Pixar teams with Pittsburgh Children’s Museum on cool ‘Inside Out’ exhibit

Photo: Staff from the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh on the Pixar campus during a recent visit. Photo courtesy of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh parents love getting first dibs for their kids on the traveling exhibits created by The Children’s Museum. Popular projects entertaining kids across the country include “Very Eric Carle: A Very Hungry Quiet, Lonely, Clumsy, Busy Exhibit,” “Rube Goldberg: The World of Hilarious Invention!” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: A Grr-ific Exhibit.”

The newest interactive exhibit comes from a collaboration between The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and Pixar. “Emotions at Play with Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ “ is based on the Oscar Award-winning animated feature. The exhibit will open Sept. 26, 2020. And, yes, Pittsburgh kids get first crack at the fun. The exhibit will not tour until May 2021.

“Emotions at Play” will work in the same way as the movie, helping kids recognize and understand their emotions through characters like Joy, Anger and Fear. Newly created analog and digital experiences will be set in 11-year old Riley’s Mind World, including Headquarters, Long Term Memory, Imagination Land and Dream Production. Through imaginative storytelling, kids will learn the roles that emotions and memory play in our lives.

“Our goal is to inspire visitors to understand more about their own imagination, memories, and emotions through the characters and world of our film,” says Jonas Rivera, producer of “Inside Out.”

“Together with the team from the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, we’ve created interactive experiences where visitors will explore the inner workings of their own minds. What the museum has been able to do is truly impressive and we couldn’t be more excited to see how the ideas in our film have been translated into an incredibly fun and meaningful exhibit.”

Those of us in Pittsburgh who know firsthand the Children’s Museum’s design principles and philosophy couldn’t be more eager to see this project come to fruition. The partnership with Pixar only adds to the museum’s reputation, locally and nationally.

Jane Werner, executive director of the Children’s Museum, shares our enthusiasm.

“We’re so excited to work with Pixar Animation Studios to create this exhibit,” she says. “Their history of making films that appeal to core truths about learning and growing dovetail wonderfully with the Children’s Museum’s experience in creating exhibits that help children explore big concepts in social-emotional learning, such as empathy, love and forgiveness.”