- Published:
- Sunday 4 December 2016
The new state-of-the-art Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery has opened at Melbourne Museum, providing a wonder-filled creative space for young Victorians to learn through play.
Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos helped launch the gallery, announcing ‘The Museum Generation’, which provides a free six-month Museums Victoria household membership to every Victorian child born, or placed in foster care or kinship care in 2017.
Created by Museums Victoria with significant support from the Victorian Government and Gandel Philanthropy, the gallery is a major investment in early learning and childhood development.
Targeting children up to five years of age, the new permanent gallery will change the way children and their families learn, play and grow together, and provides a major new attraction for Melbourne Museum.
At over 2000 square metres, including inside and outside play spaces, the new gallery uses cutting-edge design and colour, and draws on objects and stories from Museums Victoria’s natural and cultural history collection.
The gallery was developed by and for children over a two-year period. More than 500 children were involved, alongside 100 early childhood experts and educators, landscape designers and playground creators. The result is a truly immersive learning and play environment.
Among the features are a miniature train with a special child-size tunnel entrance, an installation by Melbourne street artist Ghost Patrol, and a dinosaur dig surrounded by a native garden.
The ‘Museum Generation’ initiative will be delivered in partnership with the Victorian Maternal and Child Health Service.
Gift memberships, which include free entry to Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks, IMAX Melbourne and the Immigration Museum, will be presented to babies at their eight week maternal and child health check-up.
Foster carers and kinship carers will be invited to contact Museums Victoria directly.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos
“The new Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery is an exciting addition to Melbourne Museum, to our creative state and to our educational offering for children and their families.”
“Museums Victoria’s generosity in extending their memberships to every baby born in Victoria or placed in foster or kinship this year is a great opportunity to explore what the gallery has to offer.”
“Access to quality early-learning experiences is critical for all children and, backed by extensive educational research, this new gallery brings together learning, creativity and play in a powerful way.”