WASHINGTON — The National Children’s Museum will reopen in March 2019 a few blocks from the White House, the organization announced Tuesday.
The museum will be in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and will focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
“We’re excited to bring more of a science/tech focus to the children of the Washington area,” said Crystal Bowyer, the museum’s president and chief executive.
The museum aims to attract kids from preschool to age of 12 with lots of hands-on exhibits.
“But our goal is to provide a space for the entire family to interact together,” Bowyer told KidsPost.
“Fun and play will be our focus.”
The new space will be 33,000 square feet, about twice the size of its most recent home at National Harbor in Prince George’s County, Md. That space closed in January 2015.
“There may be a few elements that we can repurpose (from the old space), but it’s really an all-new museum,” Bowyer said.
To start, several exhibits will be on loan from children’s museums or science museums in other cities as the National Children’s Museum builds permanent exhibits, she said. The entryway will feature a 60-foot ceiling, and the museum will have a stage area, but no theater. The Ronald Reagan Building has a theater the children’s museum may use for special events, Bowyer said.
The new museum will be open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets will cost $10.95 for age 1 and older.
The museum originally opened in 1974 as the Capital Children’s Museum at Third and H streets in Washington. It closed in 2004, and its board spent several years looking for a site in the Washington area. Renamed the National Children’s Museum, it opened in National Harbor in 2012. There were plans to expand into a larger building and outdoor space, but organizers were not able to raise enough money. That space closed in January 2015.
When it closed, the goal was for the museum to return to Washington by early 2016. Bowyer said it was unfortunate that kids will have gone without a museum for three years, but officials were looking for a long-term solution. At the Reagan Building, they have a 10-year lease.
“We want to make sure that when a child falls in love with the National Children’s Museum, they can come back for a long time,” she said.