Things to Find
Get lost in twists, turns, corners and caverns.
City Museum is filled with weirdly wonderful spaces to explore. With a rooftop and four floors full of installations, attractions, collections and more, there’s almost too much to see and do. Did we mention we sell Memberships?
Get to know some of our favorites and plan a visit to experience them yourself.
Need a Little Guidance?
Let us show you around. We offer guided tours full of the weirdly wonderful stories behind City Museum.
Determined to find a better use for the roof than a dog park and chicken roost, City Museum’s founder, Bob Cassilly, and his crew added fountains and giant slides to reunite visitors with the Big Eli Ferris Wheel, the bus and the praying mantis that call the roof home. The rooftop is open seasonally and access is free to our Gold Members and just an additional $8 add-on to the price of a general admission ticket.
3,000
Pounds of Praying Mantis
8
Months of Seasonal Fun
1
Out-of-Commission Bus
City Museum is built around the old spiral chutes of the shoe warehouse it once was. Inspired by the utility of gravity, the artists have not missed the opportunity to include a slide in nearly every installation.
7
Toddler Town Slides
3
Rooftop Slides
2
10-Story Spiral Slide
30+
Total Slides
Purportedly man-made chambers wind through the heart of the City Museum past sculptures of mythical creatures and a 1925 Wurlitzer organ. Climb to the top and take a 10-story spiral slide down.
Initially planted only on the first floor, giant tree trunks and slides began to spread up through the second and third floors and burrowed into tunnels underneath the museum. Third Floor Treehouse spillage can be found near the spider net.
Run away and join the circus without leaving City Museum! Circus Harmony is a non-profit circus organization using juggling, acrobatics, magic and more to motivate social change. Stop in the circus ring on the third floor to see a free show or take a class.
586
Shows performed last year
83
83 Classes and workshops conducted last year
An outdoor sculpture of flotsam and repurposed technology including climbers, airplanes, castles, bridges, ball pits and fire engines.
2
Sabreliner 40 Aircraft Fuselages
4
Foot-Story Wrought-Iron Slinky
1
Rocket Ship
Built during a less litigious time, this onetime skate park is now a collection of slides and ramps built around the World’s Largest Working Pencil.
Built by artist Ashrita Furman, the pencil was installed in Skateless Park after an extended discussion among members of the Cassilly crew about what to do with it.
76
Feet Long
No. 2
Pencil
21k+
Pounds of Pencil
4,000
Pounds of Graphite
City Museum is home to endless collections, including George Dehil’s collection of taxidermy butterflies, moths and insects; a museum full of everyday items that were found in outhouses (none of them are what you would expect); thousands of art slides from The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and of course, historic architectural remnants from cities near and far.
1,000s
Of Things Found in Outhouses
2nd Largest
Collection of Louis Sullivan Architecture
Vintage 1940 “Big Eli” Ferris wheel was purchased from a traveling circus and now provides some of the best views in the City.
Art City is open Thursday-Sundays 10 am – 4 pm. Check out our calendar for activities! Art City staff has a variety of projects for you to do: cut and fold dragons and dinos, sculpt a little brother, paint a house or make a mosaic.
Smaller versions of slides and climbers give families a place made just for our visitors age 6 and under. There is a nursing room on the east wall.
