Please stay Forgotten Island!

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. 

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?

Glasgow Riverside Museum, in pictures

Seriously great morning out.  If you haven't been yet, get your shoes on and go now. 

In fact, better still wait and go first thing in the morning, preferably not on a weekend as the place is jumping.  We arrived at 10am and had a blissful hour and a half of space and quiet before literally coach loads of people, mostly children emptied into the museum.  The ratio of children to adults is pretty frightening!  But hey, that's because we're bang in the middle of summer holidays, and this is Glasgow's newest free attraction. 

I've heard that a lot of people have been complaining that the car park is too small, and there are signs everywhere naming the overspill car parks nearby to deal with this.  But I don't believe that the museum will continue to attract such huge crowds once the initial buzz of interest calms down.  Also, the museum is well serviced by buses and ferries, so there's no need to drive there.

As well as being a stunning piece of architecture, by the wonderful Zaha Hadid, the museum is really cleverly put together and truly caters for everyone whatever their age and taste.  Even TT with her minuscule attention span was enthralled by some of the features.  We split up so that Daddy Wild could enjoy some of the displays in peace and quiet whilst I zipped around the place with TT.  The hour and a half we spent inside, and half hour playing outside was not long enough at all.  However we just know that we'll be back many times, probably more so when the weather changes and we are desperate to get out and about on wet afternoons later in the year!

There are two cafes inside the museum and three vans outside selling hot dogs, coffee, sweeties, sandwiches etc so there's good choice whatever the weather and the age of your party.  We were so lucky to be there on a hot sunny day so sat in the sun outside watching TT build sandcastles and silently stalk other children.

 I loved how interactive most of the displays are.  With games for children & adults to play with whilst learning more about some of the engineering and history of transport in Scotland.  Best of all, all of the interactive displays are voiced by locals with great big broad Glaswegian accents.

 We couldn't agree on our favourite parts on the journey home.  I can't decide between Arnold Clark's Wall of Cars, or the cinema documentary showing in one of the stalls.  Daddy Wild had to be torn away from Colin Macrae's rally car, and lingered by both the motorbike corner and the model ships.  I think making a display of model boats interesting is a pretty impressive feat! If TT could answer I more coherently I think she would be split between the model street and the old subway.

 Baby Wild was beside herself with so many cars. She's mad into cars at the moment, in particular tractors for some bizarre reason!  So maybe that was the one minor downfall - there were no tractors!

Inside, you are still aware of the stunning design & architecture of the building.  Everything is streamline and sleek & modern, with great attention to detail and is typical of Hadid's genuis.  The layout is clever and busy, so that I reckon every time we return we'll find something we missed before.  I paid a quick snoop around the small shop and saw things I would have liked to buy for a lot of friends and got plenty of inspiration for some upcoming birthdays!

Lots of toilets, baby changing, cafes, seats, easy access, tall ships, boat rides, interactive displays and things for toddlers to climb on and ride in, making it possibly the most perfect day out around Glasgow.  And it's FREE!

 Amazing!

Logistics / 10 baby friendly            10

toddler friendly         10

adult friendly             20

educational               10

toilets/changing         10
accessibilty               10
car parking              get there early or get a bus/ferry. Cheap parking though.

cost                         Free!! So do please leave a donation.

Glasgow Riverside - Summer events

After a long wait, the fabulous looking new Transport Museum has (re-)opened in Glasgow on the banks of the Clyde.  Daddy Wild is quite keen to go so it won't be long til I post a review on here from a kiddies point of view for you all.

In the meantime, I discovered that there are loads of things happening on the riverside to coincide with the museum opening, including a riverside regatta, a seafood festival, a new Rat Race location (oh I long to be fit enough!), and drive-in movies!  Have a peek here for the full line up.

But most exciting of all for my emerging enthusiasm for revisiting my own childhood fantasies is The Forgotten Island, just beside the Transport Museum.  It sounds fantastic - a growing, temporary space for kids to interact and participate with.  It sounds a bit mysterious, so I have signed up for their emails with clues and news, and hopefully shall be bringing it to life for you to find out more here in the coming weeks.  It disappears on the 18th September, so I'll get to get a move on and go soon so I can revisit and see the changes before it ends in September.