Ravinia and Kohl Children's Museum Collaborate on Music Exhibit

Ravinia Festival, Highland Park's summer music festival, announced today that it will sponsor an interactive music-making exhibit at Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago in Glenview.

"Kohls has all the curatorial resources to teach kids as young as 5, we offer the musical expertise," said Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman. "Now that we're here it feels like a natural thing."

The hands-on “Music Makers” exhibit is one of 17 permanent vignettes for children ages birth to eight, aligned with the Illinois State Learning Standards, at the Museum. The Ravinia-sponsored exhibit is designed to help children discover how sound is created in a variety of ways, how to recognize different types of sounds and the physical forces behind them and how to manipulate melody, tempo and rhythm.

The exhibit will continue to see changes and additions over time, in line with Ravinia tradition and now possible with the resources provided by the Highland Park non-profit music festival. 

"We want children to get a love of music," said President and CEO of the Kohl Children’s Museum Sheridan Turner. "Now we have the opportunity to complete those should-have-dones with the knowledge of Ravinia to do that."

The exhibit features such interactive activities as:

• making melodies using bolts and wrenches
• using soft-sculpture pegs to make a music box
• moving musical notes on a staff to create a melody
• feeling and seeing vibrations on string and percussion instruments
• layering melody, harmony and rhythm to create a symphony
• beating drums and other percussion instruments in the Jam Room
• dancing and moving to music while watching your movements make patterns on a colorful video screen 

Ravinia Festival and Kohl Children’s Museum also partner in the umbrella organization Do North along with Writers’ Theatre and Chicago Botanic Garden, helping to transform the northern suburbs into a cultural destination. Do North offers special discounts to each cultural attraction and is looking into opportunities to create pre-planned day trips and weekend getaways for local and regional travelers.