- COURTESY STRONG NATIONAL MUSEUM OF PLAY
- A girl plays a video game at The Strong National Museum of Play.
One Manhattan Square | 585-263-2700
museumofplay.org
Many people tend to think of museums as stodgy, mothballed institutions where touching exhibits is off limits, talking too loudly is verboten, and fun goes to die. The Strong National Museum of Play is the opposite. Highly-interactive exhibits devoted to the history of play and exploration allow kids to be kids and grown-ups to feel like a kid again. But the museum also features more traditional exhibits, like “America at Play,” which chronicles more than 300 years of play and pastimes through rare artifacts such as antique board games and early versions of popular toys. The museum, which is home to the National Toy Hall of Fame and the World Video Game Hall of Fame, recently announced plans to house the National Archives of Game Show History. The Strong, as the museum wants to be known, estimates it receives 600,000 guests a year and anticipates that a massive expansion that is underway and scheduled to be completed by 2023 will draw as many as 1 million visitors annually.
Finalists: George Eastman Museum | Memorial Art Gallery | Rochester Museum and Science Center
