Children’s Museum of Atlanta’s current exhibit, ‘XOXO: An Exhibit About Love & Forgiveness,’ made its debut in January and will continue until May 4. The exhibit provides the opportunity to think about and explore feelings through a variety of activities designed to help both children and their caregivers understand, appreciate and express their emotions.
“At the very heart of everything that this exhibit attempts to do is to create meaningful opportunities for caregivers and children to engage in conversations about their emotions — particularly those focused on love and forgiveness,” Edwin Link, executive director of the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, shared.
Created by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh with support from The Fetzer Institute and sponsored locally by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, ‘XOXO: An Exhibit About Love & Forgiveness’ is currently touring, and the team behind the decision to host the experience at the Children’s Museum of Atlanta said it was an “easy yes.”
“No caregiver should come to this exhibit with their child not expecting to play themselves,” Link added when explaining the importance of play between children and adults to access their own harmonious balance of emotions.
Key elements from ‘XOXO: An Exhibit About Love & Forgiveness’ include:
- Holding Hands — hold hands to illuminate a hidden message about love.
- Reflection Table — manipulate materials to uncover soothing sounds, promoting mindfulness
- Empathy Blocks — wooden blocks featuring diverse facial features allow children to create expressions, enhancing their understanding of emotions
- Story Puzzle — a collaborative puzzle that uses words and symbols to tell stories, encouraging conversations about love and forgiveness, ultimately, helping kids recognize emotions in themselves and others
- Release the Negative — encourages kids to write or draw negative feelings and shred them to symbolize the release of emotions
- Response Wall — a space to share thoughts on love and forgiveness by responding to various prompts
- Silhouettes — a creative station where children trace and compare profiles, highlighting individual uniqueness and similarities
- Phone Booths — private booths equipped with telephones for kids to learn the importance of communication
- Tone Phones — an interactive display that visualizes how different tones of voice can affect communication and understanding
Link continued to explain the powerful potential of interactive play, adding that it’s normal to become frustrated when children can’t voice their own feelings in an ‘adult’ way, but rather to understand that these things emerge organically when hands-on play is involved in a safe environment.
The modules within the exhibit are designed to be compelling and cathartic. One station, ‘Release the Negative’ involves children and caregivers writing down any negative emotion or experience they may have on a piece of paper and then putting the paper through a shredder.
Jody Baumstein, Health Promotion Manager of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, who also worked on last year’s exhibit “Emotions at Play with Pixar’s Inside Out,” weighed in on how to help caregivers talk about feelings starting at birth.
“When you go to a visit at the pediatrician, and they ask about words and eating solids, we want them to be asking about feelings,” Baumstein voiced. “We are born into this world with a whole range of emotions and no way to regulate them. This is a learned skill just like doing math or learning to read a book.”
Baumstein, who specializes in mental and behavioral health, adds to the importance of normalizing the conversation of feelings between adults and kids instead of leaving them to figure it out alone. “The exhibit gives kids language and exercises on how to talk about emotions and how to walk through them, but really it’s a great opportunity for adults to role model so they are showing kids ‘I have feelings too,'” she shared.
Baumstein explained that play is the language of kids. It’s how they process and understand the world, so to incorporate that into learning about how to navigate their own emotions is so important. “We’re using their language to talk about emotions and showing them that it’s not a big deal,” Baumstein added.
Link vocalized that children who are with their families and participating in the exhibit experience something powerful by looking around the room and seeing other families do the same thing. “Not only are they getting the benefit of their own interactions and dialogue, but they’re also getting to see other families’ perceptions of these different activities,” he commented.
‘XOXO: An Exhibit About Love & Forgiveness’ is recommended for children ages 2 to 12 and their families. The subject of the exhibit is well-suited to audiences of all ages.
Tickets are available to members and guests online, by phone, and in person. Babies 11 months and younger and members are admitted for free. All daily programs and exhibits are included in the price of admission. For more information regarding ticket and membership options, click here.
