Post #269046 by Trader Tom on Mon, Nov 27, 2006 4:47 PM

I'm excited about your project!

It looks like everyone has been chiming in on the benefit of a museum to encourage preservation efforts, and on the exhibits they'd like to see, but I didn't notice in the previous posts if anyone had responded to your concerns on educational programs or making pop polynesian exhibits "kid friendly." So, here goes some brainstorming...just what came to my mind...not sure if any of it will be useful.

FOR YOUNG CHILDREN:
The Magic House in St. Louis had a number of exhibits and activities that I remember enjoying as a young child. Their website is at http://www.magichouse.com/index.htm. I thought of them because the last Tiki Oasis in San Diego had a magic theme. The Magic House has an exhibit where young children are encouraged to try and identify different smells and another where they try to identify objects by texture. You could easily do similar exhibits with a tiki theme. They could try to identify smells of tropical fruits, etc...

Hula dancing has been popular with the little girls at almost every tiki event I've been to. Some classes in this would be popular.

Music is also a great component to think about. It might be a bit much to expect young children to learn the ukelele (and I foresee lots of broken strings), but they could sing or play small drums and flutes.

FOR OLDER CHILDREN:
Craft-based lessons could center around tapa cloth decorating or glazing ceramic tiki mugs. There are tons of paint-your-own pottery places in California and around the country where ceramics are ready to be glazed, are gathered up to be fired in the kiln, and then are given back to customers soon after. The museum could contract with Tiki Farm or Munktiki or someone to have an inventory of unglazed mugs. Then kids could pay to decorate them and have a personalized souvenir.

I'd check out the Boy Scout Merit Badge books series on woodcarving and other scoutcrafts. These could be used as templates, re-written, and tikified. They could serve as class guides or could be sold in the gift shop. Having taught woodcarving at several scout summer camps, I would tend to shy away from having kids being able to carve tikis on the premises. Kids almost always end up cutting themselves and that's not a good association to have with their first trip to the museum. However, there's nothing wrong with offering seminars and selling videos and books on the topic. Maybe have little tiki carving kits they can buy (Rockler Woodworking could put together a package I'm sure).

You expressed concern about the emphasis in Polynesian Pop on alcoholic beverages and how to reconcile this with children. I think stripping the alcohol out of the equation and making a juice bar where kids can experiment with making their own concoctions with syrups and other flavors would be a big hit. I'm sure there will be some that see this as a slippery slope that promotes alcohol consumption, but I think you can handle this tactfully. We don't want it to look like we've taken a page from Joe Camel's playbook and are using cartoon tikis to promote rum products, but we've got to consider how to handle it in a graceful and appropriate manner.

FOR OLDER CHILDREN:
I think you could really draw older children in with a climbing wall or ropes course. The climbing wall could be made to look like a series of tikis carved into volcanic rock. You'd need to have certified instructors available to teach this, but it would be really cool! Maybe have some races or have an adjustable wall so you could make some more difficult routines. Those who complete the routines or win the races could get small prizes.

SIDE NOTE
I know there has been a much anticipated documentary on Polynesian Pop languishing in post production for some time. I've also seen some short films floating around the web on Bosko and Crazy Al. However, you should think about putting together a documentary film on the building of the museum. Almost every museum has a multimedia room where everyone watches a film about the museum's intent as well as other related films that expound on different aspects of the museum. Might as well start thinking about the museum film now and make a good one, rather than hiring someone to cobble something together afterwards when your budget has been depleted.

Anyway, these were just some thoughts. Good luck with everything and keep us posted.