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Play Helps… a National Play & Learning Initiative
The partnership builds upon the goal of the Toy Industry Foundation to provide a program of play and learning that reaches children who do not have access to play opportunities to further their learning and quality of life. The program is flexible to marshal the expertise of children’s museums to meet the needs of local communities.
Launch
Play helps is being launched in the Gulf Coast. It is a traveling play environment filled with engaging activities in art, language, music, math and dramatic play.
Play helps underscores the importance of leaning through play, as well as the role for children’s museums and the toy industry in creating quality play experiences for young children.
Play Helps will remain in New Orleans for three months (December 2006-February 2007) and is coordinated locally by the Louisiana Children’s Museum.
National Advisory Committee
CMOM, with the support for ACM, will convene a National Advisory Committee to guide the content, and selection criteria for participating museums, and plans for replication and messaging for the initiative. This Committee will be comprised of members of the ACM Board of Directors and leading experts in the areas of play and learning including museum educators, early childhood specialists, library professionals and scholars, as well as members of the TIF Board of Trustees and Staff. In 2006, the National Advisory Committee will convene in New York City to participate in a colloquium to shear successful models and to review content for a prototype permanent play exhibit. In subsequent years, the Advisory Committee will meet via conference call and email to advise CMOM/TIF on plans for the national implementation.
Partner Descriptions
The Toy Industry Foundation (TIF) is a 40 year-old organization that provides disadvantaged and at-risk children opportunities to meet a vital, yet, frequently overlooked developmental need often missing in their lives – play. TIF’s mission is to bring joy, happiness, and comfort to children in need through the experience of toys and play. Currently, three core programs comprise the bulk of TIF’s programming: Public Education, including brochures to educate parents, caregivers and the general public on the value of safe and developmentally appropriate play; The Toy Bank™, the first industry-wide program of its kind, working jointly with Gifts in Kind International to deliver brand-new toys to charities serving underprivileged and at-risk children throughout North America; and The Power of Play™, a community-based program implemented in partnership with six major national organizations to provide homeless and play-deprived children with developmentally and age appropriate opportunities to play. Through the dynamic partnership with children’s museums, we will significantly and uniquely serve children in need, helping them grow and develop through play, by working with caregivers, we will foster an understanding of the critical value of play to encourage a child’s learning and development.
Monkey King Traveling Exhibition
The Children’s Museum of Manhattan’s exhibition Monkey King: A Journey to China focuses on the Chinese story of Journey to the West, a masterpiece of classical Chinese fiction with universal themes that has been shared by Chinese parents and children for centuries. This rich story offers a lively vehicle to introduce American audiences to Chinese culture and provides opportunities to introduce geography, religion, and even history to young audiences. Chinese artists have used the icon of Monkey in literature, opera, crafts, and games. Asian-American dramatists and writers have also found inspiration from the bravery and resourcefulness of Monkey in their struggles to adapt to an alien society.
CMOM develops its cultural exhibitions based on our belief that exposure to authentic art, literature, and artifacts can be a powerful learning experience. In presenting the story of Monkey King and the folk art created around it, the exhibition presents an aspect of Chinese culture that is attractive and compelling to children. The environments and the interactives are designed to allow children to experience the same scenarios that have appealed to Chinese readers over the centuries. Younger children will do this primarily through role play and identification with Monkey, emphasized in the Monkey Creates Havoc section of the exhibition. In The Journey, older children can appreciate the benefits of teamwork and perseverance as well as the universality of these themes. The interactives provide concrete experiences through which the children explore qualities valued in China: resourcefulness, bravery, insight, self-discipline.
One of the most popular works of fiction in China today, Journey to the West in the original Chinese was first published in the 16th century, but its origins may go back as far as the 12th century, retold through oral traditions. Parts of the story are loosely based upon an actual Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, and his historic journey to India. He is thought to have followed the ancient trading route known as the Silk Road into central Asia and then down into India, bringing back a wealth of Buddhist sutras. He spent the remainder of his life translating the sutras into Chinese. Early paintings have scholars speculating that monkeys and other animals may have accompanied the monk somewhere along the journey. While the story may have been based on real events, the Ming dynasty elaboration of the story takes place along a fantastical landscape filled with demons, gods and goddesses and even Buddha himself. Over the centuries, the universal themes addressed in the story have been shared by Chinese parents and children.
The character of Monkey himself whose combination of mischievous anti-authoritarianism coupled with childish behavior make him an appealing protagonist to younger and older audiences alike. His ability to grow by learning discipline through teamwork reflects Chinese values still strongly held today. While many English versions focus only on the first few chapters devoted to the origin of Monkey himself, the chapters focus on the journey Monkey takes, both real and spiritual. During Monkey’s challenging journey with Xuanzang, he becomes a responsible member of the group and learns to use his magical powers for a greater good, giving the story cultural and philosophical depth reflecting on Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian ideas.
Today the story of Journey to the West is more popular than ever. The classic story is retold in children’s books, animated films, CD-ROMs, as well as through traditional Chinese folk art and opera.
Oh Seuss! Off to Great Places Traveling Exhibition
Dr. Seuss often used events from his own life in his writing. In 1936, as he sat on an ocean liner, he wrote the verses of his first children’s book to the rhythm of the engines’ sound. The result was published as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Mulberry was a main street in Springfield, MA, where he grew up. During his service in World War II, he overheard a soldier behind the lines in Belgium complain about the constant, dreary weather: “Why must it always rain? Why can’t something else come down?” Remembering this years later, Seuss wrote Bartholomew and the Oobleck.
Writing was often fun and games for Dr. Seuss. In what began as a private joke about the difficulties of writing beginner reader books, Seuss’ good friend and fellow author Bennett Cerf bet him that he could not write a successful book using less than 50 words. Several months later he published Green Eggs and Ham and won the bet.
As he entered his sixties, Seuss began to express more political views in his stories. Saddened by environmental devastation and pollution, Seuss wrote The Lorax in 1971. The narrative tells of the destruction of the Truffula trees by pollution, but it ends with a warning instead of resolution: “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.” In 1984, he published The Butter Battle Book, an allegory about the arms race. Again, he provided no clear answer to the Seussian weapons conflict. Both of these books were considered so controversial they were nearly banned in several states. Not long after The Butter Battle Book, Seuss won the Pulitzer Prize in literature for nearly 50 years of producing educational books for children.
The exhibition designed and built by CMOM draws upon the positive outlook on life throughout Dr. Seuss’ books. In the exhibition visitors will learn about Ted Geisel’s creative process and discover the challenges he overcame in the process of becoming a writer. The biographical background helps visitors to appreciate the serious side of Dr. Seuss often belied by his wonderfully light-hearted tone. The exhibition captures the cadence of Mr. Geisel’s words and artistry of his pictures that are at the heart of his genius.
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