Saturday, May 21st - Jason

Saturday, May 21st
The plenary session this morning started with Susan Hildreth, the director of IMLS, announcing that their “Let’s Move Museums and Gardens” program, encouraging healthy physical activity for kids, is now officially part of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. She showed a video message from the first lady to children’s museums congratulating them on joining the movement.
The keynote speaker for the day was Lisa Henson, Jim Henson’s daughter and the current CEO of the Jim Henson company. She described the history of the company and some of the ideas and philosophies behind the educational programming they have developed. The idea behind Sesame Street came from Jim Henson’s observation that children have a strong attraction and connection to TV, and that they learn things from it (such as memorizing advertising jingles). He realized that that, with fun, appealing programming, that same learning process could be used to teach children things like counting, the alphabet and reading. She said “ask not if a child is learning from media but what they could be learning.” This ties in with what Milton Chen said yesterday about using children’s natural connection and attraction to electronic media to an educational advantage by putting educational content on the screens they’re using anyway.
Also tying in with what Milton Chen said, she described the effort to incorporate visits to real science centers into the second season of their science-education show Sid the Science Kid. This is an animated show, but they have incorporated live-action sequences of real children doing experiments at a real science center. They also sponsor live Sid events at science museums around the country, with lots of activities and an appearance by a life-size Sid costumed character. This also recalls what Brad Larson said in the Technology in Children’s Museums session regarding tying electronic content to real life and inspiring viewers to engage in real-world activities related to what they see on the screen.
One other thing Lisa Henson mentioned that I liked was the idea that the remarkable creative atmosphere that exists at the Henson company comes out of encouraging diversity (of thought more than race, gender, etc.), unpredictability, humor and “weirdness” and that all these qualities can also be applied to children’s learning. It sounds kind of like the Jim Henson company is one big children’s museum. These are a lot of the qualities of the best children’s museums.
With the conference ending at noon, my only session of the day was “Theatrical Play is Child’s Play.” This focused on integrating theater, performance (particularly puppets) and make-believe into all aspects of children’s museum operations. The first speaker was Hyla Crane from Stepping Stones Children’s museum. She spoke about some of the developmental benefits that dramatic play can have for children. She mentioned that it helps teach them empathy by allowing them to pretend to be something or someone else and thereby see the world from someone else’s viewpoint. She also pointed out that it gives them a sense of control in a world where they often have very little.
Some of the programs her museum uses are Playmaking—a program where children develop characters, write plays and then either perform them or see them performed by local professional actors. She said this latter option gives the children a feeling of legitimacy to see adults acting out their words and stories.

She mentioned that, as someone with an arts background in a science-oriented museum, she at first had some difficulty fitting in. She found that reader’s theater was a good way to make her program relevant by developing and writing scripts about museum content and exhibits, which could then be rehearsed and performed by children. She also said that museum staff needed some help to learn how to use a puppet properly, so she brought in a professional puppeteer to give lessons. A related program run by her museum is YESS (Youth Enhancement Stepping Stones), a program for ages 12-18. It started out as a volunteer program for teens and has expanded to encompass performance. They are currently developing a reader’s theater program on bullying, which they will perform for younger museum visitors.
The other speaker was Alice Gonglewski from Please Touch Museum. She said they do three types of theatrical programs—Performances (scripted shows in their theater), improvised dramatic interactions (performers in character interacting with patrons spontaneously on the museum floor) and formalized programs (a program involving a specific, structured activity for kids). She made a few interesting points.
-Theater is a great vehicle for engaging visitors and disseminating information
- Many museums think their choices are to either do formal performances in a theater or no theater at all. This is not true. It’s not necessary to have either theater professionals or a theater space to incorporate theater into your museum. It can be informal and integrated into everyday operations and programs.
- They use puppets extensively for strolling improvisational interactions. A puppeteer will wander the museum and talk to visitors. They’re also great for keeping kids interested while waiting in line. I thought this was a great idea, but could be pretty expensive.
- Their “star” puppet—Pinky—does the museum’s video blog. This is a great idea because, rather than a staff member just droning on about what’s coming up at the museum, they have a humorous little film that kids would want to watch, too.
- New puppet characters are sometimes introduced to coincide with specific exhibits.
- And, unrelated to puppets, it’s a good idea to add dramatic play elements to everything you do. One example she gave—in a program on volcanoes, add a segment where the children attending can pretend to be erupting volcanoes or flowing lava covering everything.
I also wanted to mention that Alice Gonglewski was an excellent puppeteer, and she made it clear that it is a skill that needs to be learned, developed and practiced. When she used her puppet Pinky, it really did look like they were having a conversation, despite the fact that she moves her mouth when talking for Pinky. A couple of interesting tips she mentioned—always look at the puppet when the puppet is talking to you and make sure the puppet is looking at you when you’re talking, and explain what you’re doing before taking the puppet off, especially to young children. They can be freaked out if you just pull the puppet off your hand and toss it on the table.