81st Street Studio, The Met Museum

The Met to Open New Active Learning Center for Children on September 9

Called the 81st Street Studio and designed by KOKO Architecture + Design, the innovative space will be free for kids and their caregivers

A daylong opening festival will feature science-based making, art activities, play, games, music, and more

On September 9, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open the newly designed 81st Street Studio, a science and art play space for children ages 3 to 11, in the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education. The renovated 3,500-square-foot area, designed by KOKO Architecture + Design, will be an interactive space that reimagines how the Museum can inspire exploration of its encyclopedic collection, amplify curiosity, and create new experiences for The Met’s youngest visitors. 

The new space will open with a children’s festival on September 9. The daylong celebration will offer science-based making, art activities, play, games, music, and more.

The 81st Street Studio is an interdisciplinary, multisensory drop-in discovery and play space that supports science learning in everyday life through art and materiality. Designed for children ages 3 to 11 and their caregivers, it will offer dynamic digital and analog experiences that stimulate and encourage making, investigation, critical thinking, problem solving, and appreciation for the diverse dimensions of materials and their properties. Drop-in activities and self-directed art- and science-making activities will be available during Museum hours, along with a noncirculating children’s library featuring books that support exploration of materials as well as scheduled storytelling times led by Met staff. 

Through seven interactive stations and the children’s library, the Studio facilitates the exploration of materials. Different materials will be featured on a rotating basis. For example, many of the inaugural activities are inspired by wood, and kids will be able to explore a variety of wood types and finishes through touch and smell, participate in activities such as woodblock carving and drum making, and use digital tools to discover the secrets of wood, clay, and metal. Another highlight is a unique musical station, designed by music and audio brand Yamaha, where kids can understand how materials influence sound through instruments such as a standing guitar, a castanet wall, an organ, and a marimba. Yamaha also designed a bird chime that will play sounds to mark important times of the day in the Studio. Other stations will also engage the senses through hands-on building using cardboard boxes, tape, wooden blocks, wheels, fabric, and Velcro. 

At the 81st Street Studio, kids can also pick up a Met Field Guide, a packet of cool tools that guides exploration of the Museum and Central Park. The guide encourages kids to learn more about the scientific aspects of The Met collection and Central Park as a Field Scientist, collecting data while also collecting stickers and badges. 

81st Street Studio is conceived by Heidi Holder, The Met’s Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chair of Education, in consultation with departments throughout the Museum including Conservation, Scientific Research, Curatorial, Design, Digital, and Capital Projects departments. It is designed by the New York–based firm KOKO Architecture + Design. Bluecadet, an experience design firm, served as a strategic digital design partner and produced interactive media for the space. Concept and design creation for the music space was led by Kip Washio of Yamaha. RoundSquare Builders served as construction manager and Mark Richey Woodworking and Design fabricated the millwork.

About The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met presents art from around the world and across time for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online. Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.

About The Met’s Education Department

Dedicated to making art accessible to everyone, regardless of background, disability, age, or experience, the work of The Met’s Education Department is central to the Museum’s mission to engage local and global audiences, making our collection accessible to all. The Education Department currently presents more than 29,000 educational events and programs throughout the year. These programs include workshops, art-making experiences, specialized tours, fellowships supporting leading scholarship and research, high school and college internships that promote career accessibility and diversity, access programs for visitors with disabilities, K-12 educator programs that train teachers to integrate art into core curricula across disciplines, and school tours and programs that spark deep learning and lifelong relationships with and through art.