Clay Center

This is a good stop along the north-​south drive through West Virginia for getting kids out of the car. I would recommend using caution on weekdays, though, since it can get ridiculously overrun by school groups. The parking lot was a bit hard to find, since Charleston has lots of one-​way streets. If you’re facing the front of the building, it’s on the side street to the left.
For little kids, the under-​5 play area is the best part (ball pit, tree house, musical instruments). The other exhibits are more tailored to older kids… there is a fun one with a game show about different parts of the body and one about weather/​natural phenomena in West Virginia. The cafeteria appeared nearly devoid of food, but we ordered and got some pretty healthy fresh salads, so it’s worth a shot! We’ve gone twice and will probably stop back when we’re in the area, especially since they offer reciprocal admission for members of other science centers.

Cute interactive play areas for the kids. Grateful they had some puzzle tables in the art gallery to keep the kids entertained. The children’s areas were small– but my girls loved the STEAM– works area downstairs. A bit pricey for what was available. $ 7.50 for adults and $ 6 for kids. Maybe takes 2 hours to see and do everything.

It would be nice to have a rotating theme for this place, but the most part once, you’ve been there once, there’s not much to see for a return. It is a great place to see musical acts, theater acts, etc that come in town. I love to take my kids here and let them be kids, but the price is what keeps most away. Something worth trying at least once

Fun for ALL ages– but if you’re born ’86 and prior you may enjoy the privacy of a early Thursday afternoon of fun in order to have it all to yourself.
Three levels that I used consisted of an upstairs art gallery, middle entry floor had a simple physics principles manipulator room (aimed at the younger set but I enjoyed it), and the bottom floor has an outdoor vegetable garden and more fun interactive demonstrations that involve sound waves. It was great how hands-​on the entire museum was and it definitely did NOT fit my typical impression of a museum. With that said, the food court left something to be desired and it was frigid in the building.
The only thing I would avoid is the «hurricane wind tunnel» that will funnel $ 2 from you for free and only gets up to speeds you can do on the expressway– legally. Two can ride for the price of one on this machine, but all in all, a waste of money.
Check out the moving clinky-​ball machine in the middle and you’re all set for a complete afternoon of enjoyment. Don’t rush through and prepare to let your inner kid out!

A great place for a family outing. Our children really enjoy their museum and exhibits.

This is one of those supposed family friendly /​hands on museum/​arts places — I’ve seen better — seen worse — the upstairs art gallery is NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY!
It is 3 or 4 stories tall with a kids hands on area down stairs — pretty cool — our family liked this part. Down stairs food court, planetarium, upstairs art gallery and music hall
I liked the hands on musical instruments — top notch — got to try out a cello and violin along with several other real instruments. Other kids area booths were cool too.
Art gallery upstairs had pseudo art… go there if you want to laugh at bad art… but it may not be family friendly. For example one piece showed full frontal nudity (lower female privates — another showed exposed breast — and these are not paintings by the Masters — basically crappy «want to be» modern art. Another example of the crap up there — a row of pictures of someone burying Mercedes Benz cars in the ground various exotic locations. …not a good use of my tax dollars if these «artists» got any grants.
Planetarium was OK… kind of small… I think this is supposed to be an IMAX theater… but am not sure… smallest IMAX ever if it is. probably great for a town this size.
Overall its a fun place for the family — but don’t take the kids up stairs…

I can’t help it: as a born and bred Charlestonian, I find the Clay Center mildly offensive. We had an awesome museum called Sunrise with free parking, cool stuff, and a great view of the city and now we have the Clay Center with fairly expensive parking, decent stuff, and no view at all. I know they have more things and it has a concert hall now but…
Anyway, it’s a little run down now, especially in the kid’s area. They didn’t seem to take into account that children are nature’s erosion for human creation.

It’s just ok. The space is large but they don’t use most of the space available. So there isn’t much to see or do. You could go through the whole museum in about an hour or two. Not even close to being as cool as COSI. Wouldn’t pay to come here a second time.

Stopped by the Clay Center while spending a weekend in Charleston with the wife — had to stop here to compare with my workplace and to send secret spy messages via secret spy hawk courier… just kidding, but really did want to see what it was like compared to the arts center where I spend most of my time.
This is a unique place compared to other performing arts venues in that it includes not only an 1800 seat theatre/​black box theatre, but also an art gallery, an IMAX, and a kids science/​learning museum. Did not get an opportunity to get into the theatre, but they do feature Broadway, Charleston Symphony, and even music such as Chick Corea, Jason Mraz, and authors such as David Sedaris — a really good mix of stuff here.
The kids museum is cool, and the Hollywood Squares-​esque portion where you learn about the human body (the squares are organs styled after famous folks rather than famous folks) would be KEY if you were a teacher with a classroom of brains to exercise. You would be the coolest teacher in school, but would have to be really selective about who played or else you’d be there all day. Seriously, it’s fun and there is a place for the «audience» and everything.
The gallery was a bit small and didn’t feature any Warhol or Pollack, but was a nice touch to really round out the experience. Evidently all of the smaller museums in the area were brought together here when it was built. As far as the buillding itself, very state of the art looking and feeling, but really sticks out in downtown Charleston and doesn’t «fit.» Overall all though definitely worth the stop and I’ll add the fifth star when I get to see/​hear inside the main theatre…

You might need to look at my play lists to note my eclectic tastes, but one minute I could be listening to The Gambler and the next it could be Wu-​Tang, Pantera or Journey. Right now I got a Keller Williams thing going on but I pretty much like everything. One thing though that has been a savior in my life from stopping my car on I-​95 and just wailing on a random commuting A-​hole is classical music. Keep that info on the down low but I’ve been a closeted listener for years but the Clay Center was the first place I actually listened to a symphony live. Yes I know you all are thinking. but its in West Virginia! I know… but this center is beautiful inside and the orchestra can rival the offerings in many states. Grubs ~

I agree that this museum rivals museums in other cities. I travel a lot and would easily put this museum up against most of the others I have seen. This museum does have a cool feature that most people don’t know about — the entire permanent collection is online! So if you’re a teacher (like me) or an art lover (like me), you can log on and check that out.
My kids love the science museum — so much that my youngest thinks the museum is called «The Play Center.»
My only gripe is that the café isn’t open a lot of the time, and there isn’t much to choose from. Whenever I take my family, we usually plan to eat somewhere else.