Play PARTY!

Thursday evening the Museum held the fabulously festive grand opening celebration of our newest exhibit, Play Power. More than 200 people – families, Museum staff and board members, and other interested folks from the community – came to play and party!

The colorful creature columns were a big hit as kids spun the intricately sculpted cubes to form critters like this:Executive Director Janice O'Donnell, Board President Carol Peterson, Exhibit Designer Chris Sancomb and Exhibit Developer Carly Loeper spoke about the Museum's exciting changes and new exhibit – and what it took to get here. Carly shared a number of amazing anecdotes from her observations in Play Power over the past week, including the following:
• We’ve heard both kids and grown-ups as they’re building tracks to race balls through mazes ask themselves, “what if we try THIS?” One parent shared, “my inner engineer is having so much fun!”

• I saw a Grandpa sitting off to the side, nodding off a bit. He tapped me and leaned in, pointing to the children stacking and balancing blocks on the floor. “They really are all little scientists, aren’t they?”

• How delightful children are when they’re sending balls and scarves through the air tubes! A mom pointed out to me today that there’s a universal sound that you make when something flies out, whether you're 3 or 46: “WHOA!”

And Janice also shared this wonderful thought, which just says it all:
"The most effective kind of education is that a child
should play amongst lovely things."
- Plato