Access to CMOM

Need-Based CMOM Membership

Our Community Access Membership Program is a subsidized membership program that allows low-income families enrolled through community-based organizations (CBOs) to enjoy CMOM’s premier child- and family-friendly cultural and educational resources. Since 2000, the Access Program has enabled low-income families to purchase CMOM family memberships for $5, giving them unlimited access to CMOM and our public programs. Over the past three years we've partnered with more than 50 CBOs to promote this program, welcomed more than 4,000 new visitors and enrolled more than 1,000 Access memberships.

Cool Culture and CMOM

CMOM has also partnered with Cool Culture to provide free Museum access to children and families enrolled in childcare programs. Founded in 1999, Cool Culture connects over 50,000 low-income families in New York City to more than 90 art museums, botanical gardens, historical societies, zoos and other cultural institutions with the Cool Culture Family Pass. Through the Cool Culture Family Pass program, CMOM has welcomed thousands of Cool Culture families to the Museum to take advantage of informal learning opportunities that are fundamental to lifelong learning and academic success. 

Accessibility

CMOM is a place for children of all abilities to play, explore and be themselves. The Museum offers children with disabilities the opportunity to explore a wide variety of activities that provide tactile, visual and auditory stimuation. CMOM works with an advisory board for families of children with disabilities to expand outreach efforts and to review exhibits and programs to insure that they meet the needs of all museum visitors. CMOM partners with local schools to provide guided group visits for students with learning and physical disabilities and regularly offers open houses designed to encourage parents of children with disabilities understand how they can best take advantage of the Museum and its resources.

CMOM's Guide for Families of Children with Disabilities, developed with funding from the Noble Trust and in collaboration with experts in the field of learning and special needs, helps children with disabilities and their parents/caretakers, to more fully explore and maximize learning in PlayWorks™. CMOM was recognized for its innovative work on the Guide for Families of Children with Disabilities by the Association of Children’s Museums and VSA Arts with the 2009 Universal Design for Learning Award, which identifies model programs in children’s museums that demonstrate learning standards for inclusive practice. For more information e-mail access@cmom.org