Puddle Safari

What’s on offer?

This display at Manchester Art Gallery will run from 26th November during gallery opening hours. It will be held in the Family Learning Gallery. We welcome contributions from visitors (old and young) about their views about how we can re-imagine Manchester from the perspective of the young child.

What’s it about?

What can we learn from the ways children engage with the climate as they move around the city - feeling, smelling, moving, and touching it? This display documents some of the puddle-related activities that children, parents, and staff from Martenscroft Nursery School and Children’s Centre have started to explore as part of an extended investigation into this question. The activities developed out of a research project funded by the Froebel Trust, about ways that 2-year-olds learn through and with their interactions with their environment. The display celebrates the wonder of city rainwater as experienced by children through photos.  This serves as a reminder of how children have the capacity to notice the extraordinary in the ordinary places where we live. It invites us as adults to learn from children as we think about changing our cities to better respond to both young children and the climate. 

Who’s leading the event?

Dr Christina MacRae (Manchester Metropolitan University) in partnership with Martenscroft Children's Centre and Nursery School and Manchester Art Gallery.

Open to

The display is open to all during gallery hours. Launches Friday 26th November. 

Of particular interest to

The display will be of particular interest to families with children under-5 and those with an interest in urban planning and the environment.