If you haven't been to the Forgotten Island yet, I must insist that you go this weekend. Because for some god awful reason it's disappearing much earlier than planned on Monday. Boo hiss! We actually went ages ago, but I've been so busy the past while I didn't get round to post this before now.
The Forgotten Island is the latest project by Glasgow art organisation, Giant. Giant is an amazing company, whose company vision is rather wonderfully "to create inspiring, curious and unexpected arts experiences for children under 12 and their families" and what's not to love about that!
Not content with turning a piece of wasteland beside the new Transport Museum at Riverside into an inspirational place for children to play and explore, Giant also designed the space to evolve and grow with visiting children's interactions. Everywhere you look there are delightful creations on display from previous explorers, like hundreds of mini-installations.
Visiting explorers can take part in activities teaching them to grow plants, create plastercine sculptures, draw posters, design their own postcards to leave messages for the Secret Gardener... the list goes on impressively.
The island has been designed by artists working in collaboration with local children who requested that their dream island could have tropical beaches and rainbows.
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| The Rainbow maker - I'm not going to ruin the fun, I'll leave you to discover this yourself! |
There are so many things to do and play with here, it made me even more depressed that I am supposed to be a grown up! I thought the sound forest, where you have to peddle like crazy to generate the sounds of children playing, was a stroke of genius; and spent ages trying to see the image in the camera obscura.
TT was a little young to totally take everything in and get as excited as her loopy mother did, but man did she love discovering plastercine! I'm not sure whether she spent so long in the Museum of Curiosities because of the little plastercine sculptures donated by previous explorers or because of the rain that was trying failing to ruin our visit. I tell you what though, she was terrified of the monkeys!
My absolutely favourite bit, and it was a difficult choice, was seeing the fantastic things kids had chosen to grow vegetables and sweet peas in.
The idea is that visiting explorers can make their own 'pots' by recycling anything and everything, decorate it, adopt a plant to carefully add to your 'pot', put it on display with a little stick with your name and then come back before the 15th August to proudly take it home.
What a wonderful, and simple idea!
I spoke to the lovely man who sells snacks and coffee from his Smoothie Van on the island and he said that the land is rumoured to be redeveloped into a cinema complex after this summer. I'd rather have The Forgotten Island as a permanent feature please!
I got tons of ideas for my own garden, as well as activites to do with TT when she's a little older. I'll be blogging about that on my other blog later.
I hear the weather's to be better and drier tomorrow so I'm borrowing TT's youngest cousins and taking them along before the island disappears- see you there?
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