Exploring the Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Dinosaurs growl as the sky fades from pink to orange and finally deep blue. A carousel whirls as giddy children sit astride tigers and llamas. An Egyptian mummy rests peacefully in her tomb. You and your children can discover all of these things and more at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, located minutes from downtown at 3000 North Meridian Street, has been rated by Child Magazine as the best children’s museum in the United States. Child chose the Indianapolis museum based on its amount of gallery space (an amazing 365,000 square feet), the number of employees that hold degrees in early childhood education (36%), and a host of other factors, including the multitude of classes and camps offered in a variety of subjects and the 130-seat SpaceQuest Planetarium.

Start your visit at Dinosphere, on the museum’s Lower Level and Level One. Opened in 2004, Dinosphere is unlike any other dinosaur exhibit you and your children have ever visited. Instead of a reconstructed fossil surrounded by ropes as you would find in other museums, Dinosphere dinosaurs are arranged as if they were still alive and breathing. In one diorama, a lone triceratops in surrounded by two hungry tyrannosaur’s. Nearby, hypacrosaurs gather at a watering hole. The ceiling above you changes colors as though transitioning from night to day, and the sounds of the exhibit chance accordingly. It is the closest your children will ever come to knowing, “What was it like when dinosaurs were alive?”