NEW ORLEANS (press release) – Embark on a daylong cultural journey at the Children’s World’s Fair at the Louisiana Children’s Museum. This year the Museum will celebrate the 21st year of the Children’s World’s Fair and the last one on Julia Street, having shared more than 100 nations with the children of our community. Children’s World’s Fair provides children ages 2-12 with an appreciation of the unique and universal customs of our global community in an interactive learning environment.
Attendees will delight as they enjoy lively, cultural performances and explore the environments, games, music, literature, crafts, flavors and more of eight countries: Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Philippines, and Senegal.
Along the journey, fairgoers will create paper dolls of their favorite characters from "Anne of Green Gables," build a totem pole that tells the stories of the First Nation peoples, and learn about the connection between the Acadians and our own Cajun communities as they explore Canada. Families will make panda bookmarks, try Tai Chi moves with the Shaolin Institute, learn how to use chopsticks, and sample shrimp fried rice in China.
Travelers will discover the ecosystems of Colombia, home of the world’s largest tropical rainforest national park as they create butterfly and frog crafts and experiment with a cloud in a bottle to learn how temperature and pressure affect water to form the clouds of this country’s cloud forests. In Denmark, they will harness wind energy by creating their own windmills, learn how to write names in Viking runic script, and taste rød grød me gløde, a strawberry porridge made with cream.
Explorers to France will play petanque, a popular French lawn game similar to marbles, learn how to mime like famous French mimes, and discover how carbon dioxide affects the microenvironment in cheese to make holes. In Ireland, they will practice Irish dancing and sports moves like hurling, make shamrock necklaces, and sample Irish brown bread and soda bread.
Visitors to the Philippines will play the popular Filipino game of SIPA, taste fruit from a Calamondin citrus tree along with pancit, a kind of stir-fried noodle, and make puppets of a tamaraw, an endangered dwarf buffalo which can only be found in the Philippines. Finally, in Senegal, children will create Baobab tree sculptures and masks representing different native animals, learn how to play drums and dance to Senegalese rhythms, and discover why the waters of Senegal’s salty Lake Retba are strawberry pink.
Throughout out the day, Center Stage will showcase cultural performances including: Irish dancing by Muggivan School of Irish Dance, interactive martial arts demonstrations by the Shaolin Institute, Colombian rhythms by Roberto Perez and Erik Piñeros, Acadian and Cajun fiddle music from the Vermillionville Living History and Folklife Park among other special performances.
“Over the last 21 years, the Children’s World’s Fair has introduced children and families to the unique and universal customs of countries and regions across the globe,” says Julia Bland, CEO of the Louisiana Children’s Museum. “This is a very special year for us since this is the last Children’s World’s Fair in our location on Julia Street.”
The intergenerational journey will begin with the Early Explorers Party from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. Guests will get a first look at the cultural exhibits and young travelers will receive an exclusive treat bag. Early Explorer packages begin at $100 for a family four-pack.
At 12:00 p.m., all adventurers are invited to join the fun. General admission tickets are $16 per person for LCM members and $20 per person for non-members.
Proceeds from Children’s World’s Fair benefit the Louisiana Children’s Museum’s educational programs and exhibits. Tickets are available for purchase online at www.lcm.org or in person at the Louisiana Children’s Museum during regular Museum hours of operation.
Children’s World’s Fair is sponsored by: BP, LUBA Worker’s Comp, the Lupin Foundation, Pan American Life Insurance Group, Cox TV5 Monde, International-Matex Tank Terminals, Laitram, and Latter & Blum Realtors, and Juan and Anna Gershanik.
To learn more about Children’s World Fair or the Louisiana Children’s Museum, visit www.lcm.org or call 504-266-2415.
