Imagine a place where there are no mistakes and no wrong answers, where you can create whatever you can dream.

Welcome to the Art Bar! A home for open-ended creation with high end, unique materials at your fingertips. In the Art Bar, you and your young artist will create from scratch or leap from an artist-designed prompt and leave with one of a kind art.

The Art Bar is generously made possible by grant funding from the Crested Butte Arts Festival, which exists to foster and promote greater artistic enrichment throughout the Gunnison Valley.

In Nature’s Playhouse, one day you may be a butterfly exploring the forest, the next you’re top chef at Crested Butte’s premier mud kitchen!

In this playscape inspired by our surrounding natural world, imaginations run wild and pretend play rules all. Lose yourself in play and imagination in Nature’s Playhouse!

Welcome to YOUR world! The sky’s the limit in this construction zone to create wild and wide worlds of play.

Everyone’s favorite Blue Blocks will give children and adults of all ages an opportunity to exercise both their mind and their muscles. The Blue Blocks encourage the development of gross motor skills, problem solving and communication and collaboration skills amongst children.

What if…? This question can inspire endless play and experimentation in the STEM Lab.

What will soar in the Flight Lab wind tunnel? How does gravity affect a ball’s path on the Magnet Wall? How much mechanical advantage can I create on the Bringing Engineering to Life wall?

Ask real life questions and find the answers playing in the STEM Lab!

The Flight Lab is presented by Crested Butte Oxygen.

The Magnet Mania Wall is presented by the Crested Butte Rotary Club.

The Bringing Engineering to Life play system is presented by the Western University x CU Boulder Engineering class of 2024.

What cannot be held in your hand or captured in a bottle but is ever changing and all around us? Why LIGHT and COLOR! Explore with your senses in the Glow Theater dark room. Mix different colors and lights, play in a new way in this unique environment and explore galaxies without going far at all. When inspiration calls, pull back the curtain for original onstage performances of all kinds!

The Glow Theater is made possible in living color by Mountain Colors and Crested Butte Design.

At the Trailhead, the great outdoors are closely intertwined with all that we do. A close connection with sun, water, and earth enrich play and art in ways that cannot be replicated. Join us in The Garden for exploration, play, creation, and community.

The Garden is on our outdoor deck space, so pop indoors to register for admission and enjoy the entire museum!