Kids, as any parent will wearily acknowledge, can be preternaturally difficult to please. Yes, even in a city as infinitely diverting as New York, you can leave it to your pint-sized sidekicks to witheringly rebrand Lady Liberty as ‘just some old statue’, moan that the Empire State Building ‘isn’t even all that tall’ and eye-roll the old-school Central Park carousel into oblivion. But maybe – just maybe – the mighty Museum of Modern Art, aka MoMA, is the New York attraction to turn those theatrical yawns into squeals of pure delight. Bright colors, outlandish shapes, and paintings that are as much puzzles to be solved as works of art, this place has it all. Follow us on our easy whistle-stop tour of the museum’s greatest family-friendly hits, plus get info on bonus audio guides, activity sheets for kids, and where to go when you’re done…
First things first
First things first
Let’s kick off our modern art odyssey with a few essential tips to make your day run smoothly. Because, where kids are concerned, meticulous planning is king.
- Download the MoMA app to your kids’ devices before you pitch up. This gives you access to kid-friendly audio guides for all the artworks in our tour. Don’t forget the headphones!
- Download a kids’ activity sheet or grab one from ticket desks, the Crown Creativity Lab or the Art Lab. Sheets include mini treasure hunts, plus space for doodling and more.
- Consider visiting on weekday mornings when galleries are less busy and the vibe a little less hectic.
Now let’s crack on with the tour…
The Starry Night (Van Gogh, 1889)
The Starry Night (Van Gogh, 1889)
In a nutshell: Unmistakably van Gogh, this dramatic swirl of celestial night skies, as seen from the artist’s bedroom window at Saint-Rémy-de Provence asylum, has a quietly mesmerizing power whatever your age.
Kid-appeal: 9/10. Those dramatic brushstrokes, intense colors and twinkling stars are like catnip for little uns. See if yours can count the stars and follow the swirls with their eyes. How many different shades of blue can they spot? And what do they imagine is going on in the village below? Are the residents waking up, or just getting ready for bed? If van Gogh’s signature swirls don’t inspire your kids to pick up a paintbrush when they get home, nothing will.
Where do we find it? Head straight up to Floor 5 and follow signs to Gallery 501. Be aware that this is one of MoMA’s most popular paintings, so does tend to get busy.
Evening, Honfleur (Georges-Pierre Seurat, 1886)
In a nutshell: Seurat’s sunset scene depicts Honfleur beach in northern France. But there’s a lot more to his tranquil seaside idyll than first meets the eye. For this is the painting that birthed Pointillism: thousands of tiny unmixed color dots applied in patterns to create one cohesive image.
Kid-appeal: 6/10. Get your kids to make like a mini ocean wave, gently ebbing and flowing against the painting’s shore. They’ll go dotty for how the painting’s detail seems to dissolve into abstract murk on the approach then re-coalesce into a distinct image as they back slowly away. It’s an optical illusion that has a hint of the conjurer’s hat about it, and who doesn’t love a bit of old-fashioned magic? Bonus: ask what they notice about the frame – a later addition, also painted by Seurac in his signature Pointillist style.
Where do we find it? You’re already there: it’s in the same gallery as The Starry Night. Look out too for the colorful Opus 217 by Seurat’s fellow Pointillism pioneer, Paul Signac.
Bicycle Wheel (Duchamp, 1913)
In a nutshell: The earliest and most famous of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymades’, Bicycle Wheel is just that: a wheel stuck into the seat of a stool. Duchamp is said to have built the sculpture for his own enjoyment and never actually intended for it to be displayed in public. And yet, here it is. But is it art?
Kid-appeal: 7/10. This Frankenstein’s monster of bicycle wheel and kitchen stool was intended to be spun, played with and enjoyed – Duchamp’s retort to old-fashioned mores that decreed art should be seen but not touched. Yet you’re not allowed to touch it anymore – how do your kids think the artist would feel about that? And do they believe it belongs in a gallery? Can they think of any other examples of kinetic sculpture in public art?
Where do we find it? Follow the natural route through to Gallery 505, pausing to ogle groundbreaking works by Picasso, Cézanne, Gauguin and others along the way.
The Red Studio (Matisse, 1911)
The Red Studio (Matisse, 1911)
In a nutshell: There are few better examples of Matisse’s bold use of color and form than this red (actually very red) painting of his own art studio, filled with recently completed paintings and sculptures.
Kid-appeal: 6/10. If red happens to be your kid’s favorite color, this one’s a no-brainer. And even if it isn’t, there’s plenty more to puzzle out. How many different objects can they spot? Why do they think the artworks are so colorful and detailed, while the furnishings are just outlines against that deep-red background? Look closer: was red Matisse’s first choice for the color of his painting? The kids’ audio guide in the app is essential for fun bonus facts here – like discovering the true color of Matisse’s home studio, and the realization that you’re effectively standing inside a Matisse painting: every piece on display in this gallery is one of his own.
Where do we find it? Floor 5, Gallery 506, just next door to Duchamp’s wheel/stool combo.
The Persistence of Memory (Dalí, 1931)
In a nutshell: A mainstay of MoMA’s collection for nearly a century, Dalí’s nightmare vision of gloopy clocks, bulbous human faces and tiny crawling insects is one of Surrealism’s most enduring works of art.
Kid-appeal: 8/10. Dalí described his hallucinatory vision as a ‘camembert of time’ and kids are very cheese-ily drawn into its oozy, woozy, unctuous universe. How would the clocks feel if you could touch them? Does the landscape look inviting, or creepy? Is it a dream or a nightmare? Kids will also be delighted to discover that The Persistence of Memory was once referenced in a Sesame Street special. In it, the Cookie Monster is seen visiting ‘the Museum of Modern Cookie’, where the clocks in Dalí’s painting are re-imagined as – yup, you guessed it. Sounds like our kind of museum.
Where do we find it? Exit Matisse’s colorful world and enter the realm of the Surrealists, right next door in Gallery 517.
One: Number 31 (Pollock, 1950)
One: Number 31 (Pollock, 1950)
In a nutshell: Jackson Pollock’s high-energy masterpiece, painted in his signature drip style, is also one of the largest canvases he ever completed. Dominant blacks and whites seem to throb and pulse, while earthy sub-tones keep the work grounded. It’s Abstract Expressionism writ (or dripped) large.
Kid-appeal: 7/10. What kid, given half a chance, wouldn’t absolutely love to try recreating Pollock’s splashy masterpiece on their own bedroom wall? See how long they can follow a thread through the painting before losing it in the melée. Ask why they think Pollock gave such an electric painting such a dull name. The audio guide is also your friend here – it invites kids to invent their own movement or dance inspired by Pollock’s art.
Where do we find it? Back to the escalators via Galleries 522/523 and glide down to Floor 4 and Gallery 401, where One: Number 31 immediately draws the eye.
Campbell’s Soup Cans (Warhol, 1962)
In a nutshell: A pivotal work that put Pop Art on the map, Warhol’s 32 different flavors of the good stuff are displayed just as he intended: stacked vertically and horizontally exactly as you’d find them in your local grocery store. Assuming your local grocery store still stocks Campbell’s Pepper Pot soup, that is.
Kid-appeal: 8/10. If there’s one thing kids love, it’s repetition, and Warhol’s work has it in spades. Let them ‘yuck’ and ‘yum’ their way through the flavors, count how many different varieties they can see and pick their top three, before suspiciously eyeing Warhol's iconic Gold Marilyn Monroe and Double Elvis portraits and asking… “Who?”
How do we find it? It’s in Gallery 412, over on the other side of the museum. Two ways to get there: go straight across Gallery 405 then left through 410 after 408, or go left from Gallery 505 into 406, then swing a right at 415.
Two Cheeseburgers, with Everything (Dual Hamburgers) (Oldenburg, 1962)
In a nutshell: There’s a hostel in southern Iceland that has on display the last McDonalds burger sold before the chain closed its final restaurant in the country. Bought in 2009, it remains remarkably well preserved. But it’s not as old (or as interesting to look at) as Claes Oldenburg’s conjoined meat buns, with their garishly painted lettuce, and cheese that protrudes like human tongues. Yummy.
Kid-appeal: 10/10. Kids love a burger sculpture almost as much as they enjoy the real thing, and they’ll find it hard to peel their eyes away from Oldenburg’s striking sculpture, which is just as likely to make them feel unaccountably queasy as make their mouths water. Ask how it makes them feel, and whether they think food can also be art. Is the decaying Icelandic McDonalds burger also art?
Where do we find it? You’re already there: it’s in the same gallery as the Warhol pieces, alongside several more eye-popping paintings and sculptures by the likes of Piet Mondrian, George Segal and Robert Watts.
Untitled (Flavin, 1969)
Untitled (Flavin, 1969)
In a nutshell: Dan Flavin described his art – comprised largely of colored fluorescent tubes – as ‘situations’ rather than sculptures. This particular set-up involves two tubes, perpendicular to each other, in a corner, with the ‘situation’ arising from how the physical object relates to the surroundings it illuminates.
Kid-appeal: 6/10. Kids will enjoy seeing how the tubes wash the gallery walls with color, and can even become part of the art themselves, by bathing in the luminescent pinks and sunshine yellows of Untitled’s glow.
Where do we find it? It’s right next door to where you are now, in Gallery 413.
Bell-47D1 Helicopter (Young, 1945)
In a nutshell: This lightweight, insect-like ‘copter (nicknamed the Dragonfly) was mass-produced in the U.S. between the 1940s and 1970s. Its designer Arthur Young – also a poet and painter – saw an opportunity to make his flying machine beautiful as well as utilitarian. And so, a design classic – all bubble-shaped cabin and lightweight aluminum tail boom – was born.
Kid-appeal: 10/10. A helicopter? In a museum? Why didn’t you show us this first? We hate you.
Where do we find it? This one’s easy. Just drop down to Floor 3 on the escalator – you won’t miss it.
Child-friendly MoMA hacks
Before or after your self-guided mini-tour – or indeed at whichever point your little darlings lose patience with the galleries (our guess is when distracted parents are drawn, inexorably, into Monet’s immersive Water-Lilies room) – MoMA has your back thanks to this trio of heavy-hitters…
- The Art Lab, Floor 1. Open daily from 11AM–5PM, the lab offers fun, hands-on workshops for kids, including opportunities to draw, craft, play with line and light, and more. All ages are welcome.
- The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, Floor 1. Crammed with tactile artworks and lush greenery, this is a lovely space to let kids run off steam, meditate, or quietly sketch the sculptures between galleries.
- Café 2, Floor 2. A lovely family space in which to share salads, sandwiches and kid-friendly classics, for when only mac and cheese will suffice.
Wow, we had a blast. Where to now?
Wow, we had a blast. Where to now?
MoMA’s right in Midtown, so there’s no end of fun, family-friendly attractions within easy strolling distance, many of them included with the New York Pass. You could go celeb-spotting (well, sort of) at Madame Tussauds on Times Square, soar to the Top of The Rock or go old-school at the Empire State Building Observatory. You might want to rent bikes for exploring Central Park, or head slightly further afield for mighty machines at Intrepid Museum, a cruise down the Hudson, and dinos and dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History. With a New York Pass, the Big Apple really is your oyster.
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