May 5 2008
The New Children's Museum yesterday celebrated the opening of its new home at 200 West Island Avenue in downtown San Diego's Marina District, in a facility equipped with a 96.4-kilowatt solar electric generating system.
The system, composed of 576 Kyocera 200-watt PV modules, was designed and installed by Independent Energy Solutions, Inc. (IES) of Vista, California, and is expected to generate approximately 136,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year.
The Museum provides a dynamic, playful public space and community center for children and families &ndash a place to experience exciting art exhibitions, hands-on studio projects, performances, birthday parties, in-depth classes, camps and educational programs. Across the street from the new building is a beautiful park, extending the museum visit outdoors with space for running, climbing, family picnics and a view of the trains and trolley going by.
The opening exhibition, titled “childsplay,” advances the Museum’s legacy of commissioning established and emerging artists to create work that engages children. The exhibition’s title is a reference to the art of Alan Kaprow, known for inciting a kind of installation art and performance piece that came to be known, in the late 1960s, as a “Happening.” Kaprow’s work inspired all of the art in “childsplay.”
Local artist Brian Dick has interpreted two installations that Kaprow created with his sons — “Yard,” from 1961 and “No Rules, Except,” from 2000 — by merging them into a new project that celebrates the spirit of Kaprow’s interactions. The new artwork explores Dick’s commitment to recycled materials, and was inspired by the childish joy of jumping on a bed.
Other artists featured in “childsplay” include Artigas, Roman de Salvo, Céleste Boursier Mougenot, Tanya Aguiñiga, Maria Alós, Amy Adler, Lee Boroson, Jim Brown/Public, Alberto Caro, Maurycy Gomulicki, Mark Mulroney, René Peralta, Nick Rodrigues, Ernest Silva, Diana Thater, Zlatan Vukosavljevic and Writerz Blok.