Guest post on Boston Children's Museum's 'Power of Play' blog

You’ve likely seen it for yourself that there’s something very compelling for children about re-envisioning everyday objects, assembling ensembles, or pretending to be somebody else. But did you know it’s also good for their brains? According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), playing with costumes can build imagination, help children discover new things about themselves, and can be a powerful tool for self-expression. But I wasn’t about to take NAEYC’s word for it, so I took my questions to an expert: 8-year-old costume-enthusiast Nate Hill.

Nate in one of his favorite costumes.

My first contribution to the Boston Children's Museum blog is all about costumes. Inspired by Halloween, I sat down with two of my esteemed colleagues with experience not only teaching with costumes, but wearing them too: Arts Program Manager and performance artist Alice Vogler and Culture and Performing Arts Educator and ballet dancer Steve Schroth. I also interviewed 8-year-old Nate Hill, son of Marla Quiñones, Director of Exhibit Design and Production. I was so taken with Nate's thoughtful, well-articulated responses that he quickly became the star of the article.

Read the rest of the article on the Power of Play blog here.

American Family, Revisited

Happy Pride, museum-geeks! It's been an historic week with Supreme Court decisions to overturn DOMA and dismiss Prop 8 here in California, all in the last few days of Pride Month. We have plenty of reasons to be merry and gay. But for all the progress we've made lately, it's clear we still have a long way to go. Just a couple weeks ago a lesbian family was denied a family membership at their local children's museum. Luckily, children's museums are in the unique position to directly affect change and we do it every day by empowering children in the development of their imaginations. A strong imagination is a powerful tool in learning empathy and empathy is what drives movements of social justice.

Back in April I spoke about this at Pecha Kucha Night at the Association of Children's Museums conference in Pittsburgh. I got such positive feedback that evening that I decided to turn my presentation into a video.

Here it is: