Noah's Ark is closed for exciting gallery and garden enhancements, reopening November 2025.
Get ready for even more discovery, wonder, and hands-on learning aboard an expanded Noah’s Ark!
When this ever-popular exhibition reopens in November 2025, you can look forward to a beautifully enhanced gallery, including immersive lighting and brand-new interactive experiences like a giant olive tree, slides to help unload each other and the animals, a planting area with secret burrows, and a watering hole where you might encounter one of the unique animal puppets on board.
Venture outside of the Noah’s Ark gallery into our new garden! Inspired by the Jewish values of renewal, connection, and caring for the earth, this updated outdoor space will invite nature-based play and exploration for all ages with sensory garden paths, imaginative play structures, sand and water play, picnic areas, and so much more.
We can’t wait to welcome you back!
Visit us aboard Noah’s Ark at the Skirball! This award-winning children's and family destination invites visitors of all generations to play, climb, build, make-believe, and make friends—all while exploring an eight-thousand-square-foot wooden ark filled to the rafters with whimsical animals. Share in a timeless story—and together envision a better world.
Imagine yourself immersed in a favorite childhood tale, which has parallels in cultures all over the world. Conduct a storm, help construct the Ark, and bask in the glow of a beautiful rainbow. Mingle with hundreds of fancifully handcrafted animals—from cuddly companions to life-sized puppets—all crafted from recycled materials and everyday objects, including baseball mitts, mop heads, and rearview mirrors.
"I’d make the Noah’s Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center a rite of passage for every kid in Los Angeles if I had a magic wand ... The creativity is astonishing."—Los Angeles Times
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Los Angeles Times | November 21, 2024 (Login may be required)
PLAY celebrates the power of imagination and the child in all of us
Craft in America (PBS) | December 29, 2023
"Extraordinary … A celebration of play, inspiring fascination, reviving wonder."—The New York Times
Please note: All offerings are subject to change or cancellation.
A floor-to-ceiling wooden ark, filled to the rafters with fancifully handcrafted animals, awaits visitors aboard Noah’s Ark at the Skirball.
Photo by Grant Mudford
Family fun begins as children and grown-ups gather for the journey and begin to immerse themselves in the ancient flood tale.
Photo by Peter Turman
Three stunning animal sculptures preside over the entrance to the galleries. The Asian elephant’s trunk is crafted from vegetable steamers from Laos, the deer sports shoehorns as ears, and the zebras’ bodies are fabricated from wind turbines and keyboards.
Photo by Grant Mudford
A storm is brewing! At the multi-sensory, interactive “conduct-a-storm” wall, families team up to simulate thunder, rain, wind, and lightning using low-tech, mechanical sound devices. Tugging on a pulley makes the coyote howl, while even young kids can swivel the giraffe’s spectacular neck.
Photo by Grant Mudford
A young visitor pumps air to make leaves whirl while his parents fill a water tank to create waves. Hands-on participation is at the heart of Noah’s Ark at the Skirball.
Photo by Peter Turman
Are you curious about the inner workings of Noah’s Ark at the Skirball? Discover who built it, where our found-art animals come from, and how we bring our puppets to life. There’s even a rainbow at the end.
Find children’s books, puppets, toys, and games from Audrey’s Museum Store that celebrate the natural world and its wondrous, wild, wooly, scaly, and leafy inhabitants!
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