If you’ve lost that naive rapture at the
sight of snow and ice, it’s time to take your child – or borrow
a niece or nephew – to visit an exhibition that celebrates the
best aspects of winter, spring, summer and fall: the Brooklyn
Children’s Museum’s "Japan and Nature: Spirits of the Seasons"
exhibit.
On display in the lower level of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s
Steinhardt Conservatory, the installation of objects, activities,
videos, games and more will make both children and adults appreciate
nature’s charms in a whole new way.
By interviewing Japanese children about their favorite aspects
of the four seasons, and their holidays and traditions, and incorporating
artifacts provided by the children as well as the Newark Museum
and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, exhibition developers Elizabeth
Rawson and Emily Timmel have created much more than an exhibit.
"Japan and Nature" is an environment where American
children and adults can re-discover the seasons through the unique
perspective of the Japanese – although Rawson said the exhibit’s
target audience is ages 4 through 11.
The winter section has a heated table typical of homes in the
city of Sapporo, on the northernmost island of Japan, where children
can kneel and share a meal of tea and faux sushi; learn how to
hold chopsticks; watch a video of an elaborate ice festival in
Japan; make New Year’s cards; and create a display in an alcove,
a tokonoma, with scrolls and a plum blossom, a flower that signifies
that spring is not far behind.
Japanese children start school in the spring, so that area of
the exhibit is where you’ll find a classroom where children can
practice brush painting Japanese words and watch a short video
of an elementary class learning how to tend to animals and plant
rice, an integral part of the Japanese curriculum.
While American kids might sing, "Rain, rain, go away, come
again some other day," Japanese kids have their own version
of the song, which can be heard in the exhibit, and teru teru
bozu dolls, made to wish rain away, are on display. They can
raise a carp windsock in honor of Children’s Day, "which
represents strength and courage because the fish swim against
the current," explained Timmel.
Kids can also enjoy spring in Fukuoka, the largest city on the
island of Kyushu, by spreading a blanket beneath a stylized cherry
tree and having a picnic with a cooler-full of supplies.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is famed for its annual cherry blossom
festival, which culminates with a weekend straining at the seams
with activities ranging from flower arranging to concerts. (This
year the festival will be held May 1-2.)
Children can don cotton yukatas, according to the exhibit instructions,
which are decorated with flowers, and marvel at the doll display
featuring elaborate hina dolls that are passed down from mother
to daughter, or the warrior dolls in the Children’s Day display.
In the summer area, a tent is set up near backdrops of Lake Biwa,
Japan’s largest and deepest lake, which is a popular recreation
area. Children can try their hand at catch-and-release fishing
with soft, sculptured fish and enjoy the ancient Japanese hobby
of bug collecting by going on an insect scavenger hunt and making
rubbings of their findings. (One of the curators pointed out
a box of beetle food sent to the museum by a Japanese child.)
"The activities and things emphasized here are based on
research with kids in Japan," said Rawson. "This is
what’s important for kids here to know about them. That’s what
makes this exhibit so special."
It wouldn’t be a vacation without a snapshot, so children can
pose in front of several different backdrops featuring views
around Lake Biwa.
In the fall area, visitors will recognize the torii, the large
vermilion structure that is also in the Botanic Garden’s 90-year-old,
outdoor Japanese Hill and Pond Garden. The torii signifies that
a shrine is near. In the exhibit the shrine, Kyoto’s Fushimi
Inari, is evoked by a mural and steps. Nearby, children can write
their prayers and wishes on paper and hang them on a wall, just
as is done at the shrine. Kids can also play with fox puppets
or wear fox masks whose mythical significance is explained in
books in the exhibit.
Children can also wear the jackets and headbands worn in the
harvest festival – which can be watched on a monitor – and bang
on the festival drums.
The exhibit is decorated with haikus and has a globe and an interactive
station where the viewer can see Japan from above and zoom in
on the regions explored in the exhibit.
"Japan and Nature," produced by the Brooklyn Children’s
Museum with a $750,000 grant from the Freeman Foundation Asian
Exhibit Initiative, closes June 6 and will travel from Maine
to Hawaii on its tour of the 10 member institutions of the Association
of Children’s Museums.
Throughout the Brooklyn run of the exhibit, both the Children’s
Museum and Botanic Garden will have activities related to the
exhibit at their institutions. Among the complementary activities
planned for the exhibit will be a shodo, or calligraphy, workshop
at the Children’s Museum on Feb. 14, from 3 pm to 5 pm, and at
the Botanic Garden on Feb. 15, from 1 pm to 3 pm.
By organizing the exhibit around universal aspects of childhood
– family, school, play and holiday celebrations – "Japan
and Nature" makes it possible to appreciate the common ground
between American and Japanese youth – even encouraging the study
of natural science – and it’s also a gentle reminder to enjoy
the beauty each season brings.
"Japan and Nature: Spirits of the
Seasons" will be on display at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s
Steinhardt Conservatory, 1000 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway
in Prospect Heights, through June 6. Pick up timed exhibit tickets,
free with garden admission, at the Visitor’s Center. Admission
is $5 for adults 16 and older; $3 for adults 65 and older and
students with valid IDs; and free for children under 16.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s hours, October through March, are
Tuesday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm, and Saturday, Sunday
and holidays, 10 am to 4:30 pm. Closed Mondays, except on public
holidays.
Events related to the exhibit will take place at the Botanic
Garden and at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave.
at St. Mark’s Avenue in Crown Heights, through the run of the
exhibition. For more information visit their Web sites at www.bbg.org and www.brooklynkids.org,
or call the hotline at (718) 623-7380.
