The Getty Center Debuts Kid-Focused Shop

Do your tots love the Getty Center? A new store was created just for them.

By Alysia Gray Painter

| Wednesday, Jun 6, 2012 | Updated 1:25 PM PDT

Getty Center

There's a new shop just for kids at The Getty Center. Check it out during the museum's Family Festival on Saturday, June 9.

Many of us were lucky enough to visit a museum when we were just tykes, either with our family or a school group.

But the museum store? That was for the grown-ups. Oh, sure, there might've been a corner devoted to plush toys or kid-sized t-shirts, but mostly it was a bastion of breakable mugs and don't-touch jewelry and posters we should not put our little mitts upon.

So whenever an institution debuts a store that is strictly for the younger art aficionado we applaud. And The Getty Center is doing just that with its brand-new Children's Shop, which is packed with puzzles and activities and toys and other sweet merch.

And the hill-top art hub will celebrate the opening of its new Children's Shop on Saturday, June 9 as part of its free Family Festival. (Parking, of course, costs at The Getty Center, which you likely know; but once you're in, you're in.)

Be sure to check out the shop that day and be sure your kidlets get a giraffe hand stamp.

Thanks, Getty, for thinking of your up-and-coming culture fans. People can come to love paintings and photography at any time in their lives, of course, but if you connected with art at that moment when you were truly soaking in the world, you can bet you'll be into it for life.

The new Children's Shop is located off the Plaza level in the West Pavilion.