Originally known as the "Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum" and later simply as the "Strong Museum", it became the "Strong National Museum of Play" in 2006, after completing renovations and an expansion that nearly doubled its size to . The museum includes exhibits that interpret the key elements of play, as well as allow guests to explore the worlds of
Sesame Street, The
Berenstain Bears, Reading Adventureland, and the
Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden.
Exhibits The museum's exhibits are immersively themed to video games, storybooks, television shows, education, nature, history, comic books, carousel and train rides, and children's lifestyles. eGameRevolution is the first permanent video game exhibit in the US and includes the
World Video Game Hall of Fame. The
National Toy Hall of Fame is at the museum. Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden features thousands of
butterflies, and is the largest indoor
butterfly garden in
New York.
The Berenstain Bears: Down a Sunny Dirt Road is an original, permanent exhibit produced in partnership with the
Berenstain family. In 2019, The Strong Museum received a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities to develop an interactive exhibit space to show the influence of video games on culture, with plans to open in 2022. After delays, the expansions were unveiled in July 2023, which included the ESL Digital Worlds exhibit, a new space to house the
World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the
Hasbro Game Park, a large
board game-themed outdoor space. The additions added of space at a final cost of . The exhibit remained open at The Strong until March 16, 2024. ==See also==