A global perspective comes to Brooklyn in the multimedia exhibition Waterfront. Open January 20 at Brooklyn Historical Society in DUMBO, Waterfront features artifacts, interactive experiences, and stories that highlight the development and history of Brooklyn’s coastline.
Waterfront is designed to captivate kids and adults simultaneously: Glass cases are placed at a child’s height while some of the more in-depth information is positioned a bit higher for older eyes. There are also several activities for kids and parents both to enjoy. You can dress as Rosie the Riveter or any woman from the World War II factory workforce, with full garb and tools, in the Factory Women experience, and take some pictures to commemorate. You can also star in History in Motion: using Microsoft Kinect, the program places visitors into the landscapes of different moments from Brooklyn’s past. In the video, you can go fishing in Gowanus Bay, pull a rope with dockworkers, or follow several other action prompts, which are compiled into a video you can then save and share online.
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Even the youngest kids will be fully immersed. A section featuring twelve commodities—goods once housed in Brooklyn warehouses much like Brooklyn Historical Society’s own space on Water Street—encourages touch and smell: Kids can run their hands over and sniff all different kinds of imports, from coffee beans to goat hide to linseed oil. There’s also a waterfront neighborhoods magnet wall, where kids’ imaginations can go wild as they plan and design their own city, answering questions like “What happens when I put a sewer beside a storefront?” Through this activity, they can understand what it might have felt like to be the Brooklyn waterfront’s first inhabitants and developers.
The entire exhibition is designed around not just explaining the waterfront’s history but encouraging kids and adults alike to imagine life as it once was in Brooklyn. From the section on Brooklyn Bivalves—adorned with numerous real and touchable bivalve shells—to the table where kids and adults can color in pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge and pin them up to share on the wall, there’s something for every age and every interest. Touch screens and pull-out information drawers keep even reading interactive, and with attention to height and tactile experiences, the exhibition can entertain and educate children as young as a year old.
For more information, visit brooklynhistory.org!
