Exhibit Feature Friday: Go With the Flow
Exhibit Feature Friday
At the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine (CMTM), we use the word exhibit to describe the interactive experiences, spaces, and displays spread across three floors and immediately outside the facility at 250 Thompson’s Point Road. CMTM is home to over 15 exhibits, each designed to encourage experiential learning through open-ended play.
Our team at CMTM decided to give each exhibit the spotlight it deserves and is dedicating Fridays to highlighting a new exhibit, diving a little deeper into the WHY and HOW behind each playful space and experience.
EXHIBIT: Go With the Flow
LOCATION: 3rd Floor
Go With the Flow, made possible by a generous gift from The Hagerty Family, is a dynamic, energetic play space centered around water. This exhibit features two water tables full of activities, and kinetic sculptures that encourage problem solving and experimentation. Visitors can participate independently, or work cooperatively to harness the power of water!
Learning Through Play
Each activity in Go With the Flow is designed to highlight scientific principles such as gravity, flow, potential and kinetic energy, mass, and displacement. Visitors can play with swirling vortexes, create dams with blocks, launch balls through moving sculptures, turn water wheels, and spray water into the air.
Accessibility
Go With the Flow is fun for all ages! One water table features activities especially for toddlers. It is lower to the ground, and includes gentle water streams, fountains, and plenty of space for open-ended play. The other water table, designed for ages 3 +, has water-powered teeter-totters and tipping buckets, a swirling vortex, a rushing stream, and ramps for launching balls into the water.
Each water table includes wheelchair accessible play stations, and benches for taking breaks.
The toys and activities in Go With the Flow are accessible for children and adults with limited fine motor skills.
This exhibit can be loud! Noise-blocking headphones are available to borrow from the Welcome Desk, free of charge. These can be used throughout the museum & theatre to reduce the volume in busy spaces.
GO WITH THE FLOW TIPS
- Prepare to get wet! CMTM recommends bringing a change of clothes, just in case. Smocks are also available in the exhibit to help keep children dry.
- Go With the Flow’s floors are designed to reduce slipping. CMTM encourages guests to be mindful of the wet floors, and to refrain from running in this exhibit.
Mural by Rachel Gloria Adams
The color, movement, and energy in the Go With the Flow exhibit is complemented by floor-to ceiling murals, hand-painted by Portland artist Rachel Gloria Adams. The mural’s bold colors and shapes were inspired by Go With the Flow’s activities. Swirls and curves evoke the movement of water, while sharper lines reflect the geometric elements in the exhibit’s kinetic sculptures.
Murals made possible by a generous gift from Coulombe Family Foundation.
Go With the Flow Gallery was made possible by a generous gift from The Hagerty Family.
Rachel Gloria Adams Mural was made possible by a generous gift from Coulombe Family Foundation.
Learn more about the Go With the Flow exhibit here: https://www.kitetails.org/exhibit-go-with-the-flow
Coming Up Next:
Tune in next Friday to learn about the Our Neighborhood exhibit!