Albuquerque Museum — Attraction in Albuquerque

My children had a flamenco show at the Albuquerque Museum. After the show we decided to see the museum since we're lifelong residents of Albuquerque and have never been. We checked in at the front desk, got a map and proceeded to the exhibits. I am a strict mom with 3 well behaved, academically gifted kids. I made sure to tell them to keep quite and not touch! As we were walking in the 2nd room, a security guard passed us, then came back to say the kids need to stay at least a foot away from the paintings. They were not touching but we said ok and backed up from the painting we were looking at. He left and came back a minute later asking the kids if they performed at the show. They excitedly said yes, as it is common for people to say they did a nice job. He then looked at me and asked if we checked in at the front desk saying if we had, they would have let us know that bags were not allowed. I was carrying my purse and the kids flamenco tote. I was carefully carrying the bag and he suggested we snuck into the museum after the show for free. I let him know that of course we did check in and pay and that they didn't say anything about my bag. He left and came back a third time saying I had to carry my bag directly at my side. By that time my children and I were embarrassed at being singled out by this particular security guard and left after 15 minutes. I did talk to the front desk and they were very empathetic and offered a refund. I can't say anything about the museum itself, but it is NOT family friendly with people like that man working security there. I am a lifelong resident of Albuquerque and support Albuquerque, special events and community but he is a bad representation of the One...

I love the museum and the gift shop which I frequent regularly. Staff are always pleasant and welcoming. My complaint is with the cafe inside the museum. I went there for the first time late morning yesterday and probably won’t return. The 2 young ladies working yesterday don’t have good hospitality skills. There was no greeting, no smile and no sense of helpfulness throughout my visit. I ordered the green chile stew bowl which I think cost $7. There were 2 very tiny pieces of chicken and the rest was carrots and celery which was out of their control. There was no bread or crackers for the soup. As I was leaving 2 other ladies placed an order for the same soup. One lady asked if anything came with the soup and was told she could get a choice of 3 breads. I was not offered bread. When I mentioned this to the cashier she told me “It costs $1” and she offered no apology for this oversight. I also didn’t hear her tell them there was a charge for the bread. This was insulting so I told her that was not an issue. Upon leaving there was no thank you. I was the only customer there until these ladies arrived as I was leaving. So as you can see this was not a good first impression for me and this is not how you treat customers especially museum members. I know there’s a shortage of employees in many places but if you want to keep your job you should at least do the minimum service with a smile if you want repeat customers and good reviews. I’m going to choose not to believe race was an issue in this instance. Thanks...

My 12-year old daughter and I went to see the Jim Henson exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum on a Sunday, which is free day for New Mexico residents. We had a fabulous time! The exhibit was well curated so as to move the flow of people through the story of his life and work in a bright, informative and engaging way without feeling crowded or rushed. My daughter got to design her own muppet with video prompting as to when each turn is over, so the wait was not unbearable. There was a photo opportunity in a Muppet set up, which we did, but I had the thought that this point could have been a great business opportunity for the museum to post a photo attendant with a photo for a fee. Instead, I tapped another museum goer to take our photo in exchange for taking their photo, which worked well, too! We visited a couple other gallery rooms after the Jim Henson exhibit; they were ok... good signage with backstory on each artist, but not very dynamic. There's a neat aerial map of Albuquerque on the floor that you can walk in to find where you live. It's too bad there wasn't a computer hooked up to it so you could type in an address and it lit up. It was still fun trying to orient and find our route from home to school even without additional technology! The real draw for us was Jim Henson and that is definitely worth taking...