How can we communicate kindness to children? Sure, you could hang up a poster that says “be kind.” But kindness isn’t just a slogan—it’s actions and interactions.
The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh has a permanent gallery called the kindness gallery designed to nurture empathy– the core of kindness. In this blog, I’ll share how it started, what it includes, and how visitors have been impacted by it.
“Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh provides innovative museum experiences that inspire kindness, joy, creativity and curiosity.”
The kindness gallery was created from a combination of elements from previous exhibits—notably XOXO: An Exhibit about Loving and Forgiveness. From 2014 till now, the exhibit has travelled to 12 locations across North America with the goal of exploring themes of love and forgiveness. Some notable hands-on components from the XOXO exhibit included Release The Negative, which made visitors write or draw something on a paper that made them feel angry, sad, or afraid. They would then place the paper in a slot and turn a crank to shred it. The shredded paper becomes part of a colorful display and the act itself symbolizes letting go of negative emotions and transforming them into something shared and positive.
A past facilitator comments:
“A father encouraged his daughter to shred a paper about negative emotions targeted at him. He said something happened earlier that day and once the daughter was done shredding, he asked for forgiveness. They hugged it out and moved on to another task.”
Wanting to push for more similar interactions between people, the kindness gallery was made.
“There are three ways to ultimate success: the first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” - Fred Rogers