Founded in October 1988 by Kathleen Schneider, the Children's Museum of the Arts is one of the oldest children's art museums in the world. The Museum has been located in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo since its inception. The Museum employs an artist-in-residence format whereby teaching artists work directly with children and their families. CMA is a nonprofit institution.

The mission of the Children’s Museum of the Arts is to extend the benefits of the arts to all children and their communities and to secure the future of the arts by inspiring and championing the next generation of artists and art lovers.

We work to fulfill our mission by providing authentic hands-on art experiences for children with artists, both in our art-filled interactive museum, in the community, and by collecting and exhibiting children’s art.