A first-of-its-kind interactive exhibit to help children learn, understand, and practice the right of free speech will open to visitors young and older on Sept. 19, 2009, in Charlottesville, the home of the country’s third president, Thomas Jefferson.
The Virginia Discovery Museum, a not-for-profit children’s museum now in its 24th year, will host the four-month long, hands-on exhibit. The nationally-known Museum is located on Charlottesville’s Historic Downtown Pedestrian Mall.
The landmark exhibit Freedom of Expression is being underwritten by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Founded in 1990 and located in the surrounding Albemarle County, the non-profit Thomas Jefferson Center’s sole mission is the defense of free expression in all its forms.
The exhibit’s two central themes are (1) the many different ways a person can express an idea when free to do so, and (2) freedom of expression encompasses not only the right to express oneself but also the right to hear, read, or see the expression of others.
Freedom of Expression will provide multiple participatory learning “stations” that will fill the Museum’s entire Back Gallery. Included in the activity-oriented layout will be features such as television and radio broadcasting studios, a print newsroom, a mini-theater, a library reading room, and even a speaker’s soapbox on the public square. Activities focusing on freedom in music and the arts will also be highlighted in Freedom of Expression.
Share
AFP
