Museum of Children's Arts

Really love the concept! (wouldn't call it a museum though, but that's not what we came for, so all is good) We came here on a Saturday for a kid's birthday party and my kiddo had a lot of fun with the art and tinkering. The provided materials were plenty and well-organized. And like I said, I like the concept.... the staff however... I mean, if you don't want to sit in a room with a bunch of rowdy kids on a sunny Saturday, I hear you. But hey, tough luck. It's what you signed up for. The long-haired guy was downright rude on several occasions. Totally uncalled for.

Today was my first time visiting the mocha museum for children in Oakland and it was a positive experience. In fairness, I visited during a private event so it wasn't open to the public and I can't speak to how it functions during normal business hours. What I can say is that the location is great as it's BART accessible, and is part of the CITY CENTER, which is surrounded by eateries and other shops. There is minimal street parking, so I would highly recommend public transit. The artwork was beautiful and the staff was kind. This is definitely a great place to visit.

This place is not a museum. It's a great ppce to take kid though for a few hours mainly toddler 6 or less. It's a. art and creativity play space for children with a room with creativity toys. A snack area and they usually have an art teacher on shift. Parking is difficult though.

Came here for an open studio with my 2 year old and loved it! Kids under 3 are free and if you're a part of the ACM Reciprocal Network, you get 50% off admission. So my child and I spent about an hour and a half here for only $2.50! They change activities every two weeks and have new themes every month. There are instructions at each station if you have older children that can follow directions, but my child just enjoyed all the different forms of painting (using sponges, brushes, fingers, a potato masher etc...) They also have a sticker room which was perfect for my little one to work on motor skills. The staff member, Antonia, was super friendly and was constantly running around refilling supplies, cleaning the water for brushes, bringing out more paper etc...She also helped us pack up our (still drying) art with saran wrap to bring home.You can bring your own food, but there aren't really any clear surfaces (tables) to eat at. We just pulled two chairs to the side for a snack. There's metered parking outside with a 2 hr limit, which is about as much time as we'd spend there anyway. I can see my child enjoying this long into the future as she reaches different developmental stages and can try new things. It's a great place for kids to be creative. In my ideal Pinterest world I would do all these activities with her at home, but I don't have the resources or space to do so....Plus at MOCHA I don't have to clean up! ;)

Loved this place! There was a lot of kids the time we went but it was spread out pretty evenly. One thing that was a bummer, was 3 paintings we did got tossed and we had names on it. If you want to keep your child's work make sure you put it on the drying rack. We will be back my child had so much fun! Also try doing the bigger paintings when you first get there so it drys when you're doing other

My 3.5 year old and I have been to Mocha's Open Studio 5 or 6 times and I have always liked the exposure to different art and sensory projects available on a changing basis, but today's visit is a disappointment and here is why:1) We came at 11am when Open Studio begins at 10am, most of the material at the tables were difficult to reuse (like the wet paper stencils and the already-fully-punched paper for the paper puncher). We cannot duplicate the sculpture project without the exact material on hand. It makes me feel like if we don't show up at 10am, we don't get our money's worth.2) A lot of the paint and glue containers were near-empty by 11:30am, they are not refilled promptly.3) We can play with playdoh at home and don't need to come and pay to play with playdoh and its limited accessories.4) No clear instructions on the marble paint project. The gentleman from our last visit volunteered to show us what to do with a particular project but this time, nobody helped us in figuring out what to do with the marbles while the female helper was busy chatting with another patron for quite some time.5) We don't need to come to pay to play with felt board and magnet board. They used to have cool toys for kids to play with at the corner near the stairs like the magnatiles and cool puzzles, but they are no longer there.We left promptly after one hour while we had stayed longer on previous visits, have to unfortunately look for other artistic venues for children for a better experience. Plus, the hunt for parking makes it that much more not-worthwhile.

An Open Studio that was anything but open. My photo shows a project "laid out" -- examples of a "good" glittery pineapple or Jellyfish bowl were shown, with pre-cut materials and ONLY the materials needed for each pre-planned project. Think of the opposite of open art materials, and often not even age appropriate for the young toddler and preschool set I was with. A "museum" where they provided pre-fab art made me and my kids sad.

It kills me to write a negative review of a place that exists to bring art into kids' worlds, but MOCHA isn't up to par. The two stars are for the open studio, because it can be a great place for kids to muck around with messy supplies you might not feel like breaking out in your own house.However, I would not recommend the day camp. I was pretty shocked by the non-open-ended nature of the projects. In other words, kids are being presented with the right way to do things. I'm not saying they are forced to complete projects in a particular way. But any educator knows that if you so much as hint at a "correct" result for a project, that's how the majority of kids are going to do it--particularly the anxious or underconfident ones, the ones who most need the experience of doing art THEIR way.My other (huge) complaint about the day camp is that every evening when I picked my kid up, I found everyone in the basement A/V room watching a movie. The closest adult was sitting at a desk outside the room, staring zombified into her phone. Yep. Not even in the room with the kids.Apparently "art camp" only runs to 3:00 and everything after that is "aftercare." Like that justifies it. I don't understand why MOCHA (of all organizations) feels it's appropriate to plunk kids in front of a screen for up to three hours a day, but that is not what I thought I was paying for. Considering that this is one of the most expensive camps in the Bay Area, I think they could afford to plunk kids in front of some art supplies instead. Never again!

We've just finally become members here, and it's so worth it. My daughter goes at least once a week, and the projects are so fun and creative. The Staff here are friendly and attentive, and really let the kids be themselves. Antonia is especially friendly and was a great ambassador to the studio the first time we visited.Even when the studio was pretty packed on a recent rainy day, we were always able to ask for or find a new piece of paper, a place to sit down, and materials. That being said, we come early, and if it is likely to be a big day, make sure you wear clothes that you're willing to get some paint on, there are lots of kiddos gleefully running around with messy hands, aprons, and wet art!

A great place for crafting and creativity. It's pretty strictly oriented around that, you can bring in your own food and drinks but they're don't supply any. Also open studio days are only a day or two a week. You have to sign up for classes otherwise. But it's a nice big open building and we made presents out of the stuff our daughter created.