Exhibits will be engaging, encouraging active participation and joyful opportunities for intergenerational exchange of skills and stories. In keeping with current educational initiatives, we believe that children learn through play, which, in turn, is an integral aspect of holistic learning. We envisage an energetic and creative atmosphere, anchored by our foundation collection which will
engage the senses, ignite the imagination and inspire new ideas.
We aim to engage with key community stakeholders, including community education and business groups to gather collective feedback and shared ideas for museum content and purpose.
Community engagement will lead to dynamic exhibition platforms that reflect childhood through the decades and offer a unique historical perspective on Irish social history.
Museum audiences can expect to engage with programmes which:
• Use technology for interactive and educational experiences with artefacts
• Facilitate children’s enjoyment of tactile engagement with artefacts
• Offer new and original exhibitions.
The programme and exhibition environment will be designed with the cognitive levels of our diverse audience in mind. It will include displays, interactive platforms and collections designed to spark curiosity and engagement. In any one day at the Museum, young people can discover primary science and engineering by engaging with the principles of “coil and spring”. A stimulus might be an exhibition of windup toys, observing and recording the design and structure of earlier models and prototyping their own inventions! Second and third-level students could engage with older people on the Museum’s “Sharing Skills” programme, thus encouraging learning and engagement between young and old. The literature in the permanent collection would have much to o er for those taking part in a Creative Writing Workshop, for example based on their childhood recollections, led by our Writer in Residence. Other visitors might take a guided tour of the childhood toys in our collection given by one of our volunteers.
Core activities planned for the Museum would include the following:
- Exhibitions based on historical artefacts relating to childhood
- A child and multi-generational family-centred space /hub
- Programmes with an educational focus linked to the National Curriculum
- Guided tours for school groups
- A heritage-rich discovery centre for locals and tourists alike
- After School ‘Club House’
- Literacy, numeracy, and technological programmes
- We aim to foster partnerships with national and international galleries