Visitors to the State Museum are entertained by a new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone. The museum is undergoing a $150 million renovation plan. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
State Museum Director Jennifer Saunders gives a tour of the museum’s new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany. Touring shows like “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” will comprise much of the Kids Zone’s programming, Saunders said.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Visitors to the New York State Museum are entertained by a new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone. The Kids Zone is part of the first phase of the museum’s ongoing renovation.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Visitors to the State Museum are entertained by a new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone. The museum is undergoing a $150 million renovation plan. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
Visitors to the State Museum are entertained by a new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Visitors to the New York State Museum are entertained by a new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone.
Will Waldron/Times Union
The State Museum is seen on Tuesday at Empire State Plaza in Albany. The museum is undergoing a $150 million renovation plan. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
Visitors to the New York State Museum can gaze out from the mouth of a T-Rex that is part of a new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone.
Will Waldron/Times Union
New York State Museum Director Jennifer Saunders is interviewed on Tuesday at the State Museum in Albany. The museum is undergoing a $150 million renovation plan. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
Visitors to the State Museum are entertained by a new dinosaur exhibit on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone. The museum is undergoing a $150 million renovation plan. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
The New York State Museum’s new dinosaur exhibit is promoted in the lobby on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone. The museum is undergoing a $150 million renovation plan. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
The New York State Museum’s new dinosaur exhibit features animated models on Tuesday in Albany. “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals” is the first exhibit in the museum’s new Kids Zone. The museum is undergoing a $150 million renovation plan. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
ALBANY — “Our team here — there’s nothing that we love more than hearing this,” said Jennifer Saunders, director of the New York State Museum. “This is why we do the work that we do.”
Saunders was competing with the excited chatter of children filling the new Kids Zone for its inaugural exhibition: “Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals.” The interactive show and the State Museum’s youth-centric fourth-floor space are major components in the first phase of its $150 million renewal.
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“Expedition Dinosaur: Rise of the Mammals”
Where: New York State Museum, 222 Madison Ave., Albany
When: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, excluding state-observed holidays
Admission: Free
More info: 518-474-5877 or nysm.nysed.gov
Museum survey: surveymonkey.com/r/NYSMSurvey; survey ends July 10
Since arriving nine months ago, Saunders was regularly asked when the museum would bring back dinosaurs, which haven’t roamed its halls since the late 1980s. The Kids Zone provided the perfect opportunity to revive a fan-favorite subject.
The traveling exhibition, created by the California-based Stage Nine Designs, is indicative of what the Kids Zone will house, Saunders said. It’s interactive — one station lets visitors color dinosaurs and scan them into a digital field of rainbow Tyrannosaurus rexes and striped Brachiosauruses, while another uses projection mapping to create volcanoes and waterways based on how a table of rice is manipulated. There are areas for digging, microscopes, and fossil excavations modeled after the board game Operation. All around, animatronic dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals roar in wooden cases or behind ropes.
Touring shows will comprise much of the Kids Zone’s programming, Saunders said. This is because they allow the museum to take the state’s history and “put it in a wider context,” and they can fill gaps in the museum’s archives (“We don’t have any dinosaurs in our collections,” Saunders noted.). Traveling shows also mean the Kids Zone can maintain a robust schedule after “Expedition Dinosaur” closes Jan. 3, 2027; exhibits for the next few years are already being reserved.
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The Kids Zone was one of the primary, public-facing components of the first phase of the museum’s overdue renovation. Saunders called the children’s area an “immediate first step” towards creating an active museum. Though it “hasn’t been used like this for quite a while,” the fourth floor is an ideal setting for large, family-friendly exhibits, Saunders explained. Daylight pouring through the windows creates a brighter, “welcoming environment,” and the layout gives kids “the opportunity to really play and learn.”
“Obviously, we have the funding for the renewal of the permanent galleries, but that’s a process that’s going to be intentional and thoughtful, and, as a result, it’s going to take a little bit of time,” Saunders said. “My goal has been to make sure that the museum is as exciting and fun and filled with learning opportunities as possible as we go through that process.”
Given the crowd filling the Kids Zone even on a school day morning, Saunders’ plan seems to be working. Since opening on May 23, attendance has been “amazing,” the museum director said. While the museum’s free admission policy means there aren’t tickets to track attendance, Saunders noted the carousel, also on the fourth floor, clocked around 1,500 rides on May 30. Staff expect visitor numbers to rise when school lets out, which will buck the usual trend of quiet summers.
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“The first weekend, there were more people here than my staff said they’ve seen in years,” Saunders said.
There have been other noticeable changes to the museum. Stacks assumed operation of the cafe, and the gift shop reopened; both had been closed since 2020. Programming has increased, and installation is underway for an exhibition on revolutions to coincide with America 250, keeping the museum on pace to achieve its goal of four to six major exhibitions per year. “Barbie: A Cultural Icon,” which closed in April, launched this effort.
Behind the scenes, a task force of museum, education, cultural and government leaders has begun research for the renovation. The museum recently concluded its first visitor survey, which examined who was already coming to the museum, how often and why, Saunders said. A second, statewide survey is underway to assess “what visitors would like to see, experience and learn” per the online survey; these results will inform the vision plan. A comprehensive planning process will follow, which Saunders said will look at the “nitty-gritty” facility items like visitor flow, electrical systems, what kind of exhibitions can be supported in the physical space and more.
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“We can do a lot of internally focused work, and we’re doing that,” Saunders said. “But we want to make sure that the public is getting the benefit of everything that we’re doing as all of that work is happening.”
Museum renewals have been promised, but never realized, since 1999. The current work marks a notable step towards finally achieving those promises, and the effort is being supported by $150 million in state funding, which Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in 2025.