Blog: City Blog

The Muse Brings Two New Exhibits Promoting Creativity, Skills Development

There are two fun, new exhibits now available at The Muse for children ages four and up to enjoy.

A-Mazing Airways ribbon cutting

Elected officials, including Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, cut the ribbon with children who were eager to try out the new A-Mazing Airways exhibit.

One exhibit, ‘A-Mazing Airways,’ encourages children to look inward with a fascinating, large-scale air tube maze that depicts the pulmonary and circulatory systems; and the other, ‘Make Space,’ prompts kids to output creativity using maker tools like saws, ratchets and hot glue guns.

‘A-Mazing Airways,’ a $40,000 installment, was developed in partnership with the National Science Foundation and Mind Splash, a company based in Chicago.

Amazing Airways Exhibit at The Muse

The new A-Mazing Airways exhibit at The Muse.

Towering at eight feet, the exhibit offers several different tube paths for kids to place a scarf that is propelled by air through various channels, depending on the lever pulled.

“We intentionally made connections to the circulatory systems, helping kids understand microsystems in a macro- way,” said Ellie Kittrell, Executive Director at The Muse. “The design is very deliberate—the scale helps fine-tune motor skills as well as hand-eye development by requiring eye tracing,” Kittrell explained.

Presenting creative stations with a variety of tools used for maker skills, Kittrell said the $25,000 ‘Make Space’ exhibit helps kids develop confidence in creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

The new Make Space exhibit at The Muse.

“Those are foundational skills for kids that they can use later in entrepreneurship and a variety of careers,” Kittrell said.

The two exhibits were funded through four community grants and private donations. The grants included:

City of Knoxville – Community Agency Grant
Knox County – Arts and Tourism Grant
Knoxville Academy of Medical Alliance – community grant
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital – community grant

On Tuesday, Sept. 18, City of Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, officials, and a room full of kids helped The Muse staff cut ribbon on the exhibits.

The Muse, situated within Chilhowee Park and Exhibition Center, is open seven days a week and serves with a mission of “inspiring and empowering all children through transformative learning experiences.”

For hours of operation, admission prices, and more information, visit www.themuseknoxville.org.

Posted by kgibi On 20 September, 2018 at 4:08 PM