В музее «Детская игровая площадка» в Буне открылся рукотворный сказочный лес

BOONE — A tiny, indoor forest has lately sprung up in Boone’s own children’s museum, The Children’s Playhouse. Over a year in the making, “The Storybook Forest” was entirely handmade by Watauga locals for the enjoyment of children and adults. The immersive exhibit was constructed using painted paper collage, carpentry, painting, block printing, cloth and paper-mâché sculpture. It was designed by Playhouse founder and executive director Kathy Parham, with help from key volunteers Ed Folts (carpentry), Anna Welsh (art), and interns Emma Wenzel (structural design) and Stevie Watson (interior design). Other community volunteers, including children, contributed elements to the exhibit. Generous support from the Celia Lipton Farris and Victor W. Farris Foundation Home Community Fund, a fund administered by the North Carolina Community Foundation, and Cynthia Cero made the exhibit possible. In the forest, kids dress up as a wildflower or an animal and put on their own puppet shows inside “the Little Acorn Theatre in the Old Oak Tree,” burst out of the portal in the “Wardrobe of Dreams,” put the baby animals to bed in the “Animal Friends Apartments,” wake up that mama owl with the turn of a knob, or just curl up with a book in a loving parent’s lap. “I was inspired by our beautiful Blue Ridge mountains and by memories of all the books I loved as a child and loved sharing with my own children,” Parham said. Books are tucked in nooks around the room and inside the wardrobe; a “portal painting” depicts a child’s bedroom behind the trees. The painting references Where the Wild Things Are, Good Night Moon and several other favorites. The idea is that the room in the painting is where the children live, and the Storybook Forest is where they come in their dreams, Parham explains. Elsewhere in the exhibit, the painted paper collage technique used for the 360-degree mural was modeled on Eric Carle’s art. Adults and children painted sheets of tissue paper freely in greens, browns, and blues and then Parham and Welsh tore the paper and applied it to the walls and the tree cutouts with Modge Podge glue to make trees, leaves, mountains, and sky. “We’ve seen so much imaginative play in the Storybook Forest since it opened,” Parham said. “From impromptu puppet shows for grandparents to kids just crawling around being bears and snakes.” A soundtrack of 30 local bird species recorded by Shelton Wilder and mixed with ambient forest sounds by Quentin Long provides a soothing backdrop to the forest. Local teacher and mother Erin Selle said that after a chaotic morning, her three-year-old daughter went to the forest to sit quietly, examine the artwork, and listen to the birdsong. About The Children’s Playhouse The Children’s Playhouse is a non-profit children’s museum located at 400 Tracy Circle, Boone. The Children’s Playhouse builds community by engaging children from birth to age 8 in educational play while offering friendly support to parents and caregivers. The museum has nine indoor and outdoor play areas and offers 250 arts and science programs per year which are free with admission. It is open Tuesday through Saturday year round. Admission is $10 per person. Visit goplayhouse.org