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The Children’s Museum of Manhattan Launches First-Of-Its-Kind Interactive PlayWorks™ Exhibit Focused on Early Childhood Learning

PlayWorks™, a 4,000 Square Foot Exhibition for Children from Infancy to Four-Years-Old, Premieres in September 2006; Opening Marks Launch of National Family Play & Learning Initiative

New York (July 2006) The Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM), New York City’s leading cultural institution dedicated to kids and families, announced today that its highly anticipated PlayWorks™ exhibition will open to the public on September 21, 2006. Based on the concept that children’s learning and personal growth is rooted in play, PlayWorks™ combines innovative activities for children and tools for parents and caregivers to produce the largest public play and learning center for early childhood in Manhattan. The program provides an interactive experience that establishes a context for learning that reinforces the connection between education and enjoyment.

The opening of PlayWorks™ also marks the launch of CMOM’s National Family Play and Learning Initiative, a program that initiates educational alliances to further collaborative learning environments in diverse communities nationwide.

PlayWorks™, which fosters a fresh foundation through which children absorb new concepts, signifies CMOM’s commitment to providing educationally conducive surroundings that prove as effective as they are entertaining. In conjunction with a national roster of academic advisors and architectural designers, CMOM has developed an unprecedented learning location in both scope and size. Comprised of interactive, hands-on exhibits, the 4,000 square foot space combines the museum’s rich history of childhood expertise with up-to-date models for educational settings. In anticipation of the surge of interest in PlayWorks™, CMOM has also announced its extended hours of operation. As of June 2006, CMOM is now open Tuesday – Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00pm.

PlayWorks™ is the embodiment of how children need to discover the world around them, and it enables us to become a partner in the education of new families at an even earlier stage. It is particularly exciting that PlayWorks™ will be the center for CMOM’s programs for low-income families at the museum and in the community.” said Andrew Ackerman, Executive Director of CMOM. “We have made PlayWorks™ the centerpiece of our long-range plan because family-based early childhood education is the single best educational investment we can make.”

According to CMOM Board Chairman Mark Pearlman, “PlayWorks™ is a lynchpin of CMOM’s strategic plan that combines a deep sense of mission with a professional business plan that will provide the resources to deliver quality programs to families throughout the New York region and nationally.” the centerpiece of our long-range plan because family-based early childhood education is the single best educational investment we can make.”

PlayWorks™ takes children on an interactive adventure that not only fosters increased knowledge of art, language, math, and science, but also encourages participants to consider the environment within which they are most likely to learn. For the parents or caregivers who watch carefully, PlayWorks™ is a laboratory where they can better understand their children’s intuitive strengths, as well as the environments that prove most amenable to increased knowledge.

The facility is also home to a state-of-the-art research center, created to conduct educational studies and designed specifically with accommodations for its young participants in mind. Among the initial research conducted will be contemporary analyses of the means through which young children interact with media and technology.

“Simply taking the time to enjoy their children – to play with them and discuss what’s going on in their world – is the best thing parents can do for their children’s minds, and emotional developments, to guarantee future success,” said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University Professor and CMOM PlayWorks™ Advisor.

“This initiative is at the forefront of progressive developmental education and will serve as an important foundation for programs in the Bronx and the future Bronx Children’s Museum,” said Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion.

The exhibition is composed of five learning areas, each an intimate setting made up of multiple levels of challenge. Each area features separate segments of activities that all look and feel different. Each has been designed by educators to maximize the connection between play and early childhood learning:

• Play works to teach language: Children discover letters and sounds and develop a love of language and reading by feeding words and letters of the alphabet to a talking baby dragon.
• Play works to teachmath and physics: Children learn the basics of forced energy as they connect air tubes to turn pinwheels. They learn cause and effect as they explore an assortment of building materials and develop pre-math skills by using geometric shapes to construct their own buildings.
• Play works to develop a love of the arts and teach science: Children become aware of materials and their properties as they paint on a gigantic art wall, and become scientists (and mathematicians!) in a sand laboratory, and investigate colors and patterns formed by amazing light cylinders.
• Play works to develop imagination: Children are able to try on many different roles as they climb aboard a fire truck, slide down a fire pole, “drive” a bus or delivery bike, and count and sort vegetables in a deli.
• Play works to build physical and emotional strength: Infants and crawlers strengthen their emerging cognitive, physical, and emotional relationship with adults as they navigate through a baby crawling challenge course, and play baby ball and hoop games.

Dr. Edmund Gordon, preeminent research psychologist and CMOM PlayWorks™ Advisor, supports the idea that “Schools alone are not sufficient to ensure high levels of academic development – supplemental educational experiences are also needed. High academic achievement is closely associated with exposure to family, community-based activities, and learning experiences that occur out of school. CMOM provides that exposure. The highest achievers, it has been found, have rich out of school experiences. The most effective learning happens when you build on what you know. This is what CMOM and PlayWorks™ is all about.”

PlayWorks™ is made possible by the generous support of Judith and John J. Hannan; Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; New York City Council Member Gale Brewer; Former State Assemblyman Scott Stringer; Institute of Museum and Library Services; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and the New York State Dormitory Authority.

Founded in 1973, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) is New York City’s leading cultural institutiondedicated solely to kids and families. CMOM inspires children and their families to learn about themselves and a culturally diverse world through unique interactive exhibitions. CMOM presents a full range of activities, exhibits and special performances that stimulate children of all ages. Through multidimensional programs that reach deep into the community, the Museum serves New Yorkers from all backgrounds.

CMOM is a private, not-for-profit institution located in The Tisch Building at 212 West 83rd Street between Broadway and Amsterdam on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. For details on all of CMOM’s programs, visitors should go to www.cmom.org or call 212.721.1223.