About the Museum | Calendar | Special Programs

About the Santa Fe Children's Museum

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to
5 p.m. Sunday. Admission to the Santa Fe Children's Museum and accompanying activities is free for museum members; the cost for nonmembers is $4 per person. Admission for nonmember New Mexico residents is $1 every Sunday. Children under five have a special time to explore museum exhibits and hands-on art activities during Preschool Prime Time from 10 a.m. to noon each Friday. The museum is totally accessible to the handicapped. For more information call 989-8359 or visit us on the Web at www.santafechildrensmuseum.org.

The Santa Fe Children's Museum overflows with hands-on exhibits and activities that intrigue, delight, and challenge more than 60,000 schoolchildren, families, and tourists each year. This special place for children and adults has brightened Santa Fe's educational scene for thirteen years. It provides a setting for families from diverse populations to learn and play together.

Permanent and changing exhibits in the arts, sciences, and humanities are designed to grant children the time and space to discover and learn in their own special way. Visitors can explore bubble exhibits, zoetropes, water works, magnets, harmonographs, beading and weaving looms, building blocks, rolling balls, a pulley exhibit, a toddler sensory area, and more. They can also tackle a 16-foot-high climbing wall that simulates rock climbing and challenges physical and mental dexterity. A life sciences area abounds with pond life, snakes, doves, giant cockroaches, plants, and other living things. Earthworks, our one-acre Southwestern horticulture garden, serves as an outdoor environmental "classroom." It includes a 900-square-foot greenhouse, a wildflower meadow, a vegetable garden, a butterfly and hummingbird garden, a sand play area, a music plaza, an amphitheater, various live animals, a pond and wetlands, fruit trees, and a water catchment storage and reuse system. This setting offers a fascinating mix of garden-based biology and environmental education projects for school groups and museum visitors, led by the museum's staff of environmental educators.

The museum's programs are diverse. Professional artists share their talents daily (except Sunday), leading hands-on activities ranging from mask making to creative writing. Children learn, create, and experiment with Sunday scientists. Performers---puppeteers, storytellers, musicians, magicians, or actors---offer live entertainment for families once a month. A weekly Preschool Prime Time Day allows children under five to explore museum exhibits and enjoy a developmentally appropriate hands-on art activity. Child development specialists are on hand to answer common parenting questions on Saturday mornings and Preschool Prime Time days.

The museum staff reaches out to the community through the Museum-on-Wheels program at Children's Hospital of New Mexico in Albuquerque, outreach efforts at area schools, parent/teacher workshops and ongoing collaborations with local social service organizations. Community members between the ages of 12 and 85 contribute their time and talents as museum volunteers.

The Santa Fe Children's Museum---the first children's museum in the state of New Mexico---was the brainchild of four area educators who sought to create a dynamic, hands-on, informal learning environment that would complement traditional education. Incorporated in 1985, the museum opened its doors at its permanent site at 1050 Old Pecos Trail in February 1989. It is governed by a 22-member board of trustees composed of community volunteers.

"Our long-term goal," says Executive Director Londi Carbajal, "is to maintain an environment that encourages active participation in the learning process through interactive exhibits and programs for children, adults, teachers, and parents."

The museum, a not-for-profit organization, derives funding from admissions; government, corporation, and foundation grants; memberships; store sales; fundraisers; and individual and business contributions.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to
5 p.m. Sunday. Admission to the Santa Fe Children's Museum and accompanying activities is free for museum members; the cost for nonmembers is $4 per person. Admission for nonmember New Mexico residents is $1 every Sunday. Children under five have a special time to explore museum exhibits and hands-on art activities during Preschool Prime Time from 10 a.m. to noon each Friday. The museum is totally accessible to the handicapped. For more information call 989-8359 or visit us on the Web at www.santafechildrensmuseum.org.