their future. They had hope." - Jane Werner, Executive Director