Long Island museums: Kids summer exhibits take the fun inside and out

Three Long Island museums are bursting with innovative ways to celebrate America’s 250th birthday this summer.

At Long Island Explorium in Port Jefferson, visitors can become spies and try hands-on activities that compare the ways people sent secret messages in America in the 1700s, to the ways we do it digitally today.

In the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, check out a five-part view of American art and artifacts ranging from a 15-year-old American pop artist’s latest work, to actual baseball bats, balls and mitts used in the World Series, to a painting of Front Street in Hempstead in 1869, and decades of celebrity photos. After July 12, Tiffany stained-glass and the paintings that inspired the artist’s work will fill all the galleries.

At Long Island Children’s Museum in Uniondale, kids will be surrounded by red, white and blue streamers, ribbons and stars as they build with enormous blue blocks.

In each museum, there’s much more in store. Here are the details.

FROM HUGE BLOCKS TO FISHING DOCKS

In the new Travel Exhibit at the LONG ISLAND CHILDREN'S MUSEUM, kids will build everything from a birthday cake for America to an eagle on a perch using 17 different types of super-large blue blocks. Instructions on the walls show kids how to build these creations or let their imaginations soar and design their own. (May 23 through Labor Day)

Daily pop-up art projects are woven around countless interactive exhibits. In new types of Artventure workshops, figure drawing and fine art projects are simplified in ways that are appropriate for very young children. Margo Malter, director of exhibits, says, "A summer version of our latest permanent exhibit, Saltwater Stories, is a good complement to a day at the beach." Kids can pretend to sell seasonal fish in a fish market, climb into an authentic dugout canoe, and play in "magic windows" where they can digitally control the tide, the weather, call in a day’s catch on a fishing boat, and remove trash from the water.

The museum’s outdoor backyard features sand and gravel play sections, a vegetable garden and an area where caterpillars become butterflies. The Water Table activities open June 6.

INFO 11 Davis Ave., Uniondale; 516-224-5800, licm.org

FROM SPIES TO PIZZA PIES

At the LONG ISLAND EXPLORIUM'S new exhibit, Spy Tech From Then to Now: STEM Secrecy and the Birth of a Nation, visitors can explore hands-on activities with secret messages, hidden codes and spy techniques used in the late 1770s through the present. "A kid-friendly example is, around our nation’s founding, a message might have been hidden in an ordinary letter or written in a simple code," explains Lisa Collet Rodriguez, director of digital media marketing. "Today, encryption does the same thing digitally. So a message becomes readable with a correct key or password." (July 1 through Aug. 31)

During the new Teen Night program, teens take over the museum on the first Friday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. Each event features an age-appropriate project. The museum also is a comfy place for teens to hang out, enjoy hands-on activities or play board games. (They can bring their own favorite board or card games as well.) Pizza and drinks are served, all for $10 admission.

INFO 101 E. Broadway, Port Jefferson; 631-331-3271, longislandexplorium.org

FIVE-PART AMERICAN ART

The NASSAU COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART divides into five different galleries that highlight some of the brightest art in America from the past to the present.

250 Years of Art on Long Island (Gallery 1): "I thought of a few paintings that young people will absolutely love," chief curator Franklin Hill Perrell says. "One is considered possibly to be the largest 19th century painting on Long Island." It's a portrait, roughly 5.5 feet by 4.5 feet, of two children on Orient Beach in its early days as a resort. "The fun part is you can also see the cove, oysters, sand and landscape that identify Orient Point," Perrell says. A painting of children surrounded by the Shinnecock Hills is another historical highlight. (Through July 12)

Profiles in Color: Andres Valencia (Gallery 2): Vibrant Picasso-style portraits and sculptures created by 15-year-old Valencia fill a colorful space. Perrell explains, "Valencia has been painting since he was capable of holding a pencil. He had an intuitive, self-taught capacity as an infant." It’s as if Picasso and Goya overlap with pop culture. "Think of Valencia as a young Andy Warhol," Perrell says. (Through July 12)

National Pastime — The Baseball Show (Gallery 3): Visitors will see a collection of autographed baseballs, bats and mitts used by players such as Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson. (Through July 12)

Twentieth Century Portrait Photography (Gallery 4): Noted personalities such as Elizabeth Taylor, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe and Groucho Marx are photographed with unique expressions by top-of-the-line photographers including Richard Avedon and Lord Snowdon. (Through July 12)

The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany (Gallery 5): Before Tiffany (1848-1933) designed stained glass, he created more than 130 exotic paintings during his visits around the world. "They were travel paintings that portrayed market scenes, old castles and fabulous architecture," Perrell says. Tiffany was inspired by the ways light interacted with colors. He and his team of artists transferred the sensibility in Tiffany’s paintings to stained glass. "In the museum, when you compare Tiffany’s stained glass to his paintings, you’ll be able to see the relationships," Perrell adds. The entire museum will be filled with Tiffany’s 130 paintings and a wide variety of stained-glass pieces. (July 25 through Nov. 8)

INFO 1 Museum Dr., Roslyn Harbor; 516-484-9338, nassaumuseum.org