For an independent study class, I chose to make an interactive children's exhibit themed around Alice in Wonderland. The project involved grant writing, budgeting, concept planning, marketing, graphic design, and the physical construction and installation of all exhibit elements. The lion's share of the project was completed over an eight-week period beginning one week prior to the start of the semester. The exhibit was open from October 9th-27th, 2023.
The part of the exhibit I'm most proud of was creating five costumes so kids could dress up as famous characters for pretend play at a tea party, the trial of the knave of hearts, and other famous scenes of the story. Consideration for common dress up issues at play spaces and children's museums led to deciding on customized aprons full of personality for the costumes, and we ended up with five: Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts. Combining forces with my veteran quilter mom, we designed and sewed the costumes together in about ten days.
Construction and painting were also big parts of this process. Taking advantage of workshops at my place of work and my dad's house, I repainted a lot of furniture and built three interactives from scratch: a slide with sides transforming into the rabbithole Alice fell down, a climbing wall to materialize that fall, and turning gears that represent time relationships based on the mad hatter's own wackey watch. The climbing wall and slide were display only for risk management reasons because the gallery I transformed for this exhibit is normally only used to display art.
Costumes and a set table provide an opportunity for a familiar form of pretend play set in Wonderland. Dress up as Alice, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, or the Queen of Hearts! It's always Tea Time with disposable paper cups and squishy foam deserts in Down the Rabbit Hole.
Tea Cup Stacking plays off the Mad Hatter's tea party dilemma of not having enough time to wash the tea cups, and so his guests just have to stack their dirty cups and soldier on. It's also a convenient form of constructive play and introduces playing children to the concepts of physics that lead to stable stacking.
A short climbing wall is a great outlet for children's boundless energy by facilitating physical play.
The Queen's Wall includes a throne room area where the Knave of Hearts's trial took place in the climax of the story as well as a sensory wall with silver-red double sided sequins to children can turn the roses red.
The Gears of Time interactive is made of lasercut 1/4" plexiglass and wood. Inspired by the Mad Hatter's watch, which tells the "days of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is," this interactive lets kids turn the gear with the hour hand of the 12-hour clock two revolutions to move the day of the week counter over one day.
The panel explains the project background - about the story of Alice in Wonderland and how I came about doing this project - and the exhibit aims. Next to the panel I have Alice in Wonderland books, Lewis Carrol's version and Disney Jr's simplified story for young readers.
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