Exhibitions

CuriousCity Museum Opening March 31, 2019

CuriousCity is a temporary pop-up children’s museum in downtown Peabody that inspires curiosity, a love of learning and the healthy development of children of all abilities, ages 2-10 years old. A children’s museum invites kids to touch, explore, interact and make noise! Museums are awesome places to visit in general, but children’s museums come with the added bonus of actually inviting children to touch and feel, interact and make noise as they do. Children’s museums are heaven to children, who are naturally curious, learn by touching and are excited about new. CuriousCity pop-up museum will open its doors March 31, 2019 and be open for 3 months.

I am proud to have been chosen to design two of the exhibits. Epi-Curious is a farm-to-table space where children can play with a toy barn, farm animals and straw table. Then they can play at the farmers’ market complete with cash register and baskets of play food before bringing it to the play kitchen to ‘cook’ and serve at the little table and chairs. The room is surrounded by my art: two big murals, one of an apple tree and another of a farm scene, and also a cut paper children’s barn. I have also created a fun photo-op mural which is placed outside the barn so kids can get their pictures taken peeking through the mural as farmers, and beekeepers.

My Curious World exhibit is a place for kids to play with a variety of maps and an interactive world globe. There is a magnificent Augmented Reality sand table where children can build their own land and water forms, literally changing their world with a sweep of their hands. Also, in this exhibit, is a Biome carousel constructed of my 4 murals of Desert, Coral Reef, Tundra, and Rain Forest. Children can sit in the area and play with toys matching that biome.

CuriousCity is housed in the historic George Peabody House and Peabody Leather Barn at 205 Washington St., Peabody, MA 01960. This is the birthplace of George Peabody, the father of modern philanthropy. The rooms of the house hold kid-friendly exhibits:  a wonderful play George Peabody Bank; a story exhibit complete with giant storybook, puppets and costumes; a Sensory room, a Mindfulness exhibit; and my two exhibits, Curious World (geography), EpiCurious (farm to table). The adjacent Peabody Leather Museum has been transformed into a big creative area for children to explore building, a wind tunnel, rocks & minerals, art and more.

Peabody Main Streets has used “pop up” events to test out new ideas before committing a vast amount of resources. The 3-month trial will allow the City to determine the feasibility of a permanent museum. There is plenty of parking both in front of and behind the museum, as well as along the street.