Chicago Children's Museum

Chicago Children's Museum
Chicago, IL

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From Louise Belmont-Skinner, VP of Exhibits, Chicago Childrens Museum

"To all -

I must apologize for not telling all of you sooner -- the DCCA Go Kids
exhibit looks so wonderful and inviting. I think as a whole the Kitchen
and Spa really reflect a new aesthetic for CCM.

I have spent some hours out at the CCM storage area where the components
are being assembled by Mark, The more time I spend there, the more
familiar I get with the components. I continue to be fascinated by the
recycle glass counter tops -- even though there is not much light in the
storage area (and no natural light at all) every one in a while a piece of
the embedded glass will sparkle -- it's beautiful to see and to touch. I
love the color of the Plyboo -- even the inside of the draws look good.

The different height levels of the counters work beautifully and will
address different ages. There's a wonderful contrast between the
child-sized height of the lowest counter and the sophisticated materials
out of which the component is made... and you know the kids will love it.

Sheila, Mark and I have spent several hours playing with Windy Alley and
have really gotten into exploring different materials. I don't know if you
know this, but Sheila went on a fabric and notions shopping spree in
several warehouses in Chicago and came back with several large plastic
bags full of stuff specifically for Windy Alley. While "testing" Windy
Alley, Mark made a pinwheel out of a piece of paper ripped from his note
book and it started to spin quite successfully after some experimentation.
And that's the real beauty of this component -- the amount of testing that
can take place. We are going to install it with the Gingerbread Fantasy
Factory holiday exhibit. It will be next to the ice skating. I think it
will add to the feeling of winter and flying snowflakes.

The pizza oven is a BIG WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! We all love it including the pizza
smell.

It will be interesting to see how we eventually use the demo counters. The
demonstration counters for the visitors are sturdy and offer new
possibilities for workshops. By the way, the casters are also the best
we've used.

I look forward to putting the entire collection out on the CCM floor to
see how it works as a whole.

I want to thank Ron, Hillary, Justine, Maeryta and the rest of the
Gyroscope team for the fast, quality work. Both Mark and Sheila managed
their responsibilities with expertise, and timeliness. I appreciated the
team work between CCM and Gyroscope.

Next Wednesday, Mark, Sheila and I are giving a "presentation" at the
storage site to Peter England, Ewa and Stacia. We are approaching it like
a dress rehearsal -- all the props, materials, even the visitor feedback
cards with be out. I'll let you know how that goes.

So thank you all again. I look forward to working together again."

Louise Belmont-Skinner