CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF PITTSBURGH
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Mission Statement
The Children’s Museum’s mission is to provide innovative museum experiences that inspire joy, creativity and curiosity. We provide the highest quality exhibits and programs for learning and play. We are a partner and a resource for people who work with or on behalf of children.
About This Cause
In addition to hosting a series of traveling exhibits each year, the Museum offers ten permanent exhibits (described below) which embody the Museum’s Play with Real Stuff philosophy, asserting that in our ever-changing, fast-paced technological society, children need a solid foundation of learning activities that are concrete, real, and relevant to their lives. The Children’s Museum is committed to excellence in its exhibitry and continues to design, test and build its interactive exhibit experiences in-house with its talented team of artists, architects, engineers and designers. Studio: The multimedia art studio is the Museum’s most popular exhibit, providing visitors with open access to real materials and processes, enabling children to create their very own works of art. In addition to the regular offerings of painting, silkscreening, and sculpting with clay visitors are offered an array of engaging weekly and daily programming that changes often and frequently coincides with the Museum’s temporary exhibit. This past year, Studio programming has included painting with various materials such as sand, bubbles, salted watercolors, cellophane, marbles, and even shoes, as well as exploring mirror portraiture, thumb printing, and creating sculptures from tape. Guest artists in the Studio this year included: Brooke Smokelin of Vox Lumina, Theodore Bolha, a Paper Cutting Artist, Sapling Press, printmaking artists and Dan Marasco, light painter and photographer. Monthly programming included: Play with Clay on the Potter’s Wheel, Handbuilding with Clay Workshops, Explore Charcoal as a Medium, Clay Diorama - Archipelago!, Weaving Wall, Twist Resist Painting, AVALANCHE! (Paper Cutting Installation), and Try Your Hand at Calligraphy. MAKESHOP®: Over the past three years, the Museum has emerged as a national leader at the forefront of innovative education and research around making and learning through the creation of its MAKESHOP® initiative. Developed with feedback from informal and formal educators that children need high-quality, interest-driven, connected learning opportunities, MAKESHOP® opened in October 2011 in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments (UPCLOSE). MAKESHOP is a permanent 1,800 square foot makerspace dedicated to nurturing informal learning opportunities and research-based understanding at the intersection of the digital technology and the physical media. A dedicated facilitation team of skilled makers, artists and educators provide supportive access to open-ended Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM)-rich experiences in circuit building, sewing and weaving, electronics, simple computer programming and woodworking for child and family visitors. Over the past year, MAKESHOP has featured monthly workshops including: exploring hand and machine sewing, hat sewing, weaving, and experimenting with semi-liquids and their textures, friendship bracelet making, exploring soldering with an electroplating component, and sun print creation. Programs in MAKESHOP change regularly from Electronics Take Apart in December, to the Stuffed Animal & Doll Hospital in April, where children learned hand and machine sewing to operate on and doctor up well-loved loved toys to Test It in May where children and families test brand-new exhibit pieces created by artists and engineers from Carnegie Mellon University. At the same time, significant interest in making from local and national educators and museum and library professionals has led CMP to develop a comprehensive effort to share its MAKESHOP principles of practice, learning framework and resources through a variety of outreach efforts, such as educator boot camps and trainings, in-depth teacher residencies and maker meet-up events. This past summer alone, the Museum conducted several major professional development boot camps which reached over 60 educators. Since its opening formal educators, museum professionals and learning researchers have shown great interest in MAKESHOP, recognizing its potential to deeply engage youth of all ages, support 21st century learning skills, and encourage family learning. Locally, the City of Pittsburgh and Mayor Bill Peduto have committed to serve as one of 18 Maker Cities across the country and recently hosted a Mayor’s Roundtable on making. In partnership with the City of Pittsburgh, the Museum plans to host a major Pittsburgh Maker Faire in 2015, along with Dale Dougherty, founder of Make Magazine. Waterplay: On April 27, 2014, the Museum celebrated its one-year anniversary of the revitalized Waterplay exhibit. This anniversary was marked with special water programs, including opportunities to explore 900 pounds of solid ice blocks throughout the exhibit. Designed in-house by the Museum’s talented exhibit team, the new Waterplay brings significant technical improvements, including the use of universal design to make the space ADA accessible, updates to water circulation and use, and a commitment to using green materials. Hands-on components include: 7-foot diameter Water Mover, Dam Building, Hand Pumps, A Water Vortex, and a Shaved Ice Exploration Tables. Waterplay also features Rain Meander by artist Stacy Levy and seasonal changing artwork. Currently art work by Atticus Adams titled Seamonkey Garden is featured. Garage: Children and families who visit the Garage reap many benefits from discovering, exploring, and creating in this unique space. Future engineers can tinker in the Garage, testing out the Smart Car, launching mini-parachutes, and experimenting with various objects that drive, fly, or roll. Activities include Magnetic Car Park, a 37-foot bow-shaped test course for testing custom-built vehicles, and Spinning Wheels, an interactive sculpture that visitors move by walking on a treadmill. The iconic trolley from the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood welcomes visitors in the Garage. All materials and exhibit components are designed for experimentation, tinkering, and play, while simultaneously offering unique learning lessons about engineering, physics, design, and cause and effect. Garden: The Museum features three outdoor Garden spaces on its grounds for visitors to explore, featuring fruits, vegetables, greens, and edible herbs and flowers. During the past year, participants in the Museum’s youth programs planted and tended to the gardens and learned about healthy cooking by using the produce grown in the Garden. The main Garden, located next to the Museum’s entrance, continues to provide visitors with a place to connect with nature and cultivate the desire, knowledge, resource, and belief that they can garden and explore other sustainable practices. Programming includes regular Garden Tours and Tastings, workshops on composting and the Cook It! program. Theater: The versatile Theater hosts a variety of cultural performances, including music and dance ensembles, puppetry, magic, circus arts, or original productions created by Museum visitors. Featuring Mister Rogers’ Castle and a host of props, the Theater also serves as a place where children can delve into their imaginations and put on their own productions. The Theater houses a redesigned Youth Gallery that features new lighting and a digital screen to better display artwork by children from around the region. In the past year, the Museum installed a new AV system in the Theater, to better support live performances and programming. Theater performances this year have included: Pittsburgh Youth Philharmonic Orchestra for their Winter Concert, Aeolian Winds: Mississippi Five, the Museum’s own Greatest Little Variety Show, The Hilarious Tales of Tim Hartman, Ukulele Sunday’s with John Dwyer and much more. Attic: Featuring treasures and mysteries akin to a home attic, this exhibit challenges perception through the Gravity Room tilted at a 25 degree angle, two fun-filled slides, a large scale doll house, a room with phosphorescent walls for capturing shadows or drawing with an LED pen, and an interactive Color Bouncer, which helps kids to learn colors and mechanics. Visitors also develop their own virtual puppet shows with the Museum’s extensive puppet collection through Animateering, a virtual world co-developed with CMU, using new Microsoft Kinect technology, to help children to activate the puppets to move, jump, spin, and change the scenery and music. Nursery: Renovated in May 2011, visitors continue to enjoy the expanded Sand and Light Area, Quiet Area for nursing and reading, Train Tables and Glass Bead Table, See-Saw Bubble Wall, and a Light Wall and Table. A formal evaluation of the Nursery by UPCLOSE, revealed that visitors now spend 30% more time in the new Nursery, representing a marked increase in engagement and learning for children and families. During the past year, the Museum updated its bird seed table, opting to fill it with glass beads instead for an alternative textural experience. Backyard: An urban backyard with many activities for children to explore, this exhibit includes rolling hills, a variety of gardens, historical artifacts from the Museum’s courtyard (sculptures, statues, etc.), and a musical swing set. Another visitor favorite, Animated Earth or “Bubbling Mud” features muddy shapes and forms made by bubbles in fluid clay. The Backyard also offers The Lookout, an interactive “club house” where you can raise a flag and paddle a kayak, as well as the Sand Box which holds shovels, rakes, buckets and trucks. Outdoor Classroom: Built and opened in May 2012, the Outdoor Classroom, located on the eastern side of the Museum, was opened for Tot Hike participants, Head Start/Pre-K students, and others to enjoy structured and unstructured play. The play space, which includes a rain barrel, deck, fruit trees and edible permaculture garden, encourages children to spend time outdoors through classes and demonstrations. During the past year, the Museum also used the Classroom space for Camp Fire story programming.