Posted: September 14, 2008
Children Just Like Me
Campbell Gallery
September 27, 2008–May 3, 2009
Based on DK Publishing’s award-winning book by the same title, the new Campbell Gallery exhibit Children Just Like Me showcases the unique diversity of the world’s children while also exploring the common bonds they share. Eleven vignettes take young visitors around the world to meet their peers on six continents. Self-paced, hands-on activities in each vignette strengthen cross-cultural connections through a variety of learning styles.
Compelling life-size cut-outs of each child stand alongside authentic three-dimensional representations of their homes and surroundings. Visitors can compare activities and objects to discover a variety of languages, foods, games, pets, clothing, and much more. Multi-sensory interactives help foster understanding of diverse traditions within common experiences shared by children everywhere.
“I am very excited about this exhibit,” Spurlock Museum director Wayne Pitard said. “It will be a great challenge to organize it within all the galleries of the Museum, but we believe that the exhibit and our permanent collections will be mutually complementary, since our galleries contain numerous artifacts concerning the lives of children. We hope that our visitors will see aspects of our galleries in a new light during this exhibition.”
Children Just Like Me is an exciting exhibit for the Spurlock Museum because it is the first exhibit hosted at the Museum that was developed specifically for a youth audience. The 2,500-square-foot exhibit was organized by the Cincinnati Museum Center and has toured 15 cities across the United States. The Spurlock Museum is its only venue in Illinois.
The special events planned to accompany this exhibit can be found on the Museum’s website calendar of events. There will be special offerings for schools and other group visits as well. Because of the exhibit’s appeal for very young visitors, Spurlock educators hope to host some school classes and other educational groups who have never come to the Museum before. Spurlock staff have also been working to tie Children Just Like Me to the Museum’s feature exhibits and collections. The exhibit and its special tour are featured in the Museum’s annual mailing to schools about tours and programs for the academic year. “Because this exhibit can be enjoyed by different ages than other exhibits we’ve done, we think our programs will appeal to a bigger pool of educators and groups than we usually get. We’re really happy to make something different available to schools and agencies that serve younger children, and we hope to inspire many groups who haven’t visited us before to come explore ‘Children Just Like Me’ and the other resources we have to offer.” said Beth Watkins, Education Coordinator.
This traveling exhibit was organized by the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal and is based on DK Publishing’s award-winning book by the same title, Children Just Like Me.™