The Met'S Free Children'S Studio Is Finally Here

"We are dedicated...

to nurturing a lifelong experience of fun, of learning, and of engaging with art," Max Hollein, director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, says of the museum's new 81st Street Studio, a free children's space that opened last weekend.

The 3,500-square-foot space, designed by KOKO Architecture + Design, features interactive walls made out of wood, an 8-foot guitar, a wall of castanets, an air organ, and a reading area with books in six languages, the New York Times reports.

Kids can also build their own musical instruments and manipulate color-changing lights.

"We're not trying make a kids' museum here," says Adam Weintraub, principal of KOKO, which designed the studio.

"We are really trying to always tie it back to what the Met can inspire."

Inside, visitors can view objects from the museum's collection on animated screens and touch objects themselves, Hyperallergic reports.

There's also a replica of an Egyptian mash-wood screen, a reading area with books in six languages, and an area where kids can make their own musical instruments.

"It is an open space where you can create your own path," says Heidi Holder

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