There is a new experience in Austin. The Museum of Ice Cream has a new temporary location that was installed in The Domain and opened its doors on Aug. 24. It has had a few different locations, from  New York to Singapore to the original in San Francisco, which opened in 2016.

The museum’s Austin location in The Domain has 12 different exhibits housed in a very distinct pink building. Rachel Collins, who was visiting the museum on a weekend morning, said it was hard to miss.

“I was surprised by how bright it was,” Collins said. “It’s definitely kind of exciting and it really does stand out from everything else around it. I think it does add to sort of the whimsy of an ice cream museum. It just sounds so magical. It is kind of hard to imagine what they’ll do with a bright pink building once the museum leaves, though.” 

According to their website, The Museum of Ice Cream’s rooms are built to be shareable: their environments encourage visitors to connect with each other through interactive representations of ice cream. A visitor of the museum, Anabelle Murphy, said that the museum overall was a great experience and she enjoyed the different parts. 

“I did enjoy it, but I’m not really sure what I would call it,” Murphy said. “Its design was great, I really loved the colors especially and the feel that the whole museum has. It was more interactive than a lot of art museums, and there were bits of history in a lot of the rooms, so I don’t really know. It was kind of a mix of everything, but it was fun.”

The museum currently has COVID-19 protections in place, like timed entrance tickets, so that only a certain number of people may enter the museum at a set time. Masks are also required when not eating or taking pictures. 

“I think that what they had in place was sort of the best that they could do,” Collins said. “A lot of people come with the intention of getting aesthetic photos, and some people want those without a mask, so if they regulate that it could possibly affect their business.” 

In addition to the activities in the rooms, many rooms also have a sweet treat to go along with them. Bennet Campbell, who visited the museum said that the museum seemed really well put together. 

“I really enjoyed all the different desserts that were provided throughout the exhibit, although I’m so full I may never eat again,” Campbell said. “It was nice how they mostly matched what it was to the room that you were in. There were just so many of them, but they all tasted great.”

Before going to the museum, Murphy had seen photos of the sprinkle pool exhibit on social media. She was at first apprehensive about the museum because it seemed like it was targeted towards kids. 

“From some of the things I had seen I kinda thought that the target demographic of the museum might have been kids, and while I guess I’ll never really know if it was or not, I enjoyed the experience,” Murphy said. “I think while the museum still has some parts that kids would really enjoy the most, everyone is sort of a child at heart, and I think that this museum really caters to that.”