The Amazing Castle™
Exhibit Overview: Goal, Objectives, Audience, Experience, Design
Exhibit Goal and Objectives
Exhibit Goal
To strengthen awareness among museum visitors of the roles and interconnectedness
of individuals in a community through playful, imaginative activities.
Objectives
 To transform a gallery into a castle village where visitors become involved in a
story line and related cast of characters.
 To communicate and relate what it means to be part of a community through
developmentally appropriate, playful experiences.
 To engage visitors in activities supporting the concept that a community is made
up of many different people.
 To advance the idea that in a community people help each other solve problems
and get things done.
Audience
The Amazing Castle is designed to appeal to children two to 12 years of age. The
primary audience for the exhibit is children four to eight years of age visiting with family
or in other small groups. As The Amazing Castle was re-developed for YMEC, particular
attention was paid to the experiences of children on both ends of the primary audience
age range, and children visiting with school and community groups.
The security and playfulness of the castle Keep is ideal for toddlers while the old-world
architecture of this immersive environment plays to the fascination with castles and their
inhabitants that is currently widespread among older children.
Experience
The Amazing Castle launches children into a world of dramatic play and imagination
where visitors become inhabitants of a fanciful castle village and playfully explore ideas
related to community life. Children don costumes and roles upon entering the exhibit.
From becoming a cook and mixing up a delicious stew in the Great Hall’s cauldron, to
constructing a small chair using mortise and tenon joinery while pretending to be a
carpenter, children’s dramatic play is supported by the exhibit’s design, characters,
narrative, interactives and props.
Some children may try a different pretend personality in each exhibit area, while others
choose to concentrate on different activities, like inspecting the actual tools mounted in
the workshops, performing a puppet show, or reading The Amazing Castle story. Nearly
all visitors will delight in waking the dragon, causing him to roar and emerge from his
tower.
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Adults can sit at the banquet table in the Great Hall where they’ll be served a hefty,
though non-caloric meal; they can help harvest vegetables in the garden, or rest on the
perimeter wall of the castle Keep. In the Keep an adult can help a small child stack
blocks or arrange furniture in the castle dollhouse while keeping track of an older child
who is exploring the rest of the castle. A mother might put on a cape and become the
Lady of the castle while a father and his daughter delight in take turns in front of the
Tailor’s funny mirror.
Children experience the interconnectedness of individuals in a community as they
interact with family members, old friends, and new acquaintances made while playing in
the exhibit.
Exhibit Entry and Big Book – Visitors are transported to a magical time and place
from the moment they walk through the entrance! Lord Ben and Lady Evolent welcome
children and adults, who can begin their adventure by reading the story of The Amazing
Castle and its inhabitants.
The Keep – The Keep is a fortress sure to be enjoyed by our youngest royals. Toddlers
create a miniature community in a castle-inspired dollhouse, build their own fortress out
of “stone” blocks, and play with a castle busy wall.
The Great Hall and Garden – Friends and family can take a seat at the royal table
while children prepare a mouthwatering meal with “Kipper the Cook.” Donning an apron,
they’ll select ingredients from a larder stocked with bread, vegetables and fruits, and
choose a main course. They can put on a garden smock and join “Posey the Gardener”
in the royal garden, where visitors pick and plant vegetables and gather eggs from a
hen in the garden shed. To prepare and cook their meal, children can use wooden
bowls, cooking utensils, and a fireplace complete with a glowing fire, a spit, and a
cauldron. When the meal is ready, kids serve their friends and family a heaping helping
on wooden plates.
Royal Puppet Theatre – Children and adults will become castle entertainers when they
visit “HiJinx the Jester” in the Royal Puppet Theatre. Visitors present a puppet show
using castle character puppets. Children can pick out a fancy robe, pull up a throne and
become the Lord or Lady, or don the jester’s costume and entertain the Lord and Lady.
The Royal Workshops – In the Tailor’s Workshop, children and adults can try their
hand at repairing and making clothing for all of the castle citizens with “Trim the Tailor.”
Visitors play a game and design costumes, from sensible to ridiculous, by mixing and
matching puzzle pieces. Children can also create their own outfits and discover how
silly their costumes appear when they look at themselves in a distorted mirror!
After visiting the Tailor’s Workshop, children and adults can head over to the
Carpenter’s Workshop, grab a work apron, and help “Gable the Carpenter” build a
simple table or chair using mortise and tenon construction, or put together something of
their own design.
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After assisting Gable, children can join “Synge the Blacksmith” in the Blacksmith’s
Workshop and help her affix a metal patch to the hole in Kipper’s big iron cauldron.
Children and adults can also pretend to repair iron tools using a stone forge with
“glowing” coals, a water bucket, and Synge’s anvil.
The Dragon Tower – The Dragon Tower is home to “Herald the Dragon,” who
announces important information to the citizens of The Amazing Castle. But Herald
keeps falling asleep and needs to be awakened frequently. Visitors will love waking
Herald, who rises from the top of the tower, by matching each of the six electronic castle
character puzzle pieces with his or her appropriate tool or symbol.
Exhibit Design
As they pass through the main doors of The Amazing Castle, visitors will discover a
fantasy castle rather than an historical recreation. They are now in “castle time!” The
sense of being in a castle is suggested by a design that draws freely from medieval
castles and fortresses in its use of such details as arches, towers, split beam
construction, hand-cut stone walls and heraldic symbols. The impression of a small,
bustling village within castle walls is attained by assembling a group of structures
related to basic functions of a community—working, eating, playing—and making them
quickly identifiable. Life-sized images of rather comical castle residents stationed in
doorways and at work further the perception of being in a village or community.
The exhibit is made up of nine areas:
1. Entry Gates
2. The Keep
3. The Great Hall
4. Garden and Shed
5. Puppet Theatre and Thrones
6. Tailor's Workshop
7. Carpenter's Workshop
8. Blacksmith's Workshop
9. Dragon Tower
The structure(s) comprising each of the main areas are designed to be free standing
and adaptable to layout in a variety of gallery configurations. The three village
workshops are freestanding or can interlock to save space. To assure easy flow of
visitors from one area to another, the three workshops are designed to suggest the
presence of four walls while keeping at least two sides of each structure open. Moving
through the exhibit in a specific chronology is neither suggested nor required to fully
participate in the story of The Amazing Castle.
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