A Day with Imagine Nation
FROM BODY-SIZED BUBBLES TO EXPERIMENTS IN SOUND
AND MOTION, KELLEY GRANGER EXPLORES THE INVENTIVE EXHIBITS AT IMAGINE NATION CHILDREN’S MUSEUM.
SQUEALS OF DELIGHT ECHO through Imagine Nation children’s museum in Bristol as Jennifer Maksymiw of Plainville watches her 4-year-old daughter, Sofia, at the water play table (equipped with magnetic fishing poles and plenty of toys to “catch”). Maksymiw brought Sofia to the museum for the first time after she heard about it through a mom’s group. “I think it’s great that there are so many places to go here. They don’t need to be guided; they can do their own thing. Everything is so bright, friendly and inviting.”
While the everyday exhibits are worth a visit alone, museum director Doreen Stickney says the special events are a real draw. “I think what sets our museum apart is the educational programming. Any given month the programs are diverse, fresh and innovative, and we’re always coming up with new ideas.” Imagine Nation’s annual New Year’s Eve program, Celebrations Around the World, has been a hit for the past five years—families ring in the New Year while observing traditions from Greece, Mexico, Japan and other countries around the globe, with a parade ending in a Times Square replica.
On regular days, educational interactive exhibits abound and pair fun and learning easily. At the oversize glockenspiel exhibit, kids practice percussion under a colorful mural with mallets on xylophonelike, wall-mounted metal bars. A few feet away at the harmonograph exhibit, they’ll learn about motion while creating spirally works of art on a pendulum table. In the water play room, children can form a bubble around their bodies with a giant bubble maker or go to one of two special wall-mounted easels to “paint” an underwater scene with water. The ESPN Play Your Way zone offers a chance to kick a soccer ball or throw a football in front of a green screen that transposes kids onto a playing field on nearby TV, and even shy moms can’t resist a shot behind the ESPN news desk, complete with teleprompter.
The latest exhibit, a simulation of a space shuttle launch, made its debut in December. Created in collaboration with NASA and ESPN, the experience takes place in an 18-seat theater with high-definition monitors and audio, which shakes the walls at takeoff.
The shuttle experience is just one of the many new exhibits the musuem has in the works (another, a giant replica of the “Operation” board game designed to teach kids about anatomy, will be added soon), so you can be sure additional visits to the museum will never be monotonous.*
NECESSITIES
Bathrooms | There are four. Three on the first floor near the harmonograph and one on the second, next to the greenhouse.
Elevators | Next to the old-fashioned soda fountain at the main entrance.
Food | Snacks are available at the soda fountain, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a good meal nearby. McDonald’s is less than half a mile away at 100 North Main St. and museum staff recommends the pizza at Center Restaurant and Pizza at 81 North Main St.
Parking | A small lot is available off Upson Street, which runs parallel to Pleasant Street behind the museum. Parking is free. If the lot is full, parents can park just across the road at the Bristol Board of Education, though parking there is only allowed on weekends.
Details | $7 per person, infants under a year are free. Contact: One Pleasant St., Bristol, CT. 06010, (860-314-1400, imaginenation.org)