The Childrens Museum of the East End

The Childrens Museum of the East End started with a conversation around a kitchen table in Amagansett. In 1997, seven mothers gathered weekly because they were disappointed with the few educational opportunities for children on the East End of Long Island. Inspired by the excitement they and their children experienced at the new childrens museums that were opening and helping to define communities around the country, they began meeting regularly at each others homes. They hit on the idea of launching a new organization that would teach children about the East End and world around them by promoting learning through play. Calling their idea the Childrens Museum of the East End or CMEE, the mothers launched a pilot project exhibit to gauge community interest in a local childrens museum. In just fourteen weeks at Guild Hall in East Hampton, five thousand people visited the exhibit, confirming the belief that the East End needed a childrens museum. In October 1998, the original fo...