Cayton Children’s Museum Opens At Santa Monica Place This Fall

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For years, Los Angeles parents with young children have been heading to Sharewell’s Zimmer Children’s Museum on Wilshire and San Vicente. Its hands on approach to exhibitions is intriguing to young children, stimulating their creativity and imagination. Now, The Cayton Children’s Museum, renamed in honor of donors Barry and Andrea Cayton, will open in a new space this November, sprawling across 21,000 square feet of Santa Monica Place.

ShareWell, the Los Angeles-based non-profit that oversees and operates the current Museum, has tapped Culver City and Portland, Or-based R&A Architecture + Design as the design architect for the new space and S2 Associates as its exhibition designer. The mission of ShareWell is to guide children in recognizing the possibilities within their communities and beyond, and to take meaningful, collaborative and collective action to create a better future. It’s comprised of two main program initiatives: youTHink, an innovative youth development program, and Cayton Children’s Museum. 

The new Museum will be located at 395 Santa Monica Place on the open-air shopping center’s third floor and doubles the museum’s current exhibition space.  The flagship location will also house an art studio and a gift shop, alongside support facilities, community/workshop rooms, and ShareWell’s corporate and administrative offices

R&A Architecture + Design imagines the Museum as a series of unexpected experiences that empower children to author their own adventures. Free-form objects and truncated, round rooms establish a museum experience based on a free plan concept that blurs the line between architecture and exhibition space, allowing visitors to wander and discover the museum in their own unique way. Each area of the museum will provide opportunities to take chances, to work together and for reflection. 

For more information on ShareWell and The Zimmer Museum, click here.