Who at nine years old wants to be a curator, but has never heard of the word or position ever? Apparently, my oldest boy. He’s been taking art classes for the past year, and even though he enjoys drawing, his teacher is amazing at teaching him art history and appreciation, and he just loves it.

Related Read: Family Friendly Museum in New York

So much, that when we finally arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art he was simply in his glory. We came with my parents and my youngest boy (who couldn’t care less about art in any form still).  And we started the tour.

The Met For Kids

Is It a Museum For Kids in NYC?

Confession time, I’m not a big museum person. So when my baby got restless (after one hour), my husband and I decided to head out, leaving my oldest with his grandparents.

Four hours later, my parents said that they begged him to go home because they were getting tired. If it was up to him, he’d still be there!

The museum has so many wonderful programs for kids, that if we lived here I know my son would be enrolled in all of them, but for now, we needed to enjoy what we could.

There are so many amazing exhibits to visit that it’s hard to know where to begin. Since he’s been learning a lot about the Greek and Roman Empires and art we started there.

A rare exhibit was on display when we were here – The Boxer which was preserved perfectly and a treat for us all.

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But the big adventure was the Egyptian Art

The Temple of Dendur has a full room dedicated to it.

It is in as perfect of a state as it would be if visiting temples in Egypt.

Aside from the Egyptian hieroglyphics, we were having a blast looking at century-old graffiti. Not much has changed over the years – vandalism now and then.

And more Egyptian statutes

For our last attempt to make our baby excited we visited the knights room, which even a non-museum lover like me, truly enjoyed!

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Metropolitan Museum of Art Facts

• 1866 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s earliest roots date back to Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a “national institution and gallery of art” to bring art and art education to the American people.

• 1870 – On April 13, 1870, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated, opening to the public in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue.

• 1870 – On November 20 of that same year, the Museum acquired its first object, a Roman sarcophagus.

• 1874–76 – purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot art—works dating from the Bronze Age to the end of the Roman period—helped to establish the Met’s reputation as a major repository of classical antiquities.

• 1880 – On March 30, 1880 the Museum opened to the public at its current site on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street – Museum Mile.

• The Evening Post reported that at last New York had a neoclassical palace of art, “one of the finest in the world, and the only public building in recent years which approaches in dignity and grandeur the museums of the old world.”

• 1910 – the Met was the first public institution in the world to acquire a work of art by Henri Matisse.

• 1917 The ancient Egyptian hippopotamus statuette that is now the Museum’s unofficial mascot, “William,” entered the collection.

• 1986 – The greatest number of people to visit the Museum in one day was 52,333 on December 30, 1986.

• The largest collection of Egyptian art outside of Cairo, are on display here.

• The American Wing now houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts.

• Today, the Museum’s two-million-square-foot building houses over two million objects, tens of thousands of which are on view at any given time.

• The largest framed painting in the Museum is Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze. It measures more than twelve feet high and twenty-one feet long.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art had 5.4 million visitors last year, more than the Mets and the Yankees combined.

Information about the Met Museum for Kids

Phone: 212-535-7710

Address: 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10028-0198

Hours: Open 7 Days a Week

Sunday–Thursday: 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

Price: Fee includes same-day admission to the Main Building and The Cloisters museum and gardens. There is no extra charge for entrance to exhibitions.

You can buy your tickets upon arrival, or get great discounts with CityPASS.

Adults $25

Seniors (65 and older) $17

Students $12

Members Free

Children under 12 (accompanied by an adult) Free

Secret tip – the price for entrance is suggested. Meaning, you can give what you want. This is done so that everyone can visit the museum and enjoy what is on display. 

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