Media Macaroni

Living in New York there’s the obnoxious, elitist attitude that we have the greatest museums in the world, much like we have the best of everything else in the world. It’s always a little painful to find an example that disproves our dominance, especially in the suburbs of Chicago (Oh, Chicagoland… I kid, I kid. I grew up there so I kid only out of the deepest love).

We’ve gone several times to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, a perfectly fun establishment on New York’s Upper West Side. In a current exhibition, there’s a show about ancient Greece complete with a climbable Trojan Horse. What could be more fun than that?

I’ll tell you what. In a recent trip to Chicago, we went with friends to the Kohl Children’s Museum in Glenview. Glenview?! It’s not even in the city! How good can it be? Turns out, it’s awesome. The luxury of suburban space affords this museum vast expanses of really cool exhibits, most of which highlight the fun of the everyday, like the clearly popular grocery store space. This is pretend play at its finest. 

There is also a pretend car wash, veterinary clinic, a music room, a room where you can shoot water at bells, and a show space where kids can do their own face painting then see themselves on TV. I’d say this all trumps ancient Greece.

The more I get out of the city, the more I hear about museums like this. They seem to be sprouting up all over the place. If you know of one of these museums, please share it in the comments section for all to visit. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Museums and Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.