The ice cream-themed experience will stay unmelted — in other words, open — through most of summer.
By Alysia Gray Painter ••
If a cake left out in the rain brings to mind an iconic Los Angeles location — MacArthur Park, and its famous eponymous song — then pause to imagine ice cream, staying perfectly unmelted, through much of August, in the Arts District.
It might be a bit of a fanciful stretch between the beloved tune and the pop-up, oh-so-popular Museum of Ice Cream, which debuted in Los Angeles in April after a buzzy New York City run, but things are pretty darn fanciful at the ice cream-themed experience.
Perhaps "fanciful," though, doesn't go nearly far enough, for there's that wade-in sprinkles pool (they're not real sprinkles, but so life-like, or, rather, sprinkles-like, you'd swear they were) and a room full of dangling pink and yellow bananas.
Those bananas will continue to dangle, and sprinkles will continue to fill the wading pool, and the Instagrammable happening at 2018 E. 7th Place will continue to Instagram-on through the bulk of August, rather than the end of May, the museum just revealed.
Alysia Gray Painter
The Museum of Ice Cream, a NYC-born art-whimsical experience, debuts at 2018 7th Place in the Arts District on Saturday, April 22.
Alysia Gray Painter
The Museum of Ice Cream, a NYC-born art-whimsical experience, debuts at 2018 7th Place in the Arts District on Saturday, April 22. It's open through Monday, May 29, and tickets are a must.
Alysia Gray Painter
The room-by-room whimsy-tacular brims with hues, though pink has a starring role. Who's on the phone as you enter the museum? A helpful person. Pause and listen if you'd like an intro to the experience.
Alysia Gray Painter
A number of on-the-ground stars, with plays on famous names, greet visitors early on at the Museum of Ice Cream.
Alysia Gray Painter
What if the real trees of Los Angeles had waffle cone bark? Ponder that as you enjoy your first (real) ice cream treat, just a couple of rooms along.
Alysia Gray Painter
A dream room of hanging bananas, both yellow and pink, provide numerous banana-adjacent, behind-the-bananas photo opportunities.
Thomas Bravo
The Museum of Ice Cream pop-up in the Arts District features a banana forest on Friday, April 21, 2017.
Alysia Gray Painter
The room where mint chocolate ice cream starts is an honest-to-yumness nursery-style grow room. Can you smell the popular ice cream by smelling the plants?
Alysia Gray Painter
Several over-sized on-the-stick treats form a fantastical forest of frosty treats. Don't lick 'em, though.
Thomas Bravo
Popsicles form the fantastic forest of frozen treats.
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Have your whipped cream, and cherry on the top, every time you don these platforms.
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A dramatic piece by artist Abel Bentin follows the gummy bear room (where real gummies are there for the noshing).
Thomas Bravo
The dramatic piece by artist Abel Bentin features ice cream cones.
Alysia Gray Painter
Step in, gingerly, like you would into a cool shallow end, and enjoy the sensation of sprinkles swallowing up your feet, ankles, and calves. May you sit in it? Oh, you may. Are the sprinkles edible? They are not. They're made of a very colorful anti-macrobial plastic.
Thomas Bravo
That's right, it features a sprinkle pool.
Alysia Gray Painter
The final room delivers one last mystery treat. As you devour it, this bench'll provide a place to sit.
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If melty benches aren't your jam, try the nearby Neapolitan swing.
Alysia Gray Painter
Table tennis, bearing the museum's dominant hue, awaits near the close of the experience.
Alysia Gray Painter
After you've departed the Museum of Ice Cream, which closes in LA on Monday, May 29, how will you continue to show the world your allegiance to icy desserts? There are ice cream tattoos for purchase, before you depart the Arts District pop-up.
More tickets for the popular, hard-to-get-a-ticket to-do are again on sale as of Friday, May 12.
A ticket for a guest over the age of 13 is $29. A ticket for a senior, or a child 3-12, is $18.
If you go, know this: Cameras are as essential as cones are to cold scoops. So you'll want to snap a photo or twenty while inside the pink-tastic palace.
And come ready to lick, as a few offbeat, what-flavor-is-this? edible treats are handed out along the way.
Also? There's a gift shop at the end, for all of your temporary ice cream tattoo needs.
So, there's a solid answer to the age-old, or, rather, just-thought-up question: How does ice cream not melt in the city of Los Angeles in August? Why when it is the Museum of Ice Cream, of course.
