By Shane Mead | Staff Writer
The Mayborn Museum held its grand opening of “The Pigeon Comes to Waco! A Mo Willems Exhibit,” on Jan. 25, which features various activities for children and their families to enjoy.
Caldecott-winning author and illustrator behind the Pigeon Series, Mo Willems, added Waco to his tour of “The Pigeon Comes to [Your City Here]” by installing the exhibit which remains in the Mayborn until May 11.
The opening day of the exhibit was jam-packed with families and awestruck children as they moved from station to station, engaging in a number of interactive activities.
One station included a giant “thank you” wheel which lands on a person or animal to thank, offering pencils and paper to create thank you cards.
“I know [my children] were super excited to write a thank you note,” Waco local Kassidy Arthur said. “Not only that, I think they took the time to figure out how to spell the things out, which I thought was awesome for them.”
The interactive stations were something Arthur said she noticed right off the bat and is what sets the exhibit apart from others she has seen in the past.
“We’re not having to try to get them to read a lot of stuff in here,” Arthur said. “They want to read the books that are here.”
In the center of the exhibit rests a miniature school bus full of Willems’s Pigeon series books. Roughly halfway through the grand opening, Piggy and Gerald, characters from Willems’s books, made guest appearances and took photos with children in front of the bus.
“We’re excited that there were so many families that were just as excited as us to get to see these characters brought to life,” assistant director Rebecca Nall said.
Those who missed the opportunity to meet Piggy and Gerald will have another chance to see them on Jan. 27 and again on Feb. 15, Nall said.
Additional stations in the exhibit include an area to draw and trace characters from Willems’ books, a stop-motion animation on a spinning wheel, stackable blocks and pigeon-themed arcade games — and that isn’t even half of it.
“There are so many different opportunities to engage in this exhibit, and a lot of places where kids can really spend a lot of time,” Nall said.
The successful opening day of Willems’s exhibit has been a long time coming for the Mayborn, which Nall said has been in the works for about three years.
Nonetheless, Nall says the public response to the grand opening makes it all worth it.
“That’s always the best part of opening a new exhibit — seeing how the public responds to it,” Nall said. “It’s been wonderful. It has exceeded expectations.”
