[Family Travel] Welcome to "Hands-On" Fun: National Museum of Fine Arts Children's Playroom

In recent years, indoor family play spaces have become a trend, with even many well-known large museums joining the movement. Among them, many locations hold memories from the childhoods of little Co’s parents, filled with youthful nostalgia. But surprisingly, years later as parents themselves, they still want to “check in” and revisit these spots just like in their passionate youth—only this time, the main target has shifted to the children's play areas inside the museums.

The play spaces attached to museums mostly inherit the distinctive positioning and character of their collections, each with its own unique features. This is quite different from “general commercial indoor family play spaces, which tend to have similar setups.”

By cleverly combining everyday materials and props, young children can explore while unleashing their creativity, becoming little artists through play.
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A gentle reminder: The children's playroom welcomes kids under 12 years old to come and experience it.

The children's playroom is surrounded by a colorful atmosphere right from the entrance.

On the left side of the photo are two hand sanitizer machines—you can disinfect your hands here before entering to play more safely. On the right side of the photo, below the window, is the shoe cabinet; you need to take off your shoes before entering.

The children's playroom is located on the second floor of the East Wing of the art museum. You can climb the stairs directly, or if you’re pushing a stroller, you can choose the accessible ramp or take the elevator to the second floor, then walk a short distance to get there.

The first floor of the children's playroom includes a 0–2 year old toddler area, an exploration zone, a digital learning area, and a water painting wall. The most suitable spot for little Co at this stage is the 0–2 year old toddler area.

The space on the left after entering the door is the little ones' enlightenment corner (0–2 year old toddler area), featuring a spacious crawling area and various art activity boxes.

The crawling area is surrounded by seats acting as a “moat,” so the little ones can play freely within sight and reach of adults (great for parents who’ve had their legs worn out chasing their kids!).

Little Co, who had just learned to walk not long ago, immediately had a blast in the crawling area as if in their element.

Among the cushions are scattered numerous art activity boxes, and little Co’s eyes lit up at the sight of these new things.

When actually playing with them, they still maintain their usual serious and focused demeanor.

A gentle reminder: Before entering the little ones' area, you’ll pass the storage area where all belongings, including umbrellas, must be stored. Valuables should still be kept by yourself.

Under the window frame of the corridor outside the first-floor restroom, there is a water painting wall. With just a brush and water, little ones can freely satisfy their doodling desires. The wall dries quickly, so one child can start painting shortly after another. While it’s not too much of a worry about clothes getting dirty, if the little ones get too carried away, it’s better to have an extra set of clothes in the air-conditioned room to avoid catching a chill. Of course, if things get a bit out of control, accompanying adults should step in promptly so as not to disturb others.
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Dad demonstrated how to paint on the wall for little Co first—let’s see how big sister Co did (the elder one)!

Little Co: I stir, I stir, I stir and stir. It’s clear that little Co’s desire to play with water outweighed her interest in painting.

Climb the stairs—first, conquer the stair “boss.”

Before heading up to the second floor, we were “trapped” by this stair boss for quite a while (screaming~)! Because little Co entered a sensitive period for climbing stairs—the stairs had an irresistible pull for her. Whenever she saw stairs while out, little Co would use inexplicable strength to drag adults to climb up and down with her, as if powered by some super battery, going up and down endlessly without getting tired. The adults, however, would be panting and ready to surrender after just five trips. That day, little Co, as usual, insisted on mom accompanying her on the stairs and refused to move on to the second-floor play area.

Seeing this, dad had no choice but to carry her up to the second floor. She screamed the whole way, and the moment she was put down, she immediately turned and ran back. Mom, worried she’d fall down the stairs, had to grit her teeth and accompany her up the stairs until the little princess was satisfied. (Don’t ask how many times—they say ten fingers aren’t enough to count!)

Seeing little Co’s earnest and satisfied expression, mom had to swallow her exhaustion.

After quite a while, they finally “broke through the blockade” and successfully left the stairs. Before entering the main play area on the second floor, there’s a small room on the right, which is the multimedia experience area.

Little Co, who loves looking at mirrors, darted straight into the multimedia experience area. Wow, what a deep sense of space, along with lots of dots in the style of Yayoi Kusama. Only when sorting the photos later did we realize they had a clever color coordination with little Co’s outfit.

Huh? What are those little stools in front of the transparent glass for? It turns out this is the self-drawing, mutual drawing, and touch-up drawing area.

Just pull over a friend to sit facing each other through the transparent glass, and you can draw each other’s facial features while looking at them—go ahead and try it out Up (start drawing)!

If you don’t feel like drawing others, no worries—you can easily draw your own outline using a mirror.

No problem if you don’t want to draw people—let’s draw cats instead.

Little Co gave it a try too. Daddy spotted how focused Little Co's gaze was from across the room.

The colorful corner space is the doodling zone, with a box of crayons and white paper at every spot.

Little Co didn’t head into the corner creative area but was very interested in a whole box of differently textured colored scarves by the entrance. Behind the box stood a row of hook-and-loop strips—you can use the scarves’ stickiness to create and unleash creativity on them. Little Co played here for quite a while.

Behind the creative zone is the construction area, which features many construction games that are quite different from regular toys and teaching aids. It was so much fun that this is where Little Co spent the most time.

The “toys” in the construction area: multi-colored pipes, short and long adhesive strips, and giant flower pieces.

Carry, carry, carry...

Pull, pull, pull... thinking hard.

Unpack, unpack, unpack...

Little Co: "k8, there are so many colors here—it seems more fun!"

Looking very intently, as if deciding which color to choose. Never mind—just pour them all out first.

Super into the “take out, put in” game—won’t get tired of playing it a hundred times.

Daddy demonstrated connecting the pipes. But Little Co still preferred to just throw, throw, throw.

Mom: “It’s too hard to get her to connect them now. How about setting up a little stall? Stuffing them into the little holes also helps practice hand-eye coordination!”

After Little Co finally figured out what the pipe blocks were all about, we moved on to the next play area—the manipulation zone. There’s a 3D puzzle table, as well as a felt collage board and a magnetic wall.

The 3D puzzle table has four types of puzzles: figures, still life, landscapes, and geometry.

Little Co focused on stacking them one by one, carefully letting go with both hands.

The felt collage wall—simple geometric shapes are creative materials kids just can’t get enough of.

The felt is still too thin for those tiny fingers, so for now, Little Co just knows how to scrunch it all up and plop it on.

The magnetic wall—the round magnets are also great drawing pals for little ones.

But Little Co was all about the “moving things around” phase. In the blink of an eye, she had already made several back-and-forths.

The “National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Children’s Playroom” is much larger than expected, with a rich variety of themes. Most of the art creation games here are rarely seen in typical parent-child centers or play spaces, with very few ordinary toys. However, overall, the facilities are more suitable for slightly older children (like preschool or elementary school age) to really enjoy the “essence.”

On the day we visited during a weekday morning slot, the huge playroom only had 3–5 parent-child groups using it, so you can pretty much try out almost every activity.

There’s also a block corner, with illustrated wall text explaining the benefits of playing with blocks and the various developmental stages kids go through with them—very useful parenting info.

Block Art Gallery, showcasing the story of blocks. The blocks here are for display only—not for touching.

The photo shows a maze-like walkway that cleverly separates the various play spaces on the second floor.

The day of our visit was Christmas Eve, and the playroom was already decked out with lots of festive decorations.

The outdoor space outside the art museum is also great for letting kids run and play.
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Address: No. 2, Section 1, Wuchang West Road, West District, Taichung City
Phone: 04-2372-3552
Visit Information: Detailed opening hours and online reservations
Parking: National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts parking lot (EasyCard accepted)
Visit Date: 2015.12.10