Strong - National Museum of Play
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Strong National Museum of Play® in Rochester, New York, USA, is the only museum anywhere devoted solely to the role of play in learning and human development and the ways in which play illuminates American cultural history. Both collections-based and hands-on, Strong is among the largest history museums in the United States and is also the nation’s second largest children’s museum.
Strong houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of toys, games, and other play-related artifacts. The museum is home to the National Toy Hall of Fame; the Brian Sutton-Smith Archives of Play; the Woodbury Preschool (which features a play-based, emergent curriculum); and many innovative exhibitions, such as Field of Play, Reading Adventureland, Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?, and The Berenstain Bears: Down a Sunny Dirt Road. Each year the museum hosts more than half a million guests and delivers standards-based school lessons to more than 20,000 students and training to more than 700 pre-service and in-service teachers.
The museum was founded in 1982 and is based on the personal collection of Margaret Woodbury Strong.
In July 2008 the museum will launch a new interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the study of play. The American Journal of Play [1] is a forum for discussing the history, culture, and psychology of play. The Journal aims to increase awareness and understanding of the role of play in learning and human development and the ways in which play illuminates cultural history. Published quarterly through the University of Illinois Press, the American Journal of Play is intended for educators, psychologists, play therapists, sociologists, anthropologists, folklorists, historians, museum professionals, toy and game designers, policy makers, and others interested in children and the importance of play.
The new 145,000 sq. ft. addition and renovation that includes the butterfly atrium, sculptural entry, and eye atrium is the responsibility of Chaintreuil | Jensen | Stark Architects [2] from Rochester, NY.
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[edit] Attractions
[edit] Exhibits
- Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? fosters learning via characters from the television series.
- Super Kids Market is a simulated Wegman's supermarket.
- Kid to Kid is an exhibit about communication.
- One History Place is a replica of an old house.
- TimeLab shows cultural exhibits of United States History.
- Making Radio Waves is a simulated radio station.
- National Toy Hall of Fame
- The Berenstain Bears: Down a Sunny Dirt Road opened April 26, 2008. An original, permanent exhibit produced in parternship with the Berenstain family, based on the iconic Berenstain Bears.
- Reading Adventureland is the focal point of the new expansion, featuring five storybook-themed play areas.
- Field of Play sparks children's imaginations in a variety of ways.
- Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden (extra admission required), with thousands of butterflies, is the largest indoor butterfly garden in New York.
- Rainbow Reef is a 900-gallon coral reef tank.
- Art of the Garden is a collection of Margaret Woodbury Strong's garden paintings, accompanied by photographs of Ms. Woodbury Strong herself in her garden in nearby Pittsford, New York.
- Lady Liberty an exhibit concerning the Statue of Liberty.
[edit] Former exhibits
- Rochester Business Hall of Fame honors men and women who made Rochester into a prosperous city. Now located at the Rochester Museum and Science Center.
- Making Things Happen was about technology.
[edit] Rides
- Strong Express Train is a small-scale indoor train ride.
- Elaine Wilson Carousel is a 1918 Allan Herschell Company carousel located in the lobby. Seventy-five cents per ride.
[edit] Other
- The Grada Hopeman Gelser Library is located inside the museum and is a branch of the Monroe County Public Library system focusing on children's books and books about the museum's exhibition topics.
[edit] Amenities
The expansion adds a food court to the museum, with Pizza Hut Express, Taco Bell Express, and Subway joining the existing "Louie's Sweet Shoppe" ice cream parlor. The museum also houses local chain restaurant Bill Gray's inside an old-fashioned trailer-style diner once known as the Skyliner Diner; the diner building is actually inside the lobby, next to the carousel.
There are now two gift shops, with the one nearest the Butterfly Garden focusing on butterfly-related merchandise.
