The walls and plentiful windows essentially eliminate the need for day lighting in The New Children’s Museum. (photo/alandeckerphoto.com)

To borrow a line from the Grateful Dead, when it comes to the San Diego Children’s Museum’s quarter-century journey, "what a long, strange trip it’s been."

From its 1983 opening in a UTC storefront to almost landing a spot along Balboa Park’s museum row and then being politically plopped onto a raggedy Downtown warehouse block now surrounded by, and housing, million-dollar condos and then going homeless since 2002 and on the financial ropes to boot, well, behold:

The museum is reopening May 4 with a free block party celebrating 50,000 square feet of art and architecture innovation, where a new model is being rolled out that calls for children to experience real art, but without the fear they will break something or do something wrong, and where the construction techniques are so “green” it is doubtful any corporate business, regardless how environmentally friendly its PR, would risk them.

“San Diego is going to be really proud,” says Dr. Laurie Mitchell, the museum’s president. “This museum is doing something really innovative. It will provide a new direction for other children’s museums. Kids can learn how to try out art materials and be creative on their own without being overly taught on how to do it. And (the children) also are able to see art that is done by important artists who are not trying to dumb down their work for kids.”

Rachel Teagle, the museum’s executive director, says this incarnation will pay homage to its predecessor. “What we are are doing is something unique in the country,” she says. “This is something very new, but something that is built on the history of the old children’s museum. They were the first to come up with the idea of, ‘Let’s ask living artists to create works for children.’”

Among the fondest memories of many children and their parents is the old museum’s painted truck. Thousands of kids brushed on layers of paint. The experience will continue, only this time around with a Volkswagen Beetle.

The opening exhibition called “childsplay” — yes, with no capital “c” — will call for serious interaction. “Painting, sculpture, architecture, video, performance, sound and street art are all part of our opening exhibition,” says Teagle. “Our goal is to provide a dazzling, fun and direct answer to the question: how can contemporary art be meaningful to children?”

Teagle, 38, has street credibility in the fine art world and is praised for her ability as a curator to bring together artists.

With a doctorate in art history from Stanford, she speaks Spanish and knows intimately this region’s binational art scene. Her “Strange New Word” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego featuring Tijuana artists was widely praised and the catalog she put together is selling on all the major book Websites. Teagle was attracted to the Children’s Museum in part by the institution’s long-standing connection to Mexico; i.e. its name was The Children’s Museum/Museu de los Ninós San Diego. “Six of our (first) 19 artists are Mexican,” she notes. “Some have flown in from Mexico City for their work.”

So far, Teagle’s most lasting influence in San Diego is her creation of the Thursday Night Thing at the Museum of Contemporary Art. While a few hundred people were expected for the initial shindig last year, nearly 700 turned out. Attendance now is averaging more than 1,000, and the audience is mainly youthful professionals who live and/or work Downtown. A similar vibe is the goal at the Children’s Museum. “We are trying to create the same energy around 30-year-olds with kids,” she says. “Hipster parents are really what we are talking about.”

While the old museum was good at engaging and entertaining children, its luster was lost as the clientele aged into double digits. With the new museum, that should not be so.

Guided by a teen advisory council, Teagle and her staff have created programs that are separated both in terms of content and physically from those for the younger children. “We have a teen studio that you have to be 13 or older to get into,” Teagle says. “We also will have teen after hours.”

Those after-hour possibilities also are expected to be attractive for adult activities such as corporate team building. And with the museum just blocks from the San Diego Convention Center and major convention hotels, event planners hungry to provide something new are expected to be a strong source of business.

Why the name change? “Our name was way too long and nobody used it correctly,” Teagle says. “As we were talking about it, we were really focused on new in many ways. We think that ‘new’ connotes the emphasis on new work by living artists. We also like the emphasis on . . . visitors having new experiences.”

In terms of admission prices, the museum is a relative bargain. The fee is $10 for adults and children. An annual $75 family membership gains unlimited admission for two adults and as many kids as are in a household. “Our emphasis is really on a family experience,” Teagle says.

The museum’s annual operating budget is $2.5 million and it continues to work on its $32 million capital campaign, having already raised $18 million.

Mitchell was a museum regular when her children were younger. So when she saw news reports it was in financial trouble and might close down, she called then-board president Jason Hughes to help. “I joined the board and my husband and I made a contribution to help move things forward.”

Teagle says the museum is poised to pick up the slack as school districts continue to slash art funding.

Once children and adults have experienced the museum, her goal is to have them come back for more. “The No. 1 measure of success in the galleries is that you have a good time,” she says. “You may not even know you had an art experience. Our real hope is you will have such a good time in the studios you will want to come back and sign up for one of the programs in our classrooms.”