From bottom to top, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, officially known as The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, is full of fun for kids of all ages. We’ve been going to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum for 6 years. We purchased our first membership when our little boy turned one. There are plenty of permanent exhibits to see each and every time you visit. There are also amazing temporary exhibits going on all of the time.
Let’s start at the bottom and move up, shall we?
LOWER LEVEL
All Aboard: This is the spot for train lovers! Before visitors enter the gallery they are welcomed by an entrance display of more than 100 toy train sets and a G-gauge model train layout. One of the trains in the layout winds its way around the museum’s lowest level just above visitors’ heads before it leads them into the gallery itself. Younger 
visitors can enjoy the train layout’s tunnels and Plexiglas bubbles, which enable them to crawl inside the layout for a closer view of the trains. They can also operate some of the lights and signals on the track. The center of All Aboard is the 35-foot long, 55-ton steam engine designed by Reuben Wells in 1868 to conquer Indiana’s Madison Hill, the steepest railroad grade in the United States. Visitors who venture further back into the gallery can hop on board a train’s tool car and go for a pretend ride.
What if? Work on this exhibit began when more than 1,000 Marion County youth were asked, “If you could explore anything, what would it be?” Their top three answers evolved into the three different learning environments found in “What If…?” While exploring the three immersive environments of a brightly colored underwater coral reef, a dinosaur discovery area and an Egyptian tomb, visitors can discover interesting objects and participate in many in
teractive exhibit elements. One of our favorite activities in What If… is the Tomb Talk where participants get to help “prepare” a mummy. Our little guy thought this way way cool!
Lilly Theatre: Lilly Theater has been offering live entertainment to young people for over 25 years in Indianapolis. We’ve seen Stuart Little, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and Trick or Treat Theater in Lilly Theater. Performances are free. Be sure to reserve your tickets upon arrival at the museum to ensure you get a seat as they are on a first come first served basis.
Fireworks of Glass: Fireworks of glass is the largest permanent sculpture of blown glass by renowned artist Dale Chihuly. The 43-foot-tall tower rises above a glass ceiling. Not only can you lie back on a revolving couch and look up at the glass ceiling, but you can create your own “glass” creations using colorful plastic shapes.
SpaceQuest Planetarium: This 130-seat theater features th
e DigiStar sky projection system along with over fifty slide projectors, multiple video projectors, specialized planetarium sky effects and a very impressive sound system. When you visit the planetarium, you are treated to a multimedia experience that is a real treat. They offer a variety of programs for all ages. You can see the stars of the Indiana night sky or listen to Native American tales of the sun, moon & stars. We enjoyed the programs Far, Far Away: The World of Star Wars and the Drinking Gourd. Be sure to check the current schedule and reserve your free tickets upon arriving at the museum.
Level One
Welcome Center: This is where you enter the museum and purschase your tickets. You’ll see the food court, water clock and The Children’s Museum Store when you enter. The Welcome Center is also open to the second floor. During the holiday season, the stairway in the Welcome Center becomes the Yule Slide. Children and adults enjoy zipping down the slide.
Water Clock: The largest water clock in North America was designed by French physicist and artist Bernard Gitton. The clock, which is 26.5 feet tall, uses 70 gallons of a solution of water, methyl alcohol and food coloring. A great time to view the clock is just before 1:00 p.m. when the minutes and the hours sections are full. When they overflow they create a siphon that empties the entire clock and creates a dramatic effect. Then the whole process begins again.
InfoZone: Infozone is a library inside the museum. It’s a cool place for you to have fun learning. You can check out and return library materials or borrow a laptop to play computer games. To borrow a laptop, you have to loan the librarian one of your shoes though!
Dinosphere: Journey back 65 million years to the Cretaceous Period when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Experience Dinosphere: Now You’re in Their World, one of the largest displays of real juvenile and family dinosaur fossils in the United States. There is also a functioning Paleo Lab, a hands-on dig, interactive stations and activities, and one of the finest collections of dinosaur art in the nation. This is perhaps the most amazing area of the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. Our son enjoys it now that he’s 7, however, he was a little scared when he was smaller. It wasn’t the dinosaurs skeletons that scared him…it was the noise. There’s constant noise including roaring and thunderstorm noises. His favorite area of Dinosphere is the dig area – he’d stay there all day if we’d let him!
Food Court: The food court offers several choices including Playscape Pizza, Dino Deli Kid Zone (homestyle selections), Whistle Stop Express (treats, ice creamand Starbucks®) and The Burger Works.
Concierge & Coat Check: Get your questions answered and hang up your coats. A small fee is charged for the coat check.
The Children’s Museum Store: The Children’s Museum Store offers a wide selection of fun and educational toys from trains to dinosaurs and more you’ll find things here you won’t find at just any old toy store. Remember you will have to walk by here when you leave, so I recommend letting your child know if you will be going in and if you will be making a purchase. This has helped us avoid a meltdown at the end of many a museum visit.
Level Two
Three Special Exhibit areas are located on Level Two. Currently you can see LEGO Castle Adventure! In this exhibit, you are transported to a LEGO kingdom to become master castle builders. In LEGO Castle Adventure, you can construct castles, learn about real-world castles and their building secrets, and plan their ideal castle’s defenses.You can even explore the inside of the royal castle, test their fortress designs with a 
catapult, spot a dragon and climb a battlement wall. In Comic Book Heroes, you can learn about comic books, the artists who create them and the awesome characters they feature. You can even see the Batmobile and view selections for the Max Simon Comic Book Collection, an impressive collection of over 20,000 comics. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Exhibition, you will be able to visualize the characters, the stories and the worlds of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS while viewing maquettes, concept designs and artwork from the series, as well as costumes, props, models and character art from the live-action feature films.
Level Three
The Power of Children Making a Difference: The Power of Children Gallery at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis takes visitors on a journey through the lives of three children who faced profound trials and emerged as heroes of the 20th century. The stories of Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and Ryan White exemplify for children and adults how every individual can make a difference.
Playscape: Playscape is designed for children 5 and younger. The preschooler and the grown up who cares for them are invited to play in this special environment. So, roll up your sleeves and splash and pour at the water table. Bury your hands in sand in the sand dome. Pretend to be a turtle in the fantasy forest or plant flowers in the garden with the scarecrow. Don’t miss building with blocks in the construction site and creating a picture to take home. When are little boy was younger, this was where we primarily spent our time while visiting the Children’s Museum. I recommend packing a extra shirt as little ones tend to get wet while playing in the water.
Story Avenue: Story avenue is an interactive, educational, and intergenerational exhibit demonstrating that stories teach about life. Through the experiences in this gallery, visitors of all backgrounds are also given the opportunity to understand and appreciate the role of storytelling and oral traditions in the African American community.
Level Four
ScienceWorks: Dedicated to the natural and physical sciences, ScienceWorks features five areas. Nature’s Backyard features a real Indiana fresh water pond and an interactive watershed table. Animals that might live underground in any backyard are the subject of the underground crawl through area. Kids can crawl through the “dirt” and explore the habitats of 12 different underground animals. Beyond this area, the 20-foot, artificial limestone rock wall. Next to the Backyard is Health House. Get up and get moving! It’s time to welcome a new healthy family lifestyle, and Health House can show you how. Just beyond the Backyard is the Construction Site, where kids can move different materials from one point to another using basic engineering principles. They can shovel and move foam rocks from the site into a dump truck, and operate a child-size bulldozer. In the Creek Area you can build your own little boat and then sail it down the 30-foot-long, winding creek through a system of flanges that redirect water and a lock system that enables experimentation with changing water levels. Finally, at the Biotechnology Learning Center, you can witness the hands-on lab activities and observations that give future scientists insight on how plant biotechnology affects our world. Explore plant hybidization, view plant cells through the microscope, extract DNA from fruit and more.
Carousel Wishes and Dreams: From the Carousel to a maze of mirrors; down playhouse alley straight through to the games and puzzles arcade, The Carousel Gallery is a wonderful place for the family to just hang out. Our little boy loves this area. You can climb in a tree house, serve up “ice cream” to your friends in the ice cream shop, laugh at how funny you look in the mirror maze, play games and more. The turn of the 20th century carousel animals were crafted by Gustav Dentzel. Originally, the carousel was installed in 1917 in Broad Ripple Park in Indianapolis, IN. It was damaged in 1956 when the domed pavilion housing the carousel collapsed. The animals were salvaged and brought to The Children’s Museum in 1970. Another Mangel-Illions mechanism and a 1919 Wurlitzer carousel organ were purchased to allow a full re-construction of the carousel.
