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CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF MANHATTAN ANNOUNCES OPENING OF NEW SUPERPOWERED METROPOLIS: EARLY LEARNING CITY™ EXHIBIT

Innovative Interactive Exhibit Opening February 14, 2020 Aims to Build the Brainpower of New York City, One Child at a Time

NEW YORK – January 8, 2020 – The Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) today announced the opening of Superpowered Metropolis: Early Learning City™, a new hands-on, interactive exhibit that invites visitors to step into a comic-book-inspired New York City where a dynamic trio of pigeons, Zip™, Zap™ and Zoom™, serve as guides to superpowered fun and learning. The highly immersive and playful exhibition helps to build the brainpower of NYC one child at a time and opens February 14 at CMOM (212 West 83^rd Street).

The 1,500 square-foot exhibit invites children from birth to 6 and their grown-ups to feel like heroes, building their superpowered early learning brain skills together. These skills, known as executive functions, include self-control, working memory, and mental flexibility. Children practice these learning “superpowers” with Zip, Zap, and Zoom, who guide families on a series of NYC adventures exploring the subways, parks, music, travel, treehouses, and more.

Visitors to Superpowered Metropolis can, among other things:

• Climb to the top of a magical two-story Treehouse Headquarters equipped with a map, telescope, periscope, and slide to plan your adventures
• Navigate colorful tunnels, tracks, and waterways at a multi-level Supercharged NYC Train Table
• Create original city sounds with one-of-a-kind instruments in the Musical Subway Car
• Chase the floating scarves at the Whimsical Wind Blowing Fountain
• Get a call from Zip, Zap, and Zoom at the Superpowered Phone Booth and head out on a Metropolis mission
• Enter Baby Central Station, a mini learning hub inspired by Grand Central Station and specially designed for birth to 2 year-olds with climb-on trains, a starry sky, and sensory stations
• Play three digital Brain Building Games designed by NYU’s CREATE Lab
• Explore the sounds and smells of NYC while driving in the Pigeon Mobile

The exhibit is designed to help children develop, enhance, and practice their executive function skills, which are critical for the early development of both cognitive and social capacities. Executive functions are essential for social-emotional well-being and academic success. Every child is born with the ability to strengthen these skills, and it is the daily interactions with adults that help the skills develop. The exhibit shares tips, games, and activities for the adults and children to play together at the Museum, at home, and around the city.

Stepping into the comic-book-inspired NYC world, families meet the team of Superpowered Pigeons™ that embody the learning superpowers:

• ZIP, Self-Control Champion – A calm coach who encourages ‘power pauses’ before acting, thinking things through, resisting distractions, following directions, and taking turns.
• ZAP, Working Memory Master – A witty thinker who juggles information in mind, and is always at the ready, remembering instructions, and skillfully organizing and sorting information.
• ZOOM, Mental Flexibility Guru – A curious inventor who sees things from multiple perspectives, switches gears easily and solves problems creatively.

“CMOM’s founding mission is to serve as a valued resource for all families and community partners. Superpowered Metropolis is the latest of the Museum’s immersive, imaginative exhibits which are deeply anchored in research and playful experiences,” said Leslie Bushara, Children’s Museum of Manhattan’s Deputy Director of Education and Exhibitions. “Additionally, we are thrilled to extend the learning beyond the Museum walls through free science-backed resources through our partnership with Vroom.”

Added Lizzy Martin, Children’s Museum of Manhattan’s Director of Exhibitions and the exhibit’s curator, “We designed Superpowered Metropolis with a diverse team of local and national brain scientists, early learning specialists, and creative illustrators and designers. We hope it will serve as a brain-training ground for families to learn strategies and activities for superpowering New York City’s youngest brains every day.”

A full range of complementary programs and workshops will launch both at CMOM and with Pre-K – 1^st-grade classes in all five boroughs and in libraries, shelters, and other community organizations citywide.

Support for Superpowered Metropolis: Early Learning City is provided by the Bezos Family Foundation and its early learning program, Vroom, which provides science-based tips and tools to inspire families to turn everyday moments into Brain Building Moments®.

For more information about the exhibit and the Museum, visit www.cmom.org.

From:                Children’s Museum of Manhattan

Press Contacts:  Adam Miller amiller@rubenstein.com, 212-843-8032

                          Shannon Spence sspence@rubenstein.com, 212-843-9342

                          Emily Munro emunro@cmom.org, 212-721-1223