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The Wall Street Journal NY CULTURE

Like any parent, Halley K. Harrisburg wants to instill a sense of wonder and curiosity in her daughters. She feels that one way to engage is through art and she’s working to help more families experience the fine arts through the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.

Supporting the Children’s Museum, known as CMOM, is a natural extension of what is basically the family business for Ms. Harrisburg and her husband, Michael Rosenfeld. She is the director of New York’s Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, which specializes in twentieth-century American art. Ms. Harrisburg says that one of the principles of the gallery has been to educate art lovers through various lectures and panel discussions at the gallery, and through partnerships with local schools.

Ms. Harrisburg’s family lives on the Upper West Side and she says that her initial introduction to CMOM was through her oldest daughter’s caregiver. The nanny would take the child to CMOM periodically and for short excursions. Her daughter loved the museum.

“As the weeks and months went on with this membership, I began to realize how much we were using this institution,” recalls Ms. Harrisburg. With all the visits, she jokes that the museum was clearly losing money on her family.

And so, it was nearly a decade ago that Ms. Harrisburg decided to become involved with CMOM. She’s served as chairwoman of the museum’s board for the past four years, using her day job as an art dealer to make introductions and open doors. Her annual gifts are around $100,000.

Specifically, the family has supported CMOM’s “Best of the Arts” performance series, which gives families affordable access to theater, dance and music programs, and a monthly program that teaches children some of the materials and processes used by contemporary artists.

More than anything, Ms. Harrisburg has supported the museum’s mission to provide quality educational programming and a first museum experience to families in a space where everyone feels comfortable and “welcome.”

“And I mean that in the truest sense of the word because the audience at the Children’s Museum is so diverse, economically, racially and in sexual orientation. I mean, you see families in the truest sense of the word,” she says.

The museum’s popularity has led Ms. Harrisburg and the museum leadership to seek a new home. Presently the museum occupies 38,000 square feet on West 83rd Street and serves some 400,000 children a year. Ms. Harrisburg says that the museum is at capacity and space is often “very tight” on the weekends.

The museum would like to have at least 80,000 square feet and has been searching over many years for a space with a central location and good subway access, a street presence and space to include a cafe.

The search is city-wide and Ms. Harrisburg says that they aren’t ruling out any neighborhood.

Above all, the new location needs to “serve New York City and all families in the way that they deserve to be served,” explains Ms. Harrisburg. “I feel that we are content rich and real-estate poor.”

A version of this article appeared Mar. 16, 2012, on page A19 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Bringing—and Expanding—the ‘Best of the Arts’.

By MELANIE GRAYCE WEST