Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

/ARTS WEEKLY/ MEXICO: Museum Tells Children, ‘Do Touch’

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Nov 11 2003 (IPS) - Seeing through the eyes of a dolphin, acting on television, travelling through space or crawling inside an anthill are just some of the experiences that more than 12 million people have taken away from the Papalote Children’s Museum in Mexico over the past decade.

“Prohibited Not to Touch”, states the sign greeting visitors to this unique museum, where the latest technology is put to good use as all exhibits are designed for interaction and learning.

The museum will celebrate its 10th anniversary in December with the inauguration of a gigantic, sphere-shaped screen upon which digital films on outer space will be projected. Nine cameras are used to create high-resolution, realistic images.

“Papalote is today the most important interactive centre for children in Latin America, and one of the leading such institutions in the world,” says Rafael Enríquez, director of development for the museum, which belongs to a private foundation.

Nine-year-old Andrea seems to agree. “It is the greatest museum I have ever seen, and the most fun. I love to come here because there is so much to do and see, and no one to tell you ‘don’t touch that’,” she said.

The museum is located near Los Pinos, the official residence of President Vicente Fox in the Mexican capital. Papalote covers more than 2,000 square metres and offers 300 interactive exhibits.

Papalote, which means butterfly in an indigenous language, first opened its doors in 1993, and has received 12.3 million visitors since.

Among its main attractions is an IMAX Theatre, which has a screen measuring 17 by 24 metres, and is used to project images in three dimensions. In IMAX movies, the film itself is 70 mm format, twice the standard 35 mm.

“It’s ‘padrísimo’ (the greatest), because it feels like you’re inside the image. It’s more than real. You have to see it!” says an enthusiastic Arturo, 12, as he leaves the theatre after seeing an IMAX film on space travel.

Not far away, several children are disembarking from a simulator, dubbed the “fantasy bus”, where they “virtually” flew, swam and jumped through an array of scenes from nature.

Inside the simulator-bus, the “passengers” experience what if feels like to be a cougar, a spider or a dolphin, seeing the world as these creatures do, while their seats physically move in synch with the movements of each animal.

Papalote offers fun and learning for children of all ages, but many of the interactive modules are frequently occupied by adults, who seem at least – if not more – enthralled than the children they bring with them.

In a room near the simulator, museum-goers can play with a computer-generated ball, while others take turns sending messages through giant transparent tubes, in which the letters are whisked away on pressured air.

“All of this might look like fun, pure and simple, but each module has a clear educational message,” Enríquez said.

To learn how television, radio and newspapers are “done”, the children are provided with studios and sophisticated equipment to produce their own TV or radio programme or publications.

Those with a special curiosity about nature have their options, too, such as entering a giant anthill to learn how the tiny insects organise and build the complicated structure, or going inside a super-sized tree and discovering how it grows and sustains itself.

But the Papalote is not limited to Mexico City. There is also a travelling version of the museum, which visits cities throughout the country, transported aboard large trucks.

Some four million children in rural Mexico, and even Guatemala, have had the chance to enter these magic modules to feed their curiosity and to have fun.

The educational aspect of the Papalote Museum has received several awards, from the Mexican government and private foundations, and has won praise from the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund).

“Papalote has a long future ahead of it, remaining on the cutting edge of the best interactive museums for the children of the world,” said Enríquez.