At Universcience, the drive to create educational and playful museum spaces centered around children is an international affair. In 2018, Universcience launched the editorial line “Young and curious,” a series of temporary and touring exhibitions centered around children. Drawing upon the success of the Cité des enfants, the goal of this series was to create new environments for children to mix exploration with education – and to share this worldwide.
Next month, Universcience will be hosting an event for museum and children professionals. An international symposium, “What role does culture play in child development?”, will take place on 1 and 2 February 2024.
The cultural offer for children evolves rapidly, as does our society. This Symposium is an opportunity for professionals in the industry to put their heads together to find new ways of supporting the development of children aged 2 to 10, so that they can flourish and meet the challenges ahead.
The first day of the symposium will look at children from various perspectives and ask how they fit into the museums and science centres of the future. Then, the second day of the conference invites attendees to question the worldviews they pass on to children through the stories they tell.
For more information and to register, free of charge
To know more about Universcience’s children touring exhibitions
As part of the editorial line “Young and curious,” in 2022, for the first time at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, the curator of the exhibition Fragile! created totally new characters. She invited children and their parents to travel the tiny world of Windy, Iggy, Folia, Glitch, Woolma and Roky – who were a balloon, an egg, a sheet of paper, a bar of soap, a ball of wool and a stone.
Then, in April 2023, Universcience opened its newest temporary children’s exhibition: Metamorphoses, an exhibition consisting of 5 immersive universes designed to give visitors the opportunity to interact with shifting worlds – and discover transformations within themselves. The exhibition runs at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie until November 24, 2024.
The exhibitions Fragile! and Metamorphoses are both available for touring.
The next temporary exhibition for Universcience will be its biggest endeavor yet. Opening in May 2024, Dance, an exhibition of 800 m2, will turn the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie into a ballroom, dance studio, and classroom all in one. Dance will be available in a reduced format for touring, is expected to begin its touring cycle at the end of 2025.
About the authors & contributors
Universcience, a public industrial and commercial establishment whose mission is to disseminate scientific and technological culture to the general public, includes two sites located in Paris: the Palais de la découverte in the 8th arrondissement and the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie in the 19th arrondissement.