Behind the Scenes - New Forces at Play Gallery
It won’t be long before we open the first new permanent exhibit in our expanded and renovated museum in downtown St. Paul.
Forces at Play in the 3M Gallery will welcome visitors in August. This exhibit will be a blast – literally.
You and your kids will experiment with the power of air and water. You’ll connect various air tubes to launch balls toward targets, spray water and foam in a car wash unlike any you’ve seen before, and build your own marvelous cascades.
The one-of-a-kind components are under construction at KidZibits, a workshop in Minneapolis. Kidzibits, one of our fabrication partners, employs skilled makers who are turning our Forces at Play designs into reality. Our team and theirs has put plenty of creativity, collaboration and imagination into this project — the same skills that children will develop when they play in Forces at Play.
Here’s a sneak peek at their work:
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Build Blower Stations
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Build Blower Stations
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Dave Mink, the production director at KidZibits, shows off a blower station, where visitors will use tubes, air blowers and valves to launch ping pong balls
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Cone Sculpture
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Cone Sculpture
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Traffic cones will serve as sculptural targets for jets of air.
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Car Wash
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Car Wash
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Salvaged automotive parts will adorn the fascinating vehicle at the center of the car wash
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Here’s a prototype of a hand-crank pump that directs foam in the car wash