THE SETTING

After a cross-country search we have decided that the New Children's Museum in San Diego, California, is the perfect place to host our wedding and reception.  It is a beautiful space that is very open and inviting, extremely colorful, and has a personality very similar to ours—fun, funky, and obviously young at heart! 

The museum is located in downtown San Diego's Marina District and is within walking distance (or short cab) to most hotels, as well as many other local attractions, restaurants, and bars. 

The New Children's Museum
200 West Island Avenue
San Diego, California  92101
(619) 233-8792

Museum Website: 

https://www.thinkplaycreate.org

BY FOOT — The Museum is walking distance from each of our wedding block hotels.

• Hotel Indigo, San Diego Gaslamp Quarter (approx. 10 minutes, or 0.5 miles)

Head west on Island Ave toward 9th Ave and Museum will be on the right

• Marriott, San Diego Gaslamp Quarter (approx. 10 minutes, or 0.5 miles)

Head west on K Street towards 6th Avenue
Turn right onto 6th Avenue
Turn left onto Island Avenue and Museum will be on the right

TAXI, CAR SERVICE, & PEDI-CABS — Taxis and Pedi-Cabs are plentiful in downtown San Diego.  If you don't catch one on the street, your hotel can help you schedule a pick-up.  If you prefer to use a car service, we have promo codes with Lyft and Uber for our wedding day guests. 

BY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION — The Museum is easily reached from throughout San Diego, or elsewhere in Southern California. 

• MTS Bus

Closest Stops:  4th Ave. & G Street or 1st Avenue & Broadway
Routes serving those stops include:  Routes 3, 7, 15, 30, 50/150, 11, 901, 923, 992

• MTS Trolley

Green Line
Closest Stop:  Convention Center Trolley Station

• Train

COASTER (from North County)
Amtrak Pacific Surfliner (from Orange and Los Angeles Counties)
Closest Station:  Santa Fe Depot

BY CAR — Limited parking will be available near the Museum for our guests.

Coming from the north:

Take the I-5 freeway south
Take exit 17, merge onto Front Street
Continue south on Front St. toward Convention Center
The Museum will be on the right at Island Avenue

To Park in the Museum lot:
     Turn right on Island Avenue
     Turn right on Union Street
     Turn right at the parking entrance onto the plaza
     Turn left into the underground parking garage

Coming from the south:

Take the I-5 freeway north
Take exit 14B for Cesar E Chavez Parkway
Turn left at Cesar E Chavez Parkway
Turn right at E. Harbor Drive
Turn right at 1st Avenue
Turn left at Island Avenue
The Museum will be on the right at Front Street

To Park in the Museum lot:
     Turn right on Union Street
     Turn right at the parking entrance onto the plaza
     Turn left into the underground parking garage

Coming from the east:

Take the CA-94 west
Take the exit toward 17th Street
Turn left at 17th Street
Turn right at Market Street
Turn left at Front Street
The Museum will be on the right at Island Avenue

To Park in the Museum lot:
     Turn right on Island Avenue
     Turn right on Union Street
     Turn right at the parking entrance onto the plaza
     Turn left into the underground parking garage

PARKING

The Museum offers limited parking in their garage, which can be accessed from Front or Union Streets.  In addition, metered parking is available in the surrounding neighborhood and there are numerous public parking lots in the vicinity of the Museum.

Click here for Google map with nearby parking facilities

THE SPACE

The original Children's Museum opened its first facility in 1983 in La Jolla, and then relocated to a downtown warehouse at 200 West Island Avenue in 1993.  At that time, the Museum became Children's Museum/Museo de los Niños San Diego. 

After nearly 10 years in that warehouse space, the doors were closed in 2002 to break ground for a new building at the same site on the north side of Island Avenue between Front and Union Streets.  Thanks to philanthropic support, the new facility, renamed The New Children's Museum, opened to the public in May of 2008. 

The new state-of-the-art facility was designed by award-winning architect Rob Wellington Quigley and is a series of transparent, flexible spaces that visibly expose the building's construction and design.  It is a dynamic space, full of natural light and fresh air, and is one of the first green museums in California.  The environmentally sustainable building now includes 50,000 square feet of galleries, studios, and classrooms across three levels. 

THEIR MISSION

The mission of the New Children's Museum is to stimulate imagination, creativity, and critical thinking in children and families through inventive and engaging experiences with contemporary art.  Such creative and unstructured play in an open-ended environment is geared towards a "whole child" approach to support both healthy bodies and creative minds. 

Blending elements of art museum and children's museum, the institution focuses on participatory works of art that provide a venue for both art making and play in order to both foster creativity and bring families together in a rich educational environment.  It exhibits internationally renowned and local emerging artists, and is the only museum in the United States that commissions and exhibits exceptional works of art for a family audience. 

The Museum also provides educators with resources necessary to bring arts education into their classrooms, including training and curriculum guides.  Additionally, there is a legacy as a bi-national institution that integrates artists and issues from the local region into the Museum's exhibitions, studio projects, and classroom activities.  A long-term commitment to bi-national programming enhances the ability to serve audiences representative of San Diego's diversity.