Please, Bring Your Kids to the Brooklyn Museum!

The Brooklyn Museum

Last winter, on a trip to the Getty in Los Angeles with Charlie and Vivi, then aged four and two, I asked the docent at the information desk what exhibits she could recommend for young children.

“We don’t really have any art for children,” she replied stiffly.

At the time, I was seven and a half months pregnant and admittedly, perhaps, a little touchy, but… really? No art for children? Really? It’s not like this was a porn museum (which, yes, if you are wondering, does exist as “The Erotic Heritage Museum” in—where else?—Las Vegas).

Call me naïve, but I thought that most art can be for anyone, including children.

Some museums have no interest in actively courting families or cultivating the next generation of art lovers and patrons. Happily, the Brooklyn Museum is not one of them.

The Brooklyn Museum was actually the institution where museum education for children began at the end of the nineteenth century. Their programs for children have always been, and continue to be, one of their highest priorities, as evidenced by their family-friendly website chockfull of all sorts of fun on-line activities and their free, printed family guides at the front desk.

Brooklyn Museum: 1; Getty: 0.

"The Secret Happy End" by Jean-Michel Othomel (2008): A 19th century wooden covered wagon with panels of colored glass and oversize glass beads

"The Burghers of Calais" by Auguste Rodin (1889)--and Charlie

No lines to see this 30-foot replica of the Statute of Liberty

In the outdoor sculpture garden, which houses the museum's collection of architectural salvage pieces rescued from demolished New York City buildings

An Ionic capital and column base saved from Penn Station (R.I.P. 1910-1963)

An Art Nouveau plaque from the Mulcaster Building, formerly at 1297 Third Avenue (at 68th Street)

Stopping for a scoop before heading back to Manhattan

Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238-6052; 2/3 Train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum (the station is right in front of the museum); (718) 638-5000, www.brooklynmuseum.org; Open Wednesday to Friday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Saturdays and Sundays 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM; Closed Mondays and Tuesdays; Admission: the suggested donation for adults is $10; Children under 12 are free.

Blue Marble Ice Cream, 186 Underhill Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; (718) 399-6926; www.bluemarbleicecream.com.

A Perfect Summer Afternoon: Downing Street Playground

Downing Street Playground

Most playgrounds usually annoy the shit out of me. They are too loud or too frenetic or too hot or too dangerous or too dull or too big or too small or too…something. Not so Downing Street Playground in the West Village. It provided the perfect therapy for all of my playground hang-ups.

From the moment we stepped into the half-acre, hydrangea-heavy garden and then through a small, iron gate into the playground, it was as if we had discovered our own secret garden. It’s not that the playground (standard issue playground equipment and some swings) in and of itself was all that special or that we had the space to ourselves even. Sheltered from the hustle and bustle of the city by a nine foot brick wall and covered by a leafy green canopy, the playground simply had good feng shui. It was cool and quiet and cloistered.

We didn’t really want to leave, but because this was our first time there, we decided to venture out into the surrounding West Village neighborhood. We browsed the shelves at Unoppressive Imperialist Bargain Books, a tiny, independent bookstore recommended by The Village Voice for “anyone with writer’s block or boredom and suffering from a complete lack of cash,” where we picked up two children’s books (Edna by Robert Burleigh and Joanne Yardly and A Walk in New York by Salvatore Rubbino) for a song. We ate piping hot and greasy pepperoni pizza and washed it down with cream sodas at John’s Pizzeria, which deserves all the hype it gets for the coal-fired, brick-oven pizza it has been serving since 1929. We capped off our perfect summer afternoon with handmade ice cream next door from Cones Ice Cream Artisans which, if it's good enough for Heidi Klum (she's pictured in the front window balancing a cone and a stroller), is good enough for me.

• Downing Street Playground, Downing Street and Avenue of the Americas; Subway: 1 to Houston Street or A/B/C/D/E/F/V to West 4th Street, http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/M027/highlights/8724; Open daily, dawn to dusk; **Please note that the 32 Carmine Street entrance is currently closed due to construction and there are no restrooms, so plan accordingly.
• Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books, 34 Carmine Street, near Bleecker, New York, New York 10014, (212) 229-0079.
• John’s Pizzeria, 278 Bleecker Street (between Sixth and Seventh Avenues), New York, New York 10014, (212) 243-1680, www.johnsbrickovenpizza.com; **Cash only and no slices.
• Cones, 272 Bleecker Street, New York, New York 10014, (212) 414-1795, **Cash only.