The Kentucky Museum is premiering two new exhibits and promoting another at their Friday, Oct. 22 fall open house. These include the Remembering Childhood, Styles & thegistofit and Gazing Deeply: The Art and Science of Mammoth Cave.

The first exhibit, Remembering Childhood, was created entirely by Tim Frandy’s spring class from last year and researched toys and what toys mean to adults. The exhibit has three main sections: commemoration, what makes it classic and how toys connect to adult lives. 

Tiffany Isselhardt, the development manager for the Kentucky Museum, spoke on this exhibit and explained the ability that students have to put their schoolwork and research in a public setting.

“It’s a pretty good example of how everything is written by students, even the panels,” Isselhardt said. “We at the museum didn’t do anything for it–the students did everything.”

The museum is also promoting their exhibit Gazing Deeply: The Art and Science of Mammoth Cave at the fall open house, with special speakers from Mammoth Cave National Park and the Crawford Hydrology Lab. This exhibit features a combination of art and science, with multiple art pieces featured by WKU art students.

“Students and faculty can put what they’re doing on paper and in the classroom and they can put it here,” Isselhardt said. “So we want to show that what goes on at a university doesn’t stay at the university. The things that you’re learning today are going to prepare you for careers you have no idea you might be interested in.”

The second new exhibit opening on Oct. 22 is the Styles & thegistofit, an exhibit focused on the life and work of famous Bowling Green dressmaker Carrie Burnam Taylor. The exhibit will be curated by Carrie Cox and will feature various pieces of Taylor’s work.

“I think the main point we’re trying to get across is that museums are for everybody,” Isselhardt said. “They’re places to work and live and have this community, and for people to know that is just so important.”

The museum also has many student docents that strongly believe in the importance of continuously bringing new exhibits to the museum.

“These exhibits keep a detailed historical and modern history of things and that helps people to learn why it’s important,” Caitlyn Bledsoe, a sophomore history major from Olive Hill, said. “I think for museums, there’s a lot riding on the people that work there because it’s so important to get everyone in the narrative.”

News reporter Alexandria Anderson can be reached at [email protected].