ASU Museum celebrates grand opening of Family Reading Castle
The Arkansas State University Museum will celebrate the opening of its latest exhibition, the Family Reading Castle, on Saturday, March 5, at 10:30 a.m. Based on the ASU Museum's Mother Goose collection of nursery rhyme dolls, this interactive play area includes a castle-tent, puppets, and other items to spark the imagination. A cozy spot surrounded by nursery rhymes, castles, and fairies, the Family Reading Castle offers a space for playing and reading with little ones. Funded by a Phi Kappa Phi literacy grant, the room will be open during gallery hours: Tuesday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Wednesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday 1-5 p.m. The Family Reading Castle exhibition is designed to build literacy and to foster inter-generational reading.
Jill Kary, the museum's education and tour coordinator, painted the mural that graces the room. The scene depicts Simple Simon on his way to the fair and, in honor of that long-ago transaction, the grand opening of this exhibition will include the making of little pies. Kary will also play the part of Mother Goose at the grand opening, which provides a marvelous opportunity for little ones to bring their parents and grandparents to the museum.
Mary Kennedy handcrafted the nursery rhyme dolls and used them to raise money for charity. She donated the entire collection to the ASU Museum, where they were on display for decades. Julie MacDonald, the ASU Museum curator of collections, photographed the vignettes, and they are now available in the Reading Castle room and online: http://www2.astate.edu/dotAsset/274804.pdf.
Admission to the ASU Museum is free, and changing exhibitions offer something new for visitors of all ages, but especially for families with school-age children. Additional information about Arkansas State University Museum can be found at http://museum.astate.edu, and information about Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest, largest, and most selective honor society for all academic disciplines, can be found at http://www.phikappaphi.org.
