On May 20, the Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) opens the brand-new "Adventures with Dora and Diego" exhibit, the nation's only museum exhibition inspired by the popular characters from the award-winning Nickelodeon series, GO, DIEGO, GO! and DORA THE EXPLORER.
CMOM, Nickelodeon and the animated series' creators Chris Gifford and Valerie Walsh have collaborated to create a multi-sensory environment that transports kids to the shows' familiar settings like Dora's house, Diego's Animal Rescue Center and a tropical rainforest. The bilingual exhibition uses various interactive elements to help educate young visitors about Latino culture, science and animal facts.
"CMOM has created an incredible, tactile experience for preschoolers that allows them to play and learn with Dora and Diego in a three dimensional world," said Brown Johnson, President, Animation, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group and CMOM Board Member. "The new animal habitats are sure to satisfy all of the young rescuers and scientists out there, delivering the leather back sea turtles and blue morpho butterflies that our smart TV audience has come to love."
On May 18, CMOM will host a special gala fundraiser that will include live appearances by costumed Dora and Diego characters and an exclusive preview of the exhibition to raise funds for the museum's 48 community outreach programs in and around New York City. For ticket information, visit .
The "Adventures with Dora and Diego" exhibition is comprised of two separate Diego and Dora environments. Features of the exhibition include:
-- Animal Habitats: This Diego-themed installation features a cut-out of the animal rescuer and Baby Jaguar. Kids can explore a cave, cloud forest, beach and rainforest that house various animals in need of rescue. The habitats include problem solving tasks like helping a Blue Morpho butterfly find its way out of a cave and helping to clean up a polluted beach so sea turtles can lay their eggs.
-- Diego's Animal Rescue Center: At Diego's Animal Rescue Center, kids can climb a set of stairs and are greeted by Alicia. Visitors can look through Click, Diego's part locator, part telescopic camera friend, and see images of animals in the rainforest, peer through a spotting scope, and use the computer station to view photographs of animals and learn facts about Latin American animals.
-- Diego's Animal Care Station: Kids learn how to feed and care for animals in this section of the exhibition which features a "stethoscope" to hear animal heartbeats and a light table where kids can examine the x-rays of various animals. Additionally, there is a "footprint rubbing station" where kids can use paper and crayons to create their own rubbings and use them to identify animal footprints in the exhibition.
-- Dora's Fiesta: This exhibition helps kids learn problem solving skills while taking them on an adventure that requires them to cross the lake to get to a party at Dora's house. Along the way, kids must build the walls of Rainbow Bridge while also helping Dora's friends Boots, Tico, Benny, and Isa get to the party.
-- Dora's House: Inside the house, visitors find Dora's friends dressed for a fiesta. Kids can become a part of the festivities and learn different skills including: how to play musical instruments -- drums and xylophone; how to cook Latin American foods, or the words to Spanish songs as they listen to the radio in Dora's room.
"Adventures with Dora and Diego" replaces CMOM's "Dora the Explorer" exhibition which opened in December 2004. Following the launch of the original exhibition, CMOM experienced a substantial increase in attendance and membership.
The new exhibition will also be a base for CMOM's extensive outreach efforts such as programming in community centers, hospitals and after-school programs across the city. CMOM will host a regular series of workshops and activities to support the themes in "Adventures with Dora and Diego," including weekend art programs where kids will be able to decorate mini pinatas, make fiesta birthday hats and create rainforest animal puppets. CMOM presents workshops, exhibitions and performances created by a team of professionals and scholars to provide educational opportunities that help kids from diverse ethnic, economic and cultural backgrounds develop their minds during their most formative years.