(For this series, tigernoodles' own Yerin Lee visits museums around New York City, to explore and report on kids-and-families-friendly exhibits and experiences.)

Our recent and very enthusiastic visit to NYC's new-ish Arte Museum (whose other locations include Las Vegas, Dubai, Hong Kong, China and South Korea) provided a comprehensive view into how multi-sensory environments can genuinely assist in facilitating children's creative development.

Opened this past September at Chelsea Piers, and spanning 52,000 square feet(!), each thematic room utilizes concept-specific scents and tactile elements, such as floor projections that respond to footsteps - which have been proven to support sensory emotional growth in early childhood. During our observation, children actually showed impressively high levels of engagement with the interactive installations, confirming what we had already suspected - that kids of all developmental stages react with exhilarated curiosity to the sort of hyper sensorial experience that the Arte Museum has so keenly curated.

Gallery images above by Yerin Lee

Indeed, the exhibition successfully caters to a wide age demographic through diverse levels of interactivity. While toddlers were primarily captivated by the large-scale moving visuals, older children seemed engaged deeply with the "Live Sketchbook" activities. The latter, which transforms 2D drawings into 3D moving animations on screen, serves as an excellent pedagogical tool for teaching spatial awareness and digital literacy through creative play. It was fascinating, in fact, to see how this technology so deftly bridged the gap between traditional art-making concepts and digital interaction for young learners.

The final immersive gallery is a collaboration with Paris' iconic Musée d'Orsay, featuring virtual curation of Impressionist masters. It offers a high-fidelity experience that makes art history both fun and accessible to all ages. The integration of AI-enhanced animations, grand-scale production, and period-specific classical music creates a uniquely majestic atmosphere that transforms what could have been a passive viewing experience into an active educational journey.

Of course, knowing that even the most dazzling visual experience is still subject to the restless nature of children, the overall family-friendly infrastructure at the Arte Museum guarantees a happy visit.