Traveling Exhibits

Included with museum admission.

Don't Miss It: "Japan & Nature: Spirits of the Seasons"

Closing September 12

Celebrate nature with the children of Japan and see how nature fits into their everyday lives – picnic under cherry blossoms, go camping and hunt for bugs, help get ready for New Year’s, and try your hand at Japanese calligraphy! The exhibit invites children and families to explore through hands-on activities, dramatic play and multi-media experiences how nature is reflected and celebrated in the everyday lives of Japanese children. Filled with stories, artifacts, drawings, photographs and documentary videos from Japan, children travel to four areas of Japan during the four seasons.

The exhibit is designed around universal aspects of childhood – family, school, play and holiday celebrations – and is divided into four fun-filled interactive zones. Each zone is representative of a different season and a specific geographical region, allowing children to experience year round living in Japan. Kids can enjoy the spring time cherry blossom festival with a picnic in Fukuoka; summer vacation fishing in Japan’s largest lake, Lake Biwa; visit a sacred Shinto shrine on a beautiful fall day in Kyoto while attending the rice harvest festival; then finish the year abroad with winter in Sapporo, celebrating New Year’s inside a cozy Japanese winter home by playing a traditional New Year’s game and trying special winter foods. Children also learn how to write calligraphy and try on kimonos and getas.

In “Japan & Nature: Spirits of the Seasons,” children explore how people and their ways of life are shaped by where they live. By experiencing how their counterparts in Japan celebrate the seasons and their natural environment, children discover the commonalties they share. This exhibition meets national curriculum standards for social studies, behavioral studies, geography, and visual arts.

The exhibit was created by the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

A Cultural Journey Back in Time: "Tales from the Land of Gullah”

September 25-January 2

Gullah is a West African culture that survived the hardships of slavery and remained almost unscathed since the 1600s. The arts and practices of the Gullah people are now revived in a reinvented, powerful exhibit, “Tales from the Land of Gullah” opening at the museum. The exhibit builds bridges into the ancestral home that exists in the hearts and minds of many Gullah people today. It takes visitors back to the 1940s, long before the existing bridges were built to connect the islands to the mainland and the culture began to blend. In today’s society, values and traditions are assimilating into one as advances in technology bring the world together. This exhibit aims to preserve and provide cultural understanding of Gullah traditions, as well as develop an appreciation for one’s own culture and background.

Children experience the rhythms of Gullah life through sounds, crafts and musical traditions. In the exhibit, visitors begin their voyage in time with a brief introduction via an interactive kiosk by Aunt Pearlie Sue. They then enter a recreated, traditional Gullah home in “Gullah Livin’” where they are able to engage in the everyday practices, including rice cooking and quilt making, just like they did in the 1940s. Then, visitors head outside the home and experience how the Gullah people survived through shrimp catching, gardening and rice processing in “Livin’ off the Land.” Children and parents alike experience how the Gullah folks entertained themselves through lively storytelling in “The Tellin’ Forest.”

The exhibit was created by the Children’s Museum of Houston.

Upcoming Traveling Exhibition Schedule*

Shipwrecks: TBA
Balance: September 2011-January 2012

*(Exhibits and dates are subject to change without notice.)