Kids (and parents) curious about Long Island’s connection to the waterways that shape their home have the opportunity to dive into learning about them at the Long Island Children’s Museum’s new exhibit, Saltwater Stories.
Three years in the making, Saltwater Stories is set to open as the museum’s first permanent exhibit in 12 years with a three-day celebration that kicks off on Saturday, Oct. 11. Children’s Museum president Erika Floreska said the exhibit’s goal is to bring kids closer to the island’s intimate connection with the water that surrounds them.
“Some kids may not even realize we’re on an island,” Foreska said. “This can help create that sense of identity and pride.”
Director of exhibits Margo Malter said the exhibit, which includes a mock bay house with nautical navigation information, fish market with seasonally rotated fish kids can pretend to buy and sell and a boat where kids can practice cleaning trash out of the ocean, is meant to help children understand the importance of water to Long Island through engaging, hands-on activities.
“A lot of our visitors can’t read, so you can’t just put something on the wall. They have to understand it through play,” Malter said. For this reason, she said the portion of the exhibit designed in collaboration with the Shinnecock Nation that includes an Indigenous mishoon, or wooden boat, was designed so kids could sit inside it and physically understand the connection native New Yorkers have to water.
There’s also an interactive map of water-based landmarks on the island, a microscope with underwater specimens for kids to observe, costumes and puppets, digital games and a sugar kelp farming simulator, which allows kids to push “kelp” through an air separating system.
“We have this activity that is a representation of a kelp oyster farm, and [written text] to give contextual grounding while kids are just having fun,” Malter said. “We’re capturing kids through play, then the adults can read the content and be interpreters for their kids.”
The kelp farming portion of the exhibit was made in collaboration with former WNBA New York Liberty star Sue Wick, who now works on her family’s oyster and sugar kelp farm. Malter said the inclusion of Wick’s work with ocean farming represented the exhibit’s goal of demonstrating the important, widespread involvement Long Islanders have with the water to children.
“It’s a place to build their identities as Long Islanders,” Malter said of the exhibit. “This place is defined by being an island and by being surrounded by water. That relationship comes out in all different ways, whether it’s through food or through what recreational activities you do. It’s a part of your life, and maybe they don’t even realize it.”
Floreska said opening Saltwater Stories as a permanent exhibit was important to the museum for that reason.
“To have a permanent exhibit that tells a local story is really special,” Foreska said. “It’s really investing in something that would have a lasting story and would tell our story about maritime culture and fishing with all the other elements that children need to learn.”
“You might have some kids who are really just role-playing and having fun, and you might have some kids learning about energy and offshore wind, and how that creates a battery,” she said.
Foreska said the exhibit is intended to serve as a starting point for further water-based education and hopes it will inspire families to take action in their communities. It features wall signage boasting “Salty Solutions” with information on how people on the island are already taking action to support the island’s waterways and encouraging them to think of ways they can do the same.
“Salty solutions are really important because we’ve got to take care of the ocean. We’ve got to keep it clean. We’ve got to keep it healthy,” Foreska said. “We want to help instill the idea of being stewards. We want to give them role models and help them learn.”
She said the museum will provide visitors with a list of locations and activities they can do to connect with and clean the surrounding oceans and bays.
“Don’t only come here and learn about the water. Go to Operation Splash, where you can go on a boat and help pick up trash in the ocean. Go to the Cornell Cooperative, and you can help clean an oyster cage,” Foreska said. “We want to inspire families to do something…The kids who are seeing this today are going to be the ones who really solve the climate challenge, who will have to address it and who are impacted by it.”
Malter emphasized that one of her focuses when designing the exhibit was to inspire interest and care for the island’s water in children.
“There’s an ecological story of caring for the environment, really inspiring that care and relationship and showing you all these ways that you could have a relationship with the sea and that other people in your community have a relationship with the sea,” Malter said. “It’s a big, heavy thing. Even though they’re here playing and having fun, there is a real depth to the content here. My hope for the exhibit is that kids will come and see this as something that shows them what it means to be a Long Islander.”
Families can visit Saltwater Stories at the Long Island Children’s Museum, located at x in Garden City every day, starting on Oct. 11.
