About

   Indianapolis has the largest children’s museum in the entire world. (Its size? Nearly half a million square feet.) 

    Of course, the museum is highly interactive, with kids being encouraged to touch and play with almost everything. Little ones can hunt for fossils at the Dig Site, examine a model mastodont skull, climb rock walls, build toy boats to float in actual water and much (much) more.

    Founded in 1925, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is a nonprofit institution committed to creating extraordinary family learning experiences that have the power to transform the lives of children and families. With a 481,000 square-foot facility situated on 30 acres, it is the largest children’s museum in the world. Visitors can explore the physical and natural sciences, history, world cultures, the arts, see how dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago in Dinosphere: Now You're in Their World,  experience Dale Chihuly's Fireworks of Glass, and examine children's impact in shaping history in The Power of Children: Making a Difference.

On any given day, as 1 p.m. approaches, crowds gather in the Sunburst Atrium at The Children’s Museum. They watch in anticipation as blue liquid fills the final glass globe marking the hours on a 30-foot-tall water clock. When all of the clock’s globes—29 small disk-like ones marking two-minute intervals and 12 larger ones marking the hours—are full, they empty with a WHOOSH, leaving the globes ready to refill gradually over the next 12 hours. (The clock also empties at 1:00 a.m. each day, but the only people present to witness that are the museum’s security guards.)

Bumblebee isn’t a very imposing name. But at 17 feet tall and weighing one ton, Bumblebee the Transformer is quite an imposing figure. Built as a prop for the 2007 movie Transformers, the Bumblebee that now greets visitors in The Children’s Museum’s Welcome Center is a source of delight for Transformers fans of all ages.

Bumblebee took up residence in the Welcome Center in March 2011, serving as a reminder of the fascination that the Transformers continue to hold for anyone who has dreamed of having a powerful friend who can battle bullies then provide a ride home. In the summer of 2012, the museum premiered a Bumblebee transformation program featuring a specially designed costume, bringing Bumblebee to life for children and families.

    Relax on a revolving platform and gaze up at the magnificent glass ceiling. Learn to identify the different shapes and forms used by Chihuly. Create your own colorful sculpture from plastic shapes that mirror the originals. Blow glass virtually or explore glassblowing on our computers.