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New Playground Opening
Summer 2025
2025 marks CMEE's 20th anniversary and we are celebrating this milestone with a new playground!
The Children's Museum of the East End (CMEE) began as a simple idea. Eight mothers sat around a kitchen table and dreamt of a place where children could learn through play.
Now, the Children’s Museum is a beloved local institution — realizing its mission to spark imagination and foster learning for children of all backgrounds and abilities.
As we celebrate 20 years in our home and envision our future, it is time for us to update and modernize the Museum to reflect the experience of children in our community today. We have served one generation of children; now we need to meet the needs of the next generation and their families.
New Outdoor Exhibition and Play Space
CMEE's plan emphasizes one our core values — the importance of nature and outdoor exploration in learning and child development. Children now spend half as much time outdoors as they did a generation ago. In today’s digital world, it’s important to provide opportunities for outdoor play, which can foster independence, healthy risk-taking, and self-reflection.
CMEE’s new outdoor exhibition and playspace will be a marquee destination on the East End. With trails, ramps, swings, abstract climbing structures,and more. Children and families can engage in age-appropriate play centered around gross motor development using natural materials, CMEE’s outdoor playspace will be unlike any other on Long Island.
Our Partners
CMEE has engaged playground design firm SPEC Play, landscape architects LaGuardia Design Group and Hampton Yards to transform CMEE’s backyard into a marquee destination on the East End.
As landscape architects, we are often tasked with thoughtfully placing buildings and structures to minimize their impact on the surrounding environment. Our role with planning the new playground was no different. CMEE's site presented a unique challenge given its sloping terrain and sensitive woodland edges. Working with SPEC and Studio Ludo, we designed the play area surface to step naturally with the land, using locally sourced boulders and large shade trees to define the separate play spaces. The disturbed areas are all to be re-vegetated with native plant species, blurring the line between the new playground and its natural boundaries. Once completed, the space will create a strong visual and tangible connection with nature- something that the property has in abundance. - Dan Thorp, LaGuardia Design Group
Play Your Part
Join us as we embark on a journey to ensure the future of the Children's Museum of the East End.
This is an invitation to grow with us. Together, we can show the world that educating our children and providing for their families are one and the same: an investment in the future.
“We have the opportunity today to create a CMEE that will nurture this and the next generation of our community’s children and families. I’m proud to support this campaign and hope you will join me."
Christie Jacobs, CMEE’s Campaign Co-Chair
"We have always found fulfillment in giving back in meaningful ways. Supporting this exciting new playground installation at CMEE is an opportunity for us to contribute to a space that will bring joy, creativity, and learning to local families for years to come. Investing in our community’s future, especially it's children, is something we take great pride in, and we’re honored to be a part of this special project."
Kristin and Aaron Marchese, Hampton Yards
