At the David L. Mason Children’s Museum, located within the
Dunedin Fine Art Center, children can live their dreams. They can play in mockups of a Gemini Capsule
or a Space Shuttle, they can draw and color at an Apollo desk, and they can dance
with a stormtrooper. In the latter, a
snippet from “The Return of the Jedi” has been ingeniously altered so that a
stormtrooper dances and plays a trombone while Emperor Palpatine sits in his
black chair, stares out his large observation window, and ignores you. (Given the way he treats his apprentices,
that’s probably a good thing). Children
can grab an astronaut helmet, a stormtrooper helmet, or other Science and
Sci-fi accouterments and dance to the swinging stormtrooper’s tune. A camera picks up their movements, and places
them alongside the stormtrooper on a TV screen.
Such a fusion of real Science and Sci-fi might inspire them to one day work in
the space industry. How cool would that
be?
Fun and play also take place at the stop motion area. Children can choose from the selection of
toys, and place them on a miniature film set.
One click forms the beginning of a movie, and a small monitor shows them
their previous picture, so they can move the item, or add others, and then
click the camera again. After awhile,
kids will want to chart the progress of their movie, so they can hit “Play,”
and their little stop motion animated short will play from beginning to end, as
many times as they want. (If memory
serves, parents could bring a digital memory card, and return home with their
child’s movie). Your children might grow up to make
movies like “Clash of the Titans” or “Wallace and Grommit” someday. How cool would that be?
The museum offers a Visual Arts Camp during the summer, and
at other times of the year, there are special exhibits dedicated to Science, Sci-fi,
and Fantasy. On the day we attended,
they hosted “Intergalactic, a Mixed Media Invitational.” Had we attended earlier in the year, we could
have seen “My Favorite Martian—Self Portrait as Alien.” If your child makes something impressive, the staff might display it in the children’s art room, in which an X-Wing and a Millenium Falcon have been suspended from the ceiling. Just make sure that you take them to the gift
shop, where they can be inspired by a door that could be a spaceship, an
inhabited asteroid, or something else really imaginative.
When is a door not a door?
When it’s an alien’s face, an upside-down hovercraft, or a self-propelled beauty compact that comes to hand immediately when needed, that’s when.
(Only this case, it’s also a door).
Of course, you can always let them take home a memento from
their visit. Just be sure to sign them
up for classes. Lots of classes.
Dragon Dave
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