New Museum Exhibition Spotlights Good Old Fashioned Tinkering
SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA – November 23, 2009 – In a throwback to pre-high-tech innovation, Coyote Point Museum announced today the opening of its new hands-on exhibition, Tinkering, offering Bay Area families a chance to tinker with gears, gadgets, and structures.
Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation, Tinkering is the second major exhibition developed by the Museum in as many years. The exhibition is comprised of eight exhibits which allow children and families to tinker, play, and build to discover the beauty and intrigue of basic mechanical processes. The exhibition highlights the importance of tinkering in the process of invention and innovation. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, tinkering and DIY mentality have recently made a resurgence as high-tech jobs are laid-off and unemployment figures rise ("Tinkering Makes Comeback Amid Crisis").
"It is so important for kids to know how to tinker and create and have fun with it," says Rachel Meyer, the Museum's director. "Tinkering and experimentation will help kids today become the inventors of tomorrow to solve some of our greatest environmental challenges."
The opening of Tinkering comes on the heels of the Museum’s first new exhibition, The Science of Nature, receiving accolades as an international finalist for the Association of Science-Technology Centers’ Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience, an award that recognizes programs and exhibits which achieve a tangible impact on visitor experience.
Tinkering was underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation and Harrison and Marilyn Tempest, with in-kind support from Michael Meyer Fine Woodworking.
Tinkering opened at Coyote Point Museum on Friday, November 20 with a special preview party for museum members and will be on display ongoing in the Museum’s main concourse. To explore this exhibit for yourself, visit the Museum Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm and Sunday, 12 – 5pm. Coyote Point Museum will also be open the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 27, 12 – 5pm. For more information on Tinkering as well as other exhibits, programs, events, and camps, go to www.coyoteptmuseum.org.
About Coyote Point Museum
Coyote Point Museum for Environmental Education educates and inspires people to take care of our earth wisely. We provide interactive science exhibits, live animal encounters, and engaging environmental science programs.
Located in beautiful Coyote Point Recreation Area in San Mateo, California, the Museum offers visitors an opportunity to learn first-hand about ecology, the science behind the environment, and habitat preservation. The Museum offers interactive exhibits, an environmental hall providing explorers access to our local ecology, outdoor wildlife habitats with a 4,000-square-foot walk-through aviary with more than a dozen birds, as well as the opportunity to view more than 50 live, non-releasable animals native to California. For more information about Coyote Point Museum, go to www.coyoteptmuseum.org.