Three floors in Symphony Park

The DISCOVERY Children's Museum — downtown at 360 Promenade Place in Symphony Park — packs 26,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits across three floors, STEAM learning built into the play. The museum's own guided overview lays out the shape: Toddler Town on the first floor serves the littlest learners, birth to five; above it sits the mini-city where kids work jobs, earn a paycheck and run the cafe, the children's hospital, the grocery store and a Raiders stadium construction site. The official virtual tour (2020) is the most complete visual survey of the building here, and the 2024 sizzle reel adds what the tour predates: engineering contraptions, 3D-printed models, the theater stage and the art programs — a family destination, the staff insist, not just a kids' one.

Come laugh, play, and learn at DISCOVERY Children's Museum in Las Vegas!

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The museum's own guided overview (2019): 26,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits with STEAM learning built into the play, across three floors in Symphony Park. The tour starts in Toddler Town, the first-floor area for little learners from birth to five, then climbs into the mini-city where kids work jobs, earn a paycheck and run the cafe, the children's hospital, the grocery store and a Raiders stadium construction site.

Key takeaways
  • Three floors of hands-on STEAM exhibits
  • Toddler Town serves birth-to-five learners
  • The mini-city: jobs, paychecks, cafe, hospital, grocery store

DISCOVERY Unveils the New Water World Exhibit |NEWS3LV

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A News 3 Las Vegas segment (March 2025) in which the museum's Vice President of Education unveils the rebuilt Water World exhibit and explains the lesson inside it: Southern Nevada gets about four inches of rain a year and draws some 90% of its water from the Colorado River, so the museum teaches conservation to a desert city's kids — a model, she says, that visitors from around the world come to study.

Key takeaways
  • The rebuilt Water World opened March 2025
  • Water conservation is the exhibit's core lesson
  • ~90% of local water comes from the Colorado River

Virtual Tour of DISCOVERY Children's Museum

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The museum's official Virtual Tour (2020): a complete walk-through of the three floors and their galleries, produced while the museum was reaching families at home. The most complete visual survey of the building on this page; watch content — the film has no narration transcript.

Water World, and a tower in transition

The newest exhibit gets two films: a News 3 segment and the museum's own opening film, both from March 2025, when the rebuilt Water World opened. Its lesson is a desert city's own: Southern Nevada gets about four inches of rain a year and draws some 90% of its water from the Colorado River, so the museum teaches conservation through play — water pressure, lakes and rivers — a model, its VP of Education says, that visitors from around the world come to study. One honest transition note: the museum's climbing tower, The Summit, is being transformed into a new exhibit, 'Desert to the Stars' (opening Spring 2028) — it remains explorable in the meantime, per the museum's own announcement. A Spanish-language tour of the bilingual Energía energy gallery rounds out the set as watch content.

Built by the community, on purpose

Two films tell the founding: in 1982 the Junior League of Las Vegas and the Allied Arts Council joined behind a hands-on museum for children; by 1984 the project stood on its own as the nonprofit DISCOVERY, starting with temporary demonstration exhibits in 1985. The 51-minute 30 Years documentary (2022) is the full oral history — the founders' mid-1980s fact-finding trip to Los Angeles children's centers included — and 'Our Kids FIRST' makes the educators' case: play as the great leveler, the museum as the first museum many children in poverty ever walked into, and members who come back every week and know the staff by name. It's the Strip's opposite number — our Springs Preserve page is its outdoor sibling.

Sources: the nine videos on this page — mostly the museum's own films (a guided overview, a virtual tour, the Water World opening pair, the Energía tour, the 30-year documentary and anniversary records) plus a News 3 segment — summarized from their entries in our catalog.

DISCOVERY Children's Museum Sizzle Reel (2024)

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The museum's 2024 overview film, narrated by its own team: more than three decades educating Southern Nevada's next generation — engineering contraptions, designing 3D-printed models, commanding the stage in the theater, exploring art — and the case for the museum as a place for whole families, run by a nonprofit dedicated to children and the community.

Key takeaways
  • Produced overview of the museum, 2024
  • Engineering, 3D printing, theater and art programs
  • A family destination, not just a kids' one

DISCOVERY Children's Museum | Water World Opening

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The museum's film of the Water World reopening (March 2025): staff describe the rebuilt exhibit — learning about water pressure, lakes and rivers, and where the community's water comes from, all through play — and opening-day visitors, adults included, react to the colors and the structure.

Key takeaways
  • Water World's reopening, March 2025
  • Water pressure, lakes and rivers taught through play
  • Opening-day reactions from kids and adults

Energía Exhibit | DISCOVERY Children's Museum

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The museum's Spanish-language tour of Energy/Energia, its bilingual energy gallery (2024): how energy transforms in our world, taught through the gallery's hands-on stations. Presented in Spanish as part of the museum's bilingual programming; loaded as watch content — no English transcript is stored.

Watch: DISCOVERY Children's Museum, guided

3 videos · summaries from the actual guides

30 Years of DISCOVERY

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The museum's 30 Years of DISCOVERY documentary (2022): founders and longtime staff tell the whole story — the Junior League's mid-1980s fact-finding trip to hands-on children's centers in Los Angeles, the founding generation's idea and dedication, three decades of growth, and the conviction that a place 'not only for fun and play' but to inspire, dream and learn 'is here to stay.'

Key takeaways
  • A 51-minute oral history of the museum
  • The founders' 1980s LA fact-finding trip
  • Thirty years from idea to Symphony Park institution

DISCOVERY Children's Museum 25th Anniversary Legacy Video

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The museum's 25th Anniversary Legacy Video (2016): in 1982 the Junior League of Las Vegas and the Allied Arts Council joined forces behind a hands-on museum for children; by 1984 the project stood on its own as the nonprofit DISCOVERY, starting small with temporary demonstration exhibits in 1985 and growing — on community support — toward the world-class museum its founders believed a city nearing two million people deserved.

Key takeaways
  • Founded from a 1982 Junior League / Allied Arts Council vision
  • Its own nonprofit by 1984; first demo exhibits 1985
  • The 25th-anniversary record of the founding generation

DISCOVERY Children's Museum: Our Kids FIRST

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'Our Kids FIRST' (2020): educators and parents on why a museum where children are allowed to touch and play matters — play as the great leveler for kids of every background, the museum as the first museum many children living in poverty ever crossed the threshold of, and the members who come back every week and know the staff by name.

Key takeaways
  • The case for play, from the museum's educators
  • A first museum for many low-income children
  • The membership community in its own words

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