Inspiring children through art and creativity
In 2022, the leadership team, Board and staff engaged in a strategic planning process that led to updating our mission and vision:
Our mission: To spark creativity, exploration and a sense of belonging through interactive art experiences.
Our vision: To be the most innovative, most loved, most inspiring and most sustainable children’s museum in the world.
Our history: The Museum opened in La Jolla in 1983 as The Children’s Museum of San Diego. It moved in 1993 to a downtown warehouse to become the Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños. The Museum reopened in 2008 as The New Children’s Museum – with the word “new” signifying our focus on commissioning contemporary artists to create immersive art installations for children to explore.
Our building: The New Children’s Museum is a dramatic, multi-level 50,000 square-foot building that includes a series of transparent, flexible spaces which visibly expose the building’s construction and design. Designed by visionary and award-winning architect Rob Wellington Quigley, the dynamic space is one of the first green museums in California.
Our inclusivity statement: We believe in the liberation, safety and support of systemically marginalized groups and identities. As we advance our mission, we are always working toward being a radically inclusive space for all families, all races, all ethnicities, all identities, all abilities and the most resilient within our communities.
We continue to grow and learn as an organization. We ask that you help us uphold this safe space in the ways you acknowledge and engage with other guests, staff and friends of the Museum.
Together, we hold ourselves and others accountable and reserve the right to revoke admission or membership to the Museum. Thank you for joining us in creating a future for our children and communities where all can belong.
Art plays a critical role in a child's development.
Early childhood engagement with art results in lifelong involvement and appreciation for the arts. We help children develop critical skills to achieve success in the 21st century.
Play allows children to engage and interact.
Play helps develop imagination, dexterity as well as physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development, and it is through play that children engage and interact in the world around them.