The Please Touch Museum recently moved from Center City into Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park. Jen Bush, vice president of education for the museum, spoke to Metro about what’s happening there.
Can you tell us about the new tree exhibit?
Kids are going to learn about the importance of caring for the environment [and] their place in the environment. It fosters the fun and the joy that you receive when you’re doing that and it gives you the tools on how you can do that. [In the exhibit] you can actually get inside an acorn and think about how that acorn then grows into a big tree and explore a big tree. Then there are also sounds of forest creatures and they have a green screen where you can pretend you’re a bird flying over the trees.
You also have an upcoming program on jazz. What’s that like?
“Junior Jazz” is an annual event here and it’s throughout the month again. Understanding music is a universal language; our 3-month-old visitors appreciate it, and our grandparents appreciate it. Music offers so much to so many people. “Junior Jazz” is [about] wanting to expose our audience to jazz. We want our visitors to come away with a beginning foundation, because what we also believe is that foundation is a springboard to our cultural community. We hope you graduate from Please Touch and go to a show at the Kimmel [Center for Performing Arts] or University of the Arts.
What’s it like being in Memorial Hall?
We love it here and this is a great time to visit. It’s cold outside, so Please Touch is a great place to come and take your family out of the house and to our new house.
