Museums & Galleries in East Haven

For the tiniest tots, there are foam towers to topple in the Tot Spot and instruments with which to make rhythms in the mUSic area. Toddlers and preschoolers sift and shovel on the Sandy Island, and older children can use a penny to watch a 100-year-old Mutoscope silent movie or use the Bricks & Sticks wire spinner to design their own 3D shapes. Click here to see the museum’s activity gallery and plan out a day trip. Or, simply show up with plenty of energy and your favorite child to discover the museum together, and help him or her build vital skills in social interaction, education, and colored-block identification. Schoolchildren can bolster their studies without realizing they're learning by organizing games in the ClimbIt@LICM structure, or by comparing barometric readings in the Our Backyard outdoor area. Get today's Groupon to treat a special proto-adult to a day of horizon expansion, enjoyment, and giant bubbles.

Flanked by seven other aircraft, a Grumman F-11 hangs suspended in a shallow dive over the main entrance to Cradle of Aviation Museum’s four-story glass atrium. Three viewing levels on wraparound balconies afford views of the aircraft that only fellow pilots in close formation ever saw when it was in service. The 150,000-square foot facility’s eight exhibits grant similarly intimate glimpses of more than 75 aircraft and spacecrafts that trace the historic path of Long Island’s aviation contributions since 1870. Those artifacts include a replica of the Wright Brothers’ 1899 kite, five aircraft made in Long Island for World War II, and the Grumman Lunar Module LM-5 “Eagle”, which transported Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin to that soundstage that looked like the moon.

Patrons also get a chance to soar skywar in the X-Ride Theater, a 30-seat motion simulator whose “Fly with the Blue Angels” film mimics the piloting of a U.S. Navy squadron jet. Over in the JetBlue Sky Theater Planetarium and the Leroy R. & Rose W. Grumman Dome Theater, screens show films on subjects such as Lewis and Clark and Ernest Shackleton’s famed Antarctic journey. To reenergize after touring the museum or riding the Historic Nunley's Carousel, which was built in 1912, guests can enjoy a meal in the Red Planet Cafe, whose space station décor evokes a Martian cafeteria in the year 2040.

Founded in 1903, New Britain Museum of American Art was designated the first museum in the country to be dedicated exclusively to American artwork. Upon its founding, wealthy industrialist John Butler Talcott endowed the museum with a hefty sum of gold bonds and bottled phoenix tears with which to purchase modern oil paintings. The collection blossomed to include other artistic media over time, and it now consists of more than 10,000 works spanning more than three centuries of American creative endeavor. The museum's permanent collections showcase works by noted American artists ranging from Norman Rockwell to John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt to Georgia O'Keeffe. Along with rotating exhibitions and borrowed collections, the museum showcases work by emerging artists.

Today, science lets children as young as 7 years old stand in the eye of a hurricane and fly over the surface of Mars—at least at the Connecticut Science Center. The multi-sensory center encourages all ages to explore the exciting side of natural and man-made phenomena. Whether they're braving gale-force winds in the hurricane simulator or engaging with exotic critters in the live animal touch tanks, visitors play an active role in the center's more than 150 hands-on exhibits. In the Sight and Sound Experience, adventurers feel sound vibrations, experiment with lasers and movement, and hear light, whereas Planet Earth encourages them to probe for fossils in a real seabed core. Exploring Space journeys outside the atmosphere with moon rocks and an up-close visit to a black hole, before Invention Dimension, which features LEGOs, returns to Earth so that fledgling engineers can build their own Rube Goldberg machine without the calculating the effects of zero gravity.

Recently, the center welcomed its newest resident: a sound-equipped animatronic dilophosaurus, whose reptilian movements and noises recreate the goosebumps felt during the species's starring role in Jurassic Park. Robotics also play a central role in Forces in Motion, which introduces the fundamentals of engineering and design through the use of sleek, responsive mechanical flyers. The center's dedication to machine life also extends to its partnerships; working with First Niagara Bank Foundation and scientist Tim Gifford, the center sponsors a teen robotics team for camps and competitions.

Beyond the permanent exhibits, the museum is also a frequent stop for headline-grabbing traveling exhibits from around the country; with multiple exhibits coming through every year, no visit is likely to be the same as the last. The center also houses learning areas suited to even smaller guests: in KidSpace, ages 3–6 splash in a water play area, partake in story time, experiment with a wall of magnetic balls, and test their object recognition in searching activities designed by I Spy author Walter Wick. Beyond the exhibits, a state-of-the-art 3D digital theatre screens science-focused films, and four educational labs host special events such as summer exploration camps and experiments in cootie vaccination. An on-site café, meanwhile, keeps visitors fueled with dishes made from organic, locally sourced ingredients. All of this academic adventure unfold in the center's sleek building, which honors its green architecture with a rooftop garden boasting panoramic views of Hartford.

The fresh breezes that buffet Mystic's shoreline probably feel much the same as they did 150 years ago, so it's a fitting place to find America's nautical history resurrected. Called Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea, the extensive grounds could almost qualify as a theme park. In addition to the museum proper, the complex hosts a rebuilt 19th-century sea-faring village, a working shipyard, and extensive gardens that blanket the grounds. Live museum staff lead demonstrations and performances throughout, even welcoming guests aboard the four National Historic Landmark vessels moored in port. Nearby, captains take visitors out on the water in a coal-fired steamboat to experience the river and town from a different angle. They also rent out their vessels to other licensed boaters seasonally, who can sail or row their way across the Mystic River. When tired of ship studying and naval gazing, guests can head to the Treworgy Planetarium and turn their eyes to the stars, learning how to chart courses in the manner of ancient captains, modern astronauts, and late-night deliverymen.

For more than 50 years, Lutz Children’s Museum has delighted children with hands-on exhibits designed to introduce young learners to history, science, and nature. A re-creation of Main Street à la 1943—scaled for visitors aged 2–10—winds through the museum’s clean interior and displays fixtures of that time, including storefronts, a school, and an Internet café. The museum reaches back even further into time by showcasing an interactive farm from the 1800s, which invites kids to dress up as farm animals, milk an inanimate cow, and climb about in a hay loft. After exploring history and cultivating agricultural knowledge, budding young adventurers can fraternize with up to 50 live animals, such as Bounce the chinchilla, who is cared for by a trained and licensed staff of other chinchillas.

Lutz Children's Museum also hosts school-outreach programs, concerts, pedagogical special events and activities, and a nearby nature center, where beautiful trails line 52 acres of preserved woods. To combat modern meteorologists' fear of their own shadows, the museum additionally hosts the official Connecticut state groundhog.