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Blast into space with the Apollo 11 exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

June 27, 2019 / Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

Blast off into space at the new Apollo 11 exhibition commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing at the Powerhouse Museum.

The new exhibition explores the defining moment in history when the first astronauts landed on the moon, with over 200 objects including Luke Jerram’s iconic Museum of the Moon, archival objects from the Powerhouse Museum collection and a new virtual reality work (ages 11+). Apollo 11 will also explore the crucial role Australia played in transmitting the famous footage of the landing around the world.

The exhibition is in two sections. On the lower level is the highlight of the exhibition, the incredible Museum of the Moon, seven-metre wide, internally-lit artwork created by artist Luke Jerram. It combines detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface with a sound installation by award winning composer Dan Jones. The Museum of the Moon is at an approximate scale of 1:500,000. Each centimetre represents 5km of the moon’s surface.

Walk underneath and admire the incredible detail. It’s as close as most of us will ever get to looking at the surface of the moon.

The second part of the exhibition is accessed by escalator or elevator to the floor above. It contains over 200 pieces on display including archival pieces, scientific models and installations.

Representing Australia’s involvement is part of the iconic CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope, responsible for receiving some of the first images of the moonwalk and broadcasting over 2 hours around the world.

Visitors can peer into a life-size replica of the Mercury Capsule, look at a piece of moon rock and try their hand at landing a lunar shuttle.

Those over the age of 11 can experience the Apollo 11 mission from the unique perspective of Michael Collins, the third astronaut who remained in orbit aboard the Command Module, through a virtual reality program.

The gift shop houses a wide range of space-related goodies to take home.

Apollo 11 opens June 29, 2019.

Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris St, Ultimo
maas.museum/powerhouse-museum

Star Wars Identities The Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney

January 1, 2019 / Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

Star Wars™ Identities The Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney

Feel the force and discover the psychology behind how our identities are formed at the interactive and absorbing Star Wars™ Identities exhibition now open at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney.

The exhibition is designed for visitors of all ages, from kids to adults, and for newcomers to the movies as well as for die-hard fans.

Browse the 200 original Star Wars objects on display that include costumes, props, models and artwork while exploring your identity and creating your own unique Star Wars character.

At the start of the exhibition visitors are given radio transmitter with an ear piece and a smart technology bracelet to wear on their wrist which is used to engage with a series of interactive stations. Over the course of 10 stations visitors are given a series of choices to form their new persona, while also learning about the forces that shape us into the people that we are today.

Rare treasures from the Lucasfilm archives are dotted throughout the exhibition, including BB-8, R2-D2, the Millennium Falcon, Yoda, Darth Vader’s suit from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi™, Hans frozen in carbonite and Leia’s famous metal bikini!

The exhibition also lets visitors learn more about the depths to the familiar characters they know and love. A fascinating look into the history and personality of characters such as Luke, Han, Leia, Yoda and Anakin will teach even diehard fans like us a new thing or two.

While the focus of the exhibition is forming a new character and discovering the Star Wars universe in more detail, visitors will walk away mulling over the question, “What the forces are that have shaped you?”.

We found the scientific component of the exhibition fascinating. Who are we? How did we become the people that we are? Star Wars Identities explores the theme of identity using ten components that help make us who we are: species, genes, parents, culture, mentors, friends, events, occupation, personality, and values.

These components are displayed in three groups in the progression from childhood to adulthood: Origins, Influences and Choices. One video per component, containing clips from Star Wars films as well as animated graphics explains how each component plays its part in shaping the person who we are, with references to Star Wars characters as well as to the visitors watching.

At the end of the exhibit get ready to meet your character. Don’t forget to email your character’s full profile to yourself before exiting.

This is the character I created, an Ewok named Quip!

Must Know Facts

The exhibition takes around 1 to 1.5 hours to complete.

Costumes are allowed but no helmets or masks covering the face are permitted.

Lightsabers and replica weapons must be left at cloak check.

There are film clips including lightsaber duels that young children might find frightening.

Entry is timed. You can book tickets on the website to secure the time of your choosing, which I do suggest doing.

Star Wars Identities The exhibition
Nov 16 2018 – June 10 2019
Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris St, Ultimo
http://www.starwarsidentities.com

We were guests of the Powerhouse Museum for the purpose of reviewing the exhibition. We are life-long Star Wars fans and all opinions, costumes and hair buns are our own.

Learn & Play! teamLab Future Park at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

November 23, 2017 / Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

This summer, the Powerhouse Museum is presenting one of the most incredible exhibitions Sydney seen: the innovative, playful and completely immersive Learn & Play! teamLab Future Park. Exclusive to the Powerhouse Museum, Future Park is the latest exhibition by Japanese art collective teamLab.

The exhibition feature eight interactive light installations that respond to real-time interaction. A stunning blend of science and creativity, Future Park challenges visitors to dream up collaborative artworks in a playground for children and adult alike.

Future Park is broken up into the following distinct areas or activities:

Sketch Town allows participants to create their own vehicle or building that, when scanned, comes to life on a massive screen as part of the town. Creators can interact with their designs or print them out to take home and create as a 3D model.

Light Ball Orchestra was a winner with us – two pits of large and small light balls that are suspended from the ceiling and rolling around loose on the ground. As we interact with them, they change colour, creating an ever changing brilliant light show.

Graffiti Nature – Mountains and Valleys was incredibly hard to photograph but looks incredible to the eye. A digital environment populated by visitor drawings of plants and animals, add your own creature and slide into the imaginary world filled with giant, colourful creatures that have come directly from your own imagination.

Hopscotch for Geniuses is one for the music lovers – or those of us who remember hopscotch from our own childhoods! This digital twist on an old favourite game changes the rules and transforms a standard hopping game into a pathway to create an interactive dance and musical symphony.

Connecting: Block Town! lets participants create their own townscape by moving physical wooden blocks on the table. As each block is moved, cars, trains and buildings appear in the landscape.

Sketch People gives visitors the opportunity to draw themselves or a completely new character and then see them move on a large screen right in front of them. The drawings interact with other drawings, forming relationships. Sketch people respond to being touched, so give yours a (gentle!) poke and see what actions you get in return!

A Table Where Little People Live was our other firm favourite installation. While it looked the least impressive from the outset – a dark room with pretty plain looking round tables – it was actually incredibly fun for us both.

On each interactive screen tabletops, little people run around rather similar to the old computer game Lemmings. By placing physical objects on the table, visitors an interact with the little people, prompting them to jump, climb and fall accordingly.

This activity really did provide outbursts of giggles as the little people responded in silly ways, and together we created bigger and crazier object towers to see what would happen to the little people (and these strange random cows that popped up!) next.

Just before the exit, kids can create their dream car of the future through Principal Partner Toyota’s global Dream Car design competition. The winning designer will travel to Japan to present their Dream Car to Toyota.

Future Park is an exhibition that absolutely has to be on your must-see list this summer. It’s engaging, creative, exciting, and, most importantly, fun! Cheese and I played together with each installation, and it was such a pleasure for us to spend quality time doing something we both enjoyed equally.

Learn & Play! teamLab Future Park
24 November 2017 – 30 April 2018
Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007

Book online for a session taking place between 24 November–10 December and save 10% using the code FUTURE10.

Book your tickets online.

Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives at the MAAS

March 7, 2017 / Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life, Uncategorized / 0 comment

One of the most defining moments of my childhood was a trip we took when I was nine to Egypt. It was amazing. I will never forget seeing the pyramids and sphinx in Giza, and learning about their ancient world became an obsession I’ve never managed to shake.

I was thrilled to see the Powerhouse Museum’s new exhibition for autumn is Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives because, let’s be honest, it’s not so easy to pop over to Egypt to teach your kids about these kinds of things.

The exhibition is really best for kids aged 7+ but I would also say it depends on the kid. We saw children with their families of all ages enjoying it, so I would advise making a judgement call on your own circumstances.

Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives is on display until 30 April 2017, making it a perfect outing in the upcoming school holidays. The exhibition gives visitors the chance to meet six ancient Egyptian mummies and see how the latest technology has enabled us to go beyond the wrappings and discover the lives and customs of these people from the past.

The six mummies were selected from the British Museum collection. They lived and died in Egypt between 1800 and 3000 years ago – the information gathered on their lives is on display alongside their 3D CT scan visualisations allowing visitors to not just view for themselves the amazing end result of mummification, but also see what lies underneath – and fully appreciate the whole mummification process.

Through the exhibition visitors will learn about the lives of regular people in ancient Egypt. What is the mummification process? What were their beliefs? What do the symbols in their artworks and on their coffins mean? Quite simply, it’s all fascinating.

I would suggest visiting the exhibition with kids on a Sunday for the museum’s Egyptian Mummies: Family Sundays.

Each Sunday in March, from 10am–4pm, kids can enjoy ancient Egypt through a fantastic kids play area complete with a dig zone, building area, oasis for reaching and craft area. During the school holidays the dig zone will be open every day.

On an upper level you’ll find Senet, what is possibly the world’s first board game, recreated for you to have a go. It looks kind of like chess, ancient Egyptian-style.

You might even come across a mummy or pharaoh wandering around the museum.

More information about the Egyptian Mummies exhibition:

The presentation of this exhibition is a collaboration between the British Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Visitors are advised that this exhibition contains human remains and CT scan images of mummified human remains.

Strollers must be parked at the cloaking desk on level 3 of the Museum prior to entering the exhibition.

Prices: Adult $27, Concession $25, Child (4–16) $16, Family (2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children) $65.

Pre-book online now and save.

Tickets include general admission to Powerhouse Museum.

Powerhouse Museum
The Egyptian Mummies family activities are free with museum admission.
500 Harris St, Ultimo NSW 2007

Thank you to the Powerhouse Museum for our entry tickets. All opinions are our own.

The Wiggles Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum: An Update

March 6, 2017 / Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

We had an incredibly fun day at the Powerhouse Museum checking out the changes to our favourite Wiggles Exhibition.

The exhibition has been closed for a while while it was being “updated”, and was reopened over the weekend to the public.

You can read my original post on the Wiggles Exhibition here. Basically the update was a much-needed renovation that focuses the exhibit on the current Wiggles rather than the previous ones. The exhibition now focuses on the four current Wiggles, Anthony, Simon, Lachy and Emma in the front section, with mentions of the original Wiggles through out the museum.

The popular interactive features of the exhibit have all remained, with the screening section expanded to look like a stage for all the little Wiggles fan to dance.

A few other items have been moved around to create more space in various areas, but otherwise remain as they were before.

The update is fantastic for kids who are growing up with the Wiggles right now, while still containing plenty of information on their origins and achievements.

Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris St, Ultimo
Hours: Daily, 10am-5pm
Prices: Adults $15, children 16 and under free.
Online

Thank you to the Powerhouse Museum for entry tickets. We love the museum and all opinions are our own.

The Junction: Kid-Friendly Cafes, Ultimo

April 15, 2016 / CBD, Sydney, Sydney Food, Ultimo / 0 comment

Inner city cafes that are kid-friendly with room to run are extremely rare. The Junction, a cafe attached to the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo, is an oasis of space for families to relax, eat and take time to relax on a busy day in the city.

The Junction is located on the lower street level of the Powerhouse Museum complex, positioned so you can enter the cafe and enjoy the courtyard and playground without entering the museum. This means, of course, that you can drop by any time for a coffee, snack, play or bathroom break.

The cafe has a very simple menu. Burgers, fries, kids’ meals, milkshakes. It has a wide selection of snacks like fruit, yoghurt, pre-made sandwiches, banana bread, donuts, pretzel cups and a crazy amount of lollies.

Order at the counter and take your number to a table. I’m not sure what the numbers were for, however, as when the order was ready it was placed on the counter to be collected, rather than brought to our table.

The cafe has indoor and outdoor seating in a bright, open space. It’s a very light and airy environment, with open panels so the air flows freely, and there is plenty of ambient sound to cover the noise of cranky kids, but also no loud music to prevent conversation. My favourite!

The walls are glass or open to the courtyard so when dining inside there is a clear view of the playground – both from inside and outside the cafe. It’s a fantastic design so if you have young children you can sit at the end of the cafe outside, right next to the playground.

The playground itself is pretty big, with shade cloth covering. It’s clean, big and well-designed. There are several public bathrooms inside the courtyard including a disabled and baby change toilet.

I was impressed at how the entire set up was stroller and wheelchair assessable. The entry from the street into the cafe and courtyard is wide and smooth, and the cafe has plenty of space to enable wheelchairs and strollers to maneuver.

We had eaten lunch earlier when we visited, so we only tried the donuts ($4.50 each, delicious!) and milkshakes. The milkshakes were incredible value for Sydney – $7 for a massive shake.

The Junction is a great cafe to try if you’re in the area or visiting the Powerhouse Museum.

The Junction, Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris St, Ultimo NSW 2007
Hours: Daily from 8:30am
Online

Circus Factory: The Best Of Sydney For Kids

April 11, 2015 / Cheese, Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 4 Comments

The Powerhouse Museum is one of my favourite places to take Cheese in Sydney at the moment. Not only does it have the fantastic Wiggles exhibit at the moment, it also is home to Circus Factory. We finally got around to seeing the exhibition during the school holidays (and if you want to see it you’d better be quick as it closes May 3, 2015).

I wasn’t planning on taking Cheese as the Powerhouse recommends it for kids ages five and over, but after seeing some adorable pics on Instagram I decided to give it a go anyway, and was so glad we did. At age 3.5 Cheese was a fantastic age for the exhibition. No doubt older kids will et even more out of it, including areas of the exhibition Cheese was too little for, but we spent three solid hours in the exhibition and I had to drag her out at the end, which says that this exhibit was a smash hit for the preschooler set.

Circus Factory celebrates the daring, absurd and curious nature of circuses. It focuses thankfully on the human element, such as clowns, acrobats, circus acts, etc, rather than the sad history of animals in circuses.

The Circus Factory is set up over three levels. The top floor has costumes and the bottom one has a fantastic collection of automatas – the later you can also see when you purchase a general exhibition pass. An automata is an interactive artwork, where you wind a handle and it moves the subjects inside. They automatas are kind of creepy to be honest, and they really freaked Cheese out. The subject matter includes things like freaky looking monkeys and skulls. Fascinating for adults, but some of them are a bit scary for little kids.

We spent our entire visit on the main floor of the attraction. The massive space is broken up into many interactive areas for kids to just go wild and really experience elements of the circus for themselves.

Cheese highly enjoyed each of these areas: clown costume dress ups, colouring in, a mirror maze, hula hoops (they were a bit heavy for her but she made her own game out of them), clown faces, balancing tricks (again, a bit hard for her but she enjoyed trying), the balloon room and carousel.

Her absolute favourites were the carousel (we had three rides) and the balloon room. The carousel is a hand-carved 100-year-old beauty made in England around 1900. It is paired in this exhibit with the original Luna Park 89 key Gavioli organ. Absolutely magical.

The balloon room was basically a netted area with a wind tunnel blowing into it, and many brightly coloured helium balloons floating in it. AKA paradise for kids, little and big. Cheese spent around an hour just in this one area chasing balloons. Thoughtfully placed couches inside give parents a place to sit while keeping an eye on the balloon activities.

Depending when you visit there are a range of live activities to enjoy, too. As we visited on a Friday during school holidays, we were lucky to see a range of short performances called “Amuse Bouche”, especially created by Circa for the Powerhouse Museum. Every hour on the hour, two performers delighted the crowd with a 6 – 10 minutes acrobatic performance involving balancing, contortionism and the vertical rope. Each hour there is a brand new performance to witness, so we kept going back for more, wanting to see what amazing tricks we would be surprised with next.

Here is their schedule for live activities:

Amuse Bouche by Circa
Shows on the hour, 4 Apr to 19 Apr

Science of Circus Show
Explore the physics behind circus acts like plate spinning.
27 Jan to 3 Apr, and 20 Apr to 3 May
Weekdays: 11.30am, 12.30pm and 1.30pm
Weekends: 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm and 2.30pm

April school holiday activity: Clown carnival
3 to 19 April
Make your own juggling balls, contribute to our giant fabric bunting, play carnival games and get a balloon animal to take home (weekends only). On weekdays, learn how to hula-hoop, juggle and more from circus experts. (Free with general admission.)

Planning on eating while you’re there? You’ll love the Black Star Pastry outlet that’s set up in the cafe area. They serve sandwiches and lunch foods, plus their famous desserts and kids’ shakes. It’s worth going for the Black Star pastries alone!

We had the most amazing time at Circus Factory and will absolutely go back. It helped that we were able to get in for a bit cheaper care of finding a Groupon voucher for adult general admission $7 (instead of $12). At the entrance I was able to upgrade the voucher to include Circus Factory for an extra $8, making it $15, and significantly cheaper than the full admission price of $35.

Last notes before you go:
No strollers inside the exhibition.
The Powerhouse advises that you prebook your tickets (particularly on weekends) to ensure you get in on a busy day.

Circus Factory
Circus Factory FAQs
Open 20 December 2014 to 3 May 2015
Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
Hours: Daily 10am-5pm
Circus Factory entrance (includes general admission into the Powerhouse Museum):
Up to 3 kids free with each adult ticket

Adult: $35
Member adult: $25
Family: $65
(2 adults and up to 6 children)
Member family: $45
(2 adults and up to 6 children)
Concession: $20
Additional child (4—15 yrs): $8
Free entry for children under 4 years

Exhibition tickets include same-day entry to Powerhouse Museum. Transaction fees from $3.95 may apply.

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The Wiggles Exhibition at The Powerhouse Museum

July 24, 2014 / Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

Having spent her entire life until recently in the US, Miss E had never experienced the phenomena that is The Wiggles until we took her to the new Wiggles exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum. It was a cold and miserable winter day and we were short on ideas to entertain her. I was hoping that it wouldn’t matter that she didn’t know The Wiggles, and, thankfully, the exhibit was so good that she didn’t even noticed that it was based on characters she wasn’t familiar with. She just thought the whole thing was a giant play space, which certainly says something about how well the exhibit was designed with little kids in mind.

It was E’s first time at the Powerhouse Museum in general, and my first time visiting in years and years. A special mention goes to the huge steam train inside the entrance — equally fascinating for kids and adults-alike.

While, as an adult, I’ve never been particularly fond of The Wiggles, I’ve always been interested in them as they studied early childhood education at my university (Macquarie Uni!). Part of their popularity I think can be attributed to the way in which The Wiggles structure their performances around how young children develop and learn.

The Wiggles exhibition at Powerhouse Museum is carefully curated so that adults are (almost!) as entertained as children. While we spent most of our time in the exhibit chasing around our kid, I was still able to read a few panels on the amazing rise of The Wiggles. What we were there for, however, was to let little E play — and play she certainly did.

I was super impressed with the exhibit. It had great high-tech interactive elements, such as what I can only call a life-sized game of Fruit Ninja (even Alec had a go!), a touch-screen coloring book, a holographic performance by The Wiggles, and iPads with The Wiggles games on them (sadly only two out of the four actually worked when we tried them however).

The exhibit also featured free-form play elements, such as Dorothy’s house with a tea party inside, a shape-sorting and fruit cutting table, and a pirate ship with telescopes, steering wheel and raft. There were also a few arts and crafts stations, where kids could make a rose for Dorothy’s house, or write Dorothy a letter and post it to her.

Kids who were clearly fans were delighted to see the life-size Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus. Since she was new to The Wiggles, E thought these huge creatures looked like a lot of fun and tried to hug them, which sadly wasn’t possible. She did however enjoy yelling “wake up Jeff!” to waken a sleeping Jeff character projected onto a screen. I guess it’s time for us to start watching The Wiggles!

The last stop in the exhibit is the famous Wiggles red car, which kids can climb into and watch some Wiggles action on a screen in front of the car. It’s a great photo op and was in hot demand when we visited.

The Wiggles exhibition was a great cold weather outing.

Entry to the Powerhouse Museum is $12 for adults and free for kids under four.

The Wiggles at Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris St,
Ultimo NSW
Phone: (02) 9217 0111
Hours: Daily 10am-5pm
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