City Museum
City Museum outdoor playground
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| Location | St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
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| Coordinates | 38°38′01″N 90°12′02″W / 38.63361°N 90.20056°WCoordinates: 38°38′01″N 90°12′02″W / 38.63361°N 90.20056°W |
| Operated by | Rick Erwin III |
| Opened | October 25, 1997 |
| Operating season | year-round |
| Website | City Museum |
City Museum is a play house museum, consisting largely of repurposed architectural and industrial objects, housed in the former International Shoe building in the Washington Avenue Loft District of St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
Popular among residents and tourists, the museum bills itself as an "eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel." Visitors are encouraged to touch, climb on, and play in the various exhibits. "Don't touch the art" is never commanded; although safety docents are present on each of the 11 floors.
Opened in 1997, the museum attracted more than 700,000 visitors in 2010.
The City Museum has been named one of the "great public spaces" by the Project for Public Spaces, and has won other local and international awards as a must-see destination. It has been described as "a wild, singular vision of an oddball artistic mind" and compared to the similarly individualistic Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.
City Museum was founded by artist Bob Cassilly and his then-wife Gail Cassilly. The museum's building was once an International Shoe Company factory and warehouse but was mostly vacant when the Cassillys bought it in 1983. Construction began in January 1995.
The City Museum opened to the public on October 25, 1997. Within two years, it was drawing 300,000 visitors a year.
The museum has since expanded, adding new exhibits such as MonstroCity in 2002, Enchanted Caves and Shoe Shaft in 2003, and World Aquarium in 2004.
Cassily remained the museum's artistic director until his death/murder in 2011.
A circus ring on the third floor offers daily live acts. The City Museum also houses The Shoelace Factory, whose antique braiding machines makes colorful shoelaces for sale. The Museum has hosted concerts.
The building's fifth floor houses apartments, dubbed the Lofts at City Museum, which range in size from 1,300 to more than 2,800 square feet (260 m2).
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Wikipedia