The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
3000 N. Meridian Street
(317) 334-3322

Whether measured by size, number of artifacts or number of visitors, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is the world’s largest and was recently ranked as the “best children’s museum” in the country by Child magazine. Attracting more than 1.3 million adults and children a year, the museum has been identified by the American Association of Museums as one of the 20 most-visited museums of any kind in the nation. The five-story museum houses 100,000 artifacts in 10 major galleries that explore the physical and natural sciences, history, foreign cultures and the arts.

The Children’s Museum is a place to learn and do. Whenever possible, exhibits are Hands-on or participatory. Take a ride on a turn-of-the-century carousel, ride on a train that doesn’t really move (but a light and sound show makes it seem as if it does), pet animals or get a great view of the stars at the SpaceQuest Planetarium. In Story Avenue: African-American Voices That Teach Us All, visitors learn the importance of the oral tradition in all of our lives. As the city’s first permanent African-American exhibit, stories become the artifacts on display. Visitors can stop by the barber shop, “eavesdrop” on a family having Sunday dinner or hear a bedtime story.

In the $2.5 million ScienceWorks gallery, children who visit can climb a 22-foot limestone rock wall, dig for fossils, crawl through an earthen tunnel and move bricks and rocks around on a two-story construction site, using a pedal-operated dump truck and wheelbarrows. The museum houses a one-of-a-kind museum store that encourages investigation, exploration and education for both children and adults. The Children’s Museum Store features “zones” for science, arts and crafts, imagination and gizmos.  There is a learning tree with built-in seating around its base for reading and children can total their purchases on a wall-mounted six-foot calculator.

The October 2001 opening of the new Dino Discovery Lab is the first step in the creation of the $25 million Dinosphere. In the Dino Discovery Lab, children can sign up for in-depth educational programs that allow them to work side-by-side with professional paleontologists to select 65 million-year-old dinosaur fossils for display in the new Dinosphere. The star of Dinosphere will be Bucky, the first teenage T-rex to ever be mounted and displayed. When completed, Dinosphere will be the most up-to-date representation of dinosaur behavior in the world.

Indiana State Museum
202 N. Alabama Street
(317) 232-1637

The Indiana State Museum is a showplace for Indiana’s cultural and natural history. Permanent exhibits detail everything from an ancient glacier to 1910 Indiana streets. The Indiana Museum of Sports profiles the history of sports in Indiana by showcasing many of the state’s top athletes and teams. One of the popular displays in the exhibit examines the phenomenon and popularity of the Indiana high school basketball tournament.

Indiana Medical History Museum
Medical Landmarks USA, a travel guide, refers to the Indiana Medical History Museum as a Marvelous museum quite simply without peer in the entire country’s the museum is housed in the historic Pathological Department of the former Central State Hospital. When construction was completed in 1896, the structure was a medical research and teaching center. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it is the oldest surviving pathology laboratory in the United States. The museum includes old stethoscopes, X-ray machines, ophthalmoscopes, lab equipment and other medical artifacts.

In January 2001, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the Indiana Medical History Museum and the Old Pathology Building as an official project of Save America’s Treasures.

Indianapolis Museum of Art
1200 W. 38th Street
(317) 923-1331

Founded in 1883, the Indianapolis Museum of Art is one of the oldest art museums in the country. It’s also one of the nation’s largest general art museums, with permanent collections of African, American, Asian and European art, including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and photographs, decorative arts, textiles and costumes.

The IMA houses the largest collection of watercolors by J.M.W. Turner outside of Great Britain and the 2,000-piece Eiteljorg Collection of African Art, one of the most important collections of its kind in the country. Also featured are the W.J. Holiday Collection of Neo-Impressionist art, the Clowes Fund Collection of Old Master paintings, the famous LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana and the Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art.

An extraordinary exhibit of 101 paintings and prints by Paul Gauguin and his contemporaries acquired by the Indianapolis Museum of Art opened in 1999. The 17 paintings, valued at $30 million, and 84 prints are from the renowned collection of Swiss entrepreneur Samuel Josefowitz. The works have been incorporated into the museum’s permanent collection galleries. The museum is located on 152 acres of landscaped grounds that include a historic country estate and formal and informal gardens. The museum complex also features a working greenhouse and garden store, cafe and gift shop.

To take this 117-year old institution to the “top tier” of American museums, the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) has begun a $180 million plan to improve visitor services. The projected investments will enhance four major asset areas of Indiana’s premier art museum: the IMA’s excellent art collections, the museum’s buildings and grounds, the former J.K. Lilly Jr. estate, and the new 100-acre Art & Nature Park to be developed on the IMA’s grounds. In addition, funds will help secure the future of the IMA by building the operating endowment.

The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park will open on 100 acres of wooded land. With a scenic 30-acre lake as its centerpiece, the park will feature walking paths and outdoor sculpture areas, letting visitors experience art in a natural environment.

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
Of American Indians and Western Art
500 W. Washington Street
(317) 636-9378

The Eiteljorg Museum, which opened in 1989, is a museum whose unusual architecture complements the art that is displayed. Located downtown, the $14 million adobe-style museum elicits images of the desert Southwest with its distinctive blend of earth tones.

The American Western collection includes paintings and bronzes by such artists as Charles Russell, Frederic Remington, Georgia O’Keeffe and members of the original Taos, New Mexico artist’s colony. The Native American gallery consists of art from 10 regions of North America and features pottery, basketry and clothing.

Considered one of the finest of its kind in the country, the collection originated with Indianapolis businessman Harrison Eiteljorg, who ventured west 45 years ago looking for coal. While there, he fell in love with the land, the people, and the art. The premier event at the museum is the Indian Market, which takes place in the summer.

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art recently completed a $16 million expansion that would increase gallery space by 50 percent and add 30,000 square feet of outside gardens and terraces along the Central Canal.

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