New Permanent Exhibition Opens at the Children’s Museum

MUSEUM SCENE

The Children’s Museum of the National Museum of Korea reopened its permanent exhibition with a completely new look. Under the theme of “Aha! Discovery and Empathy in Action,” the exhibition is focused on experience, inspiring children’s curiosity as they explore history and culture to solve given problems, to develop their thoughts on cultural heritage through play, and to communicate and to empathize through various means such as type and music. The exhibition consists of three parts: Part 1 “Seeing Through New Eyes,” Part 2 “Thinking Differently,” and Part 3 “Let’s Share What’s on Our Minds.” Overall, there are 33 different corners designed to give children handson experience.

The permanent exhibition aims to show children that the museum’s exhibits are not just objects from the past but are connected with our lives today. The giant five-meter-long automaton at the entrance is attracting a lot of attention for the way it forms a small world encompassing the varied themes featured in the Children’s Museum. This small world shows how the museum’s cultural heritage connects yesterday with today.

A notable feature of the renewal is the creative playground, an activity space for infants and toddlers, making the museum accessible to an even wider age range. In a space where the shape of an ancient Bronze Age ritual bells known as paljuryeong is designed on the floor, various activities designed for infants considering their intellectual and physical characteristics have been prepared, such as building blocks forming the Tenstory Stone Pagoda from Gyeongcheonsa Temple Site, zipper games using combpatterned pottery motifs, and squigz sucker cup toys decorating ceramics.

The Children’s Museum is operated on a reservation basis and is open to 99 people per session, five sessions a day. Reservations can be made in advance on the website of the Children’s Museum.

This new exhibition will give all children a chance to spend meaningful time developing their creativity and imagination as they play.