Page 22 - 2018 Art-i-facts Jan-Feb

Powerful Play for Growing Minds

Creating leaders for the 22 century
nd
By Kerry Falwell

The new Music & Sound Studio (above) and Theatre (below). Photos provided by Explorations V Children's Museum.

Imagine you’re a teenager and a friend calls. What did
the phone look like? Maybe it was hanging on the wall or
attached with a long chord. Perhaps your brother pushed
the button to hang up on your call because the chord was
long enough for you to hide in the nearby closet discussing
important teenage angst. How do kids talk on the phone
today? That simple task is drastically different and this is
just one small example of how quickly the world is changing.

Children in schools across town are being taught how
to lead a world that has not yet been invented. If phones
changed that much in the last twenty years, imagine what
kitchens, computers, and even museums will look like
when these children are adults. Children’s museums now
have an incredible opportunity – to help create a sense of
curiosity, value failure as a teaching tool, and prepare the
next generation to think critically and creatively. In order to
do that, we must also be critical and creative about our own
spaces and experiences.

Over the last year, Explorations V Children’s Museum in
downtown Lakeland underwent a re-imagining of almost
40% of its exhibit collection. Children and families now have
a fully functioning kid-size theatre adjacent to a new Music

22 Art-i-facts • January-February 2018 • www.polkarts.org