Tulsa Children’s Museum:
Traveling Exhibits – By Allyson Jannotta

One of my favorite things to do with the Tulsa Children’s Museum is to volunteer for our traveling exhibits.

You see families playing and learning together as they design art out of recycled materials.

You hear the deep belly laugh of a child who is completely entranced as they create giant bubbles.

And you really get a sense of what it will be like to have a full functioning children’s museum in Tulsa – and let me tell you, it’s exciting!

Traveling exhibits let us meet parents and connect with the community, while bringing programming to Tulsa families at festivals and events before we actually have a building - which should be in about three to five years.

We are thrilled to announce the success of our latest traveling exhibit Reclaim This! Old Stuff, New Art which recently debuted at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

In this new exhibit, TCM provides donated items such as old CD’s, Styrofoam containers, broken toys and anything else we have around the house – and the kids and adults literally turn what was once considered “trash” into art.

It is so fun to see this exhibit come to life – as kids and adults think outside the box to construct their own spaceships, design jewelry, create figurines – whatever comes to mind when going through our recycling bins.

Our other traveling exhibit, POP! The Art and Science of Bubbles, continues to be a big hit for all ages. Cool geometric shapes are formed using the construction set Zometools. Children dip the shapes into our homemade bubble solution to create triangle bubbles, square bubbles, and even dodecahedron bubbles.

Zometools are used in schools from the first grade to the university level to teach trigonometry, DNA structure, geometry and art. Mathematicians and Computer Scientists use Zometools in their fieldwork because it can replicate so many natural structures and geometric designs.

TCM is accepting donations for Reclaim This! and continues to look for volunteers who love to play with kids and would like to help out with our traveling exhibits. To find out more about how you can help bring more traveling exhibits to our community, visit our website at www.tulsachildrensmuseum.org.