New 'art bus' exhibit teaches kids on river habitat

BRONX, N.Y. — The Bronx Children's Museum's (BCM) innovative "art bus" has unveiled its first exhibit, "River On the Go: Where is Justin the Beaver?"

The repurposed school bus was profiled in an SBF article earlier this year.

The interactive, multi-sensory exhibit highlights the Bronx River. The first to experience it were attendees at the Harlem River Festival at Mill Pond Park and the Annual Bronx Unity Day at St. Raymond High School for Boys in late September.

About half of the 100 children who saw the exhibit on its debut day were asked if they had ever been to a museum or a river. BCM officials said that almost all of them answered “no.”

On Oct. 15, the BCM bus presented the river exhibit at the first Bronx Education Summit.

The museum has been piloting art and educational programs at community-based organizations, festivals and health fairs throughout the Bronx since 2006, but “River on the Go” is its first traveling exhibit.

“There is nothing that comes closer to the original dream of cleaning up the waterways in the Bronx than to have children engaged in learning about them,” said U.S. Congressman José Serrano, an early supporter of the museum.

Children enter the bus in small groups with their parents, caregivers or teachers and are guided by museum educators through a variety of experiences. They sit on the "foot bridge" (the center walkway), close their eyes and listen to a variety of sounds.

Guides then ask them to find flora and fauna. Mounted stuffed animals are interspersed throughout the bus — under logs, in beaver dens and in nests — for children to play a game called “Where are Justin the Beaver and his neighbors?” (Justin is a real beaver, sighted on the Bronx River in 2008).

BCM officials said that there will eventually be living specimens of animals and flora like turtles, frogs and moss for children to observe and touch.

The bus exhibit will eventually incorporate a mobile “suitcase exhibit” that can be unpacked and displayed on portable tables for children to touch, observe and learn more about the subject content immediately after they enter. The exhibit design team is also developing a curriculum and games, based on New York state science standards, to share with educators, who can use them as they wish to deepen each child's experience.

For more information, go to www.bronxchildrensmuseum.org.