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Visiting Exhibits

Reading Zoo

Visiting Exhibit Gallery
On view June 29 – October 6, 2019

Let your imagination run wild with Reading Zoo, an exhibit inspired by animal stories, natural habitats and highlights from Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s collection of animal taxidermy.

Journey with us through three different North American environments— the freezing Arctic, the cool Northeast Coast, and the lush Northeast Forest. In each of these places, you’ll find taxidermied animals to explore, books that feature our animal friends to read, challenges to match the tracks and scat that animals leave behind, and opportunities to create and act out your own original stories. Visit the RZ research station to learn more about faraway places on the globe and the amazing animals found there.

Reading Zoo was made possible with generous support from NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NY State Council on the Arts, and Ikea. Special thanks to our friends at Brooklyn Public Library’s Brower branch who selected the storybooks featured.

 

Past Exhibits

Brooklyn Borough Arts Festival

Special Exhibition

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Brooklyn Borough Arts Festival

May 14 - June 2, 2019
The 5th annual Brooklyn Borough Arts Festival student artwork exhibition, titled "A Brooklyn State of Mind," provides insights into what Brooklyn students think, see, and imagine. This year explores children's creativity in the images of the objects that inspire them, the people who encourage them, the ones who love them, the sites they cherish, the futures they imagine, and the dreams they share. As they grow, children follow their own paths to opportunity and explore many possibilities. But, no matter where their journeys take them, they will always carry with them the hopes, dreams, and "can-do" attitude that come from having a Brooklyn State of Mind.

The Borough Arts Festivals are year-end events taking place in each borough to celebrate the talents and creativity of students and their teachers through arts exhibitions and public performances. Borough Arts Directors and support staff collaborate with community superintendents and the Field Support Centers to highlight the local excellence and student achievement in the arts. These festivals engage thousands of student artists, their families and friends and members of the school community.

Sponsored by Chancellor Carranza and the NYC Department of Education, the Brooklyn Borough Arts Festival features outstanding student talent from Pre-K through 12th grade in the visual and performing arts from all Brooklyn school districts, including District 75.
Science + You

Interactive Exhibit

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Science + You

January 15 - April 28, 2019
Become a scientist at our newest exhibit! Introducing Science + You: our next big exhibit located on BCM's 2nd floor where children and adults can learn about human health and nutrition, scientific tools, and the methods scientists use for problem solving, investigation, and experimentation.

Collect germ cells using a magnetic antibody wand before depositing them into white blood cells; practice using a centrifuge and learn about other amazing sorting machines; and get creative in our test kitchen while learning about balanced and healthy meals!

Science + You is on view January 15 through April 28, 2019, open during regular Museum hours. Come play, explore, discover, and experiment!
TapeScape

Interactive Exhibit

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TapeScape

October 20 - December 31, 2018
A collaboration between BCM and artist Eric Lennartson, TapeScape at BCM debuted as the 16th TapeScape ever created and the first to be constructed in New York City. An explorable structure made from scaffolding and 480 rolls of packing tape, TapeScape sought to create something remarkable out of a household material.

TapeScape was a landscape/terrain made entirely out of tens of thousands of feet of clear tape, intricately woven around a metal frame to form an unearthly mesh of tunnels and passageways. Made of almost 15 miles of tape, TapeScape was part museum exhibit, part playground. Climbable tunnels in the installation pulsed with spirals of LED lights in homage to Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s iconic neon-lit tunnel.

TapeScape is trademarked by the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota where it was created by Lennartsson in 2010.
Change Begins With You(th)

Special Exhibition

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Change Begins With You(th)

October 27 - December 31, 2018
Change Begins With You(th) exhibit was a reinterpretation of the Museum's 30,000 object collection through the lens of BCM's Rapid Response Collecting Task Force (RRCTF), a group of high school students who intern in the collection department at the Museum. The RRCTF engaged in "rapid-response collecting," a method of gathering artifacts in response to current events, with a focus on exploring the experiences and people of BCM's Central Brooklyn community.

The exhibition featured items that directly responded to major moments of 2017-18 and revolve around themes of gentrification, criminal justice, gender equity, and racism. Objects acquired included posters from the New York City “March for Our Lives” protest in March 2018; the suit Councilman Jumaane Williams was wearing when he was arrested while protesting the deportation of immigration lawyer Ravi Ragbir; and a clear tote bag belonging to playwright, poet, and prison activist Liza Jessie Peterson, which she carried into Rikers Island prison daily while teaching poetry to youth inmates.
Native Voices

Interactive Exhibit

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Native Voices

June 30 - September 2, 2018
Native Voices: New England Tribal Families, featured the seasonal traditions of five Native American tribes from New England. Featuring the Narragansett, Mashpee Wampanoag, Aquinnah Wampanoag, and Penobscot and Passamaquoddy communities through photographs, videos, and activities that invited visitors to participate in daily life and special events. Native Voices created a unique opportunity to learn about the history and modern life of indigenous communities through first-person narratives, oral history storytelling, large photo murals, hands-on activities, and evocative collection objects. Visitors were invited to explore a wigwam built on the Museum's roof and learn about traditional building methods.
BLOCK PARTY

Interactive Exhibit

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BLOCK PARTY

December 16, 2017 - June 10, 2018
BLOCK PARTY brought together the elements of the iconic Brooklyn block party all under one roof, including a series of dimensional stoops set against a backdrop of artistic facades of residential buildings, and different ”street” and green spaces to play games, meet friends, relax, and have fun. Large-scale photographs by Brooklyn-based artist Anderson Zaca, who has long documented block parties in Brooklyn, were featured to invoke the joy, action, and diversity of block parties celebrated annually across neighborhoods in New York City. Families were invited to add to the photographs, and record their own images and experiences in the city among those of their neighbors.
MakerYard

Interactive Exhibit

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MakerYard

June 17 - November 26, 2017
Inspired by adventure playgrounds, MakerYard invited children to test their motor skills and imaginations as they construct, build, and invent structures and other creations using everyday materials such as cardboard, tape, fabric, string and recyclables. Parents and caregivers were invited to sit back and let children explore independently, or work collaboratively to create together.
Children of Syria

Special Exhibition

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Children of Syria

June 22 - September 24, 2017
Explore a selection of photographed portraits from The Memory Project that bridges the distance between Syrian refugee children and American high school art students. The portraits displayed in BCM's 2nd floor Studio were detailed replicas of original artwork painted by students, while the original portraits are sent to each child in Syria.

For more information, visit https://memoryproject.org/
John Steptoe

Special Exhibition

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John Steptoe

May 16 - June 18, 2017
Original artwork by the children’s author and illustrator John Steptoe (1950 - 1989) were on view in BCM’s 2nd floor Studio. Steptoe grew up in the neighborhood of Bed Stuy, and based many of his books on the people, places, and stories of Brooklyn. Among his well known books are Stevie, Daddy is a Monster Sometimes, and the acclaimed Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, which has been adapted as a play. Together we celebrated his lasting legacy as a Brooklyn artist.

Wilderness Camp

Interactive Exhibit

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Wilderness Camp

January 21 - May 28, 2017
Featuring art installations by Tattfoo Tan
Brooklyn Children’s Museum's Wilderness Camp was an indoor experience that brough the great outdoors to family audiences through role-play and the exploration of nature. This interactive installation, created in partnership with contemporary artist Tattfoo Tan, gave families the opportunity to explore how we interact with and rely on nature for our basic needs and resources. Kids and their caregivers learned about different ways of creating shelters, plants that provide food and building materials, and techniques that transform natural materials into functional, everyday objects. Wilderness Camp offered visitors the opportunity to take on the roles of outdoor explorers and gain a heightened appreciation of our precious natural resources that we can all work toward preserving.
Free Portrait Project

Crown Heights Series

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Free Portrait Project

September 25 - October 23, 2016
The Free Portrait Project: Crown Heights created a portrait of a place through its people. Artist Rusty Zimmerman's oil-painted portraits of 200 Crown Heights residents acts as a physical record of the neighborhood amid shifting demographics. In partnership with the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Weeksville Heritage Center, Zimmerman recorded oral histories during each session, which will also be available for listening during his exhibition.

Rusty Zimmerman is a portrait painter raised in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Bay Area of California. Zimmerman lives and works in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Our City

Interactive Exhibit

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Our City

March 10 - September 4, 2016
Our City was an interactive exhibit featuring the work of contemporary artists exploring the components that make up our neighborhoods and city. Children took on the roles of urban planners, artists, architects, and visionaries as they talk about the places they call home. Our City included artwork by Aisha Cousins, Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine (Oasa DuVerney and Mildred Beltre), Elizabeth Hamby, James Rojas, Priscilla Stadler, and Rusty Zimmerman.

Our City sought to challenge visitors to consider what it means to be a neighbor and what makes a neighborhood. Who do you greet when you step outside or walk down your street? What are the characteristics of a happy and healthy neighborhood? What do the people in your neighborhood look like? What do the buildings look like? What’s your favorite thing to do in this place? This exhibition created an opportunity for children from different parts of the city to be in conversation with each other and their caregivers about these questions. Additionally, it champions curiosity and lifelong learning by way of inquiry-based teaching, which allows creates opportunities for children to lead the conversation.
Heart and Seoul

Growing Up in Korea Series

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Heart and Seoul

October 3, 2015 - January 3, 2016
Heart and Seoul: Growing Up in Korea brought modern-day South Korea to New York City, and encouraged children to explore differences and similarities between their lives and those in South Korea.