At this new museum you don’t just look at everything that’s on display, instead you can walk on gooey stuff, stick your hands in vats of ooey matter or splatter it all over the walls and fling it at your friends because this new place is all about making a mess with slime.
Yes, slime.
Los Angeles is about to get slimed when Sloomoo Institute, an interactive museum dedicated to the gooey matter, opens Sunday, Sept. 8.
“Sloomoo Institute is a world of play, hands-on tapping into your senses and letting the rest of the world go,” said Karen Robinovitz who, along with her friend Sara Schiller, co-founded the Sloomoo Institute in New York in 2019 before opening other locations in Atlanta, Chicago and Houston.
“We have endless handmade slime that look like sculptures, you can walk on slime, you can sling shot slime, you can customize slime and design your own, in L.A. there’s an exclusive sound bath, there’s even a lake of slime,” she added.
The new Los Angeles version is a permanent museum located inside a hot pink building on Fairfax Avenue across from The Grove.
“For me this is really a place you can come and play as a family and get off your devices, roll up your sleeves and get in and activate all four of your senses,” Schiller said.
With hundreds of gallons of colorful slime, the museum is aimed at kids and adults as an over-the-top, dopamine-inducing attraction that can also be therapeutic, Robinovitz said.
Robinovitz speaks from experience when it comes to the healing power of slime. The museum was founded after she went through a pair of family tragedies when she lost her husband and cousin within a few months.
“It’s much more than a kid’s toy. Slime has been incredibly therapeutic for me on a personal level. I was in a very bad place seven years ago and in a pretty crippling depression,” she said.
Then on a random day she hung out with a friend and her then-10 year-old-daughter who was playing with slime.
“I found an incredible spark of joy when I started playing with the slime, and what I realized it did was bring back my inner child. And while I was playing I was really really immersed and I forgot all the struggles I had been going through,” she said.
The business partners are hoping visitors feel this joy when they walk through the doors of their new museum. And that joy will come from things like Sloomoo Falls, where people will get slimed from up above. Don’t worry, ponchos will be provided. Then slip off your shoes and walk on 500 gallons of slime and feel the gooeyness between your toes.
“Walking on slime is literally like being in a spa. It feels gooey and yummy on your feet, it’s like you’re giving them a massage,” Robinovitz said.
There are glow in the dark “sand dunes,” as well as a giant slime slingshot where you can shoot slime at people, and there are plenty of places where you can just dip your hands in slime and just play with the stuff.
There is one thing the pair warn people about before coming to the slime museum, and that’s to make sure you don’t wear your best outfit.
“You have to wear something you don’t mind getting slimy. And most importantly as a mom, I want to say to all the moms out there who don’t want slime in the house, this is the perfect spot for you,” Schiller said.
When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday
Where: 157 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles
Tickets: Start at $34
Information: sloomooinstitute.com
