Art is playful and play is art at kid-friendly Walker exhibition

A new exhibition designed for children but just as valuable for their play-starved grown-ups opened at the Walker Art Center on Nov. 20, turning museum galleries into playrooms. With climbable sculptures, interactive art stations, a giant jigsaw puzzle and kid-centric films, “Show and Tell: An Exhibition for Kids” emphasizes play and discovery. 

I invited two of my nephews to join me. Harold, in 4th grade, and George, in 1st, are play experts. Often when I visit them, they’re busy making a fort or inventing an elaborate role-playing game. Like most kids, they’re natural storytellers and enjoy putting themselves at the center of the action. 

As soon as we stepped inside, they gravitated toward Cas Holman’s “Critter Party.” The 2024 sculpture looks like an oversized wooden block of Swiss cheese and functions more as playground equipment than art. My nephews immediately climbed on top of it, crawled inside of it and lobbed its assortment of plush pillows at each other. 

The boys also had fun with an interactive activity inspired by a series of works on paper by Caroline Kent. Kent’s works employ aquatint and etching to create abstract narratives, creating space for viewers’ imaginations. My nephews didn’t spend much time looking at her artwork, but they did enjoy creating their own Kent-like abstractions using the exhibit’s light tables and colorful translucent paper cut into shapes.

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Less thrilling was Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “untitled 2006 (pavilion, table, and puzzle representing the famous painting by Delacroix La Liberté Guidant le Peuple, 1830).” The enormous jigsaw puzzle proved a rather daunting prospect for my young charges, who sat down at the table but soon gave up on finding any pieces. 

They were more impressed with Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ “The Accident” from “Wurst Series” (1979) – a photograph of hotdogs made to look like automobiles. And they enjoyed a porthole installation offering looks into miniature versions of sculptures by the likes of Claes Oldenburg (who created the cherry on the spoon), Katharina Fritsch (who created the giant blue rooster) and others. 

One room in the exhibition serves as a movie theater decked out with large pillows to lounge on while watching short films from the Walker’s Moving Image collection. The instinct to create forts took hold, and my nephews quickly began piling the pillows together to make a nest. 

I found myself enamored by “Cockaboody,” a 1973 short animated film by married couple John and Faith Hubley, who recorded the voices of their young children as the basis for the animation. Their daughters’ conversation follows its own logic, wandering into absurd territory to my adult ears and reminding me of my nephews’ conversation as we drove to the museum. They have such an intimacy in their own world together, I find it sometimes hard to follow. In the Hubleys’ film, the animators use the outlandishness of their daughters’ words to create fantastical moments. At one point the sisters turn into ducks, for example. It’s quite stunning. 

When I asked my nephews about their favorite film, they agreed on “Walk-In-The-Forest,” by Abenaki Quebec-based artist Diane Obomsawin. Set to an intriguing musical score with sonic drones, percussion and sounds of nature, the animated film follows the main character through a forest to a mysterious lake. The film, magical in its understated presentation, has a meaningful twist at the end. 

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At the end of our visit, we stopped in the library area stocked with children’s illustrated books. We rested on couches underneath a dreamlike umbrella sculpture by Fritsch, surrounded by works by Andrea Carlson, Julie Buffalohead and Roy Lichtenstein. As we relaxed, George began once again making a fort with the chairs available, as if he were incapable of not reshaping his surroundings. As he grows up, I hope that world-building spirit stays with him. 

“Show and Tell: An Exhibition for Kids,” curated by Siri Engberg, Pavel Pyś and Patricia Ledesma Villon offers a blueprint for creating exhibitions that tap into the curiosity and sense of fun accessed more easily by children than adults. Kids know how to play – a skill adults too often forget along the way. I don’t know if every art exhibition needs to have a cheese fort, but it probably wouldn’t hurt. 

“Show and Tell: An Exhibition for Kids” runs through April 5, 2026. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. ($18 adult, free 18 and under. Also note that Thursday evenings are free after 5 p.m., as are the first Saturdays of the month.) More info here. 

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