By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Kids who want a place to play seven days a week this summer are in luck.
As a result of popular demand and last year's record attendance, the Children's Museum of Manhattan will be opening its doors on Mondays for the first time since it opened in 1973, according to a spokesman.
The Monday hours will be in addition to the museum's current hours from Tuesday through Sunday.
In addition, the museum will be open for extended Saturday hours during the summer in conjuction with the start of the museum's new Curious George: Let's Get Curious exhibit. The new weekend hours will let kids go down the slide, play mini-golf and climb tiny towers until 7 p.m. Saturday nights, rather than having to cut the fun short by 5 p.m.
The museum expects to have 400,000 visitors by the end of the fiscal year on June 30 — a 10 percent increase in the institution's attendance over the past year, according to a report released by the museum.
"Our record attendance is a testament to the strength of our exhibits and programming and is evidence of the public’s growing desire for a fun, safe, community environment for families to learn and grow together," said Andrew Ackerman, the museum's executive director.
Parents looking for a respite from the heat during their kids' school summer vacations are also thrilled about the new hours.
"It's a wonderful thing, because the museum is really great when it's hot outside," Upper West Side mom Catherine Diam, 38, said, while her two kids ran around the exhibit.
"It's a change from the regular playground routine. Plus before, we had to stay at home if it rains. Now we can go out and play."
Lower East Side resident and stay at-home mom Rafi Nayowitz added, "I think it's great."
"My kids range from one to six years old, and I find that there's not many other places where all three kids can be occupied at the same time."
The Children's Museum, which is private, is seeing a surge in attendance and extended hours as other public museums and cultural institutions in the city are facing drastic cuts or price hikes. The New York Public Library, for example, is facing budget cuts that could shutter branches and slash hours in locations around the city.
The mayor's proposed cuts from the library are more severe than those during the 1970s or the Great Depression, would slash more than $40 million from the budget and close five Manhattan branches, the City Council said last month.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art also recently announced that they will raise their admission price for the first time in five years.
Despite the "Depression-era" budget cuts plaguing other institutions in the city, the Children's Museum of Manhattan is weathering the recession well, thanks to a solid business plan and very focused kid-centric programming, a spokesman said.
The museum credits some of their success to new projects the company has implemented with the National Institute of Health. Their initiative to create the first national early childhood obesity prevention curriculum is one example of an outreach program that keeps parents interested and kids healthy and happy, Ackerman said.
"We are literally bursting at the seams with activity and opportunity," he boasted.
