Words and Images Courtesy of the Children's Museum of Virginia Museum
Portsmouth, VA – Families can “dive in” and explore the Children’s Museum of Virginia’s newest exhibit, Splash, and Bubbles: Dive In, Lend a Fin! opening Saturday, June 4, 2022. The new exhibit is based on the popular PBS KIDS TV show, Splash and Bubbles, a hit animated series that encourages children to explore ocean science and marine biology through character-driven comedy. The series is co-produced by The Jim Henson Company and Herschend Entertainment Studios. The new exhibition builds on kids’ connections to the characters and their habitats, immersing them in a larger-than-life marine environment and introducing them to the incredible world of ocean exploration.
While exploring the early childhood STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) based exhibit, children will be encouraged to build both scientific inquiry and social-emotional skills as they learn how to protect the ocean and its ecosystems. Ocean conservation is a key message within the exhibit, encouraging families to understand that they can create “a small ripple to help our big ocean.” Featuring a variety of hands-on exhibit components, Splash and Bubbles: Dive In, Lend a Fin! invites children to discover a whole new world as they navigate an under-the-sea maze in a kelp forest, explore a sunken ship that has become an artificial reef, interact with puppet characters created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, become a Reeftown Ranger to learn to protect the ocean, and more!
The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum served as the creative producers for the new exhibit, created in partnership with The Jim Henson Company and Herschend Enterprises. Splash and Bubbles: Dive In, Lend A Fin! marks the third traveling exhibit produced by The Magic House in partnership with The Jim Henson Company and the first with Herschend Enterprises.
Splash and Bubbles: Dive In, Lend a Fin! is made possible thanks to generous support from Tim and Elizabeth Swank, Anna and Jim McKelvey, and the Graybar Foundation. Local media sponsorship is provided by the Nine Network. The exhibit will be at the Children’s Museum of Virginia through September 4, 2022.
The Children’s Museum hours of operation: Wednesday-Sunday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Tickets are available in one-hour entry windows. Once inside the Museum, you may stay as long as you like until the Museum closes. There is no re-entry. All tickets must be reserved in advance online, including member tickets. Members: Free; Adults (Ages 18 & up): $11 Children (Ages 2-17): $10; Children Under 2: Free; AAA, Military, and Seniors: $10. To reserve tickets visit https://childrensmuseumvirginia.com/
About The Children’s Museum of Virginia Museum
Children step inside a world where bubbles grow bigger than they are, where the forces of energy electrify and spark their imagination, and where they can be a farmer, a banker, a scientist, and more! The Children’s Museum of Virginia includes the Lancaster Antique Toy and Train collection – an attraction for kids of all ages as well as a modernized planetarium. It also features a Museum Gift Shop (online is also available) where children can take some imagination home with them. For more information visit www.ChildrensMuseumVirginia.com.
About The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum
The Magic House is a not-for-profit participatory museum that provides hands-on learning experiences for children and families and encourages experimentation, creativity, and the development of problem-solving skills within a place of beauty, wonder, joy and magic.
For more information, please call 314.822.8900 or visit The Magic House online at www.magichouse.org.
About Herschend Enterprises and Herschend Entertainment Studios
Herschend Enterprises is a family of companies focused on family entertainment. Operating companies include Herschend Family Entertainment, Herschend Live, Herschend Entertainment Studios and Pink® Adventure Tours. Herschend’s companies entertain over 14 million guests annually. For more than six decades, Herschend Enterprises has operated with the purpose of bringing families closer together by Creating Memories Worth Repeating®. Launched in 2016, Herschend Entertainment Studios (HES) is the media arm of Herschend Enterprises. HES develops and produces wholesome entertainment for television, film, publishing and other media. Its current media properties include Splash and Bubbles (in partnership with The Jim Henson Company) and the global hit series, Chuggington. The Jim Henson Company oversees all distribution and merchandising for Splash and Bubbles. Herschend Enterprises administers all location-based themed entertainment rights, including live shows. For more information, visit, www.herschendenterprises.com.
About The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 60 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world-famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards. Recent credits include Dot. (Universal Kids /Hulu), Word Party (Netflix), and Doozers (Hulu/ Sprout), and the Emmy®-nominated Splash and Bubbles (PBS), Julie’s Greenroom (Netflix), Sid the Science Kid (PBS), Dinosaur Train (PBS), and Pajanimals (Universal Kids). Television productions include Fraggle Rock, The Storyteller and the sci-fi cult series Farscape. Features include Sony Pictures Animation’s The Star and Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, as well as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, MirrorMask, and Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow. The Company is currently in production on the upcoming Netflix original series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix). Projects in development include the highly anticipated film Fraggle Rock.