Topics of the workshops:
1. Cloud’s Siberian Adventures
Duration of the workshops: 45 minutes (+ time to use the cloakroom)
Key words: war, emotions, loss, empathy
Description: Our guide during the workshops will be the main character from the book “Syberyjskie Przygody Chmurki” (‘Cloud’s Siberian Adventures’). She was taken to Sybir together with her mum and grandma during World War II. Thanks to the big map and a special time loop we will find out how long ago it was and how far she got.
Her fates will make us familiar in an emotionally safe way with the difficult expressions such as: war, loss, deportation. Mutual lecture and art will make it easier. We will be able to think what is the difference between our and the character’s reality.
Lesson made in partnership with the Literatura publishing house.
2. Suitcase full of stories
Duration of the workshops: 45 minutes (+ time to use the cloakroom)
Key words: museum, empathy, war, deportations
Description: During the workshops we will find out how does a modern museum work and what does it take care of. In an active way we will get to know the rules of behaving at the exhibition and using the multimedia systems. We will ‘touch’ history by getting to know the replicas of the exhibits presented in our walls.
The museum’s story is an opportunity to introduce difficult words such as war and deportations. We will get to know it in an emotionally safe way, based on empathy and the pairs of concepts understandable for children such as home and the necessity of moving out or danger and a dangerous situation.
3. Syberia – the land of mysteries. Art workshops
Duration of the workshops: 45-60 minutes (+ time to use the cloakroom)
Key words: nature, Siberia, online reality
Description: We have managed to spread a piece of Siberia to the museum, together with its unique plants and animals. Thanks to the use of googles of virtual reality we will be able to see how wild and cruel and at the same time beautiful is the land that polish exiles got to.
Together, we will go on a journey though the Siberian Taiga, tundra and steppe discovering a piece of unique richness of the nature of the land. We will be accompanied by a Pallas cat, a Siberian squirrel and a Kamchatka brown bear. A big hand-made map of Siberia will be your souvenir.
Topics of the paths leading though some parts of the exhibition:
1. Deported Children
Duration of the workshops: 50 minutes (+ time to use the cloakroom)
Key words: war, deportations, fate of the children
Description: The path starts in the part of the exhibition presenting the pre-war period and the beginning of World War II. We will try to answer the question if the beginning of the war forced children to become ‘little adults’. We will see and hear two women: Sara Wajnsztej and Zosia Dąbrowska, who as little girls experienced exile. We will see what did they take with themselves and what did they have to leave at home.
We will get inside the reconstructed carriage that took people to the East. We will see authentic items which were taken to the „inhuman land”. We will be surprised by not only how a class in a soviet school looked like, but also by the living conditions of deported children and the fact that older had to go to work.
2. What is your sign? The White Eagle
Duration of the workshops: 50 minutes (+ time to use the cloakroom)
Key words: emblem, the Whitle Eagle, national symbolism, patriotism
Description: We have known the title words since our youngest years. But will we manage to find the polish symbols at the exhibition? There is a reflexing test for the youngest trackers and discussion related to what the national symbols are and whether only an emblem, anthem and flag can be a national symbol. We will find polish emblems, made secretly by labor camps prisoners and exiles. How much effort did they need to make such an item? Was it risky? We are going to answer to these questions, trying to understand what was and still is patriotism. The story of the items and their authors is to make children familiar with the difficult topic of Polish Sybir.
3. Pierwsza wizyta w Muzeum
Duration time of the workhsops: 40-60 minutes (+ time to use the cloakroom)
Key words: museum, family mementoes, exhibit
Description: During the first meeting with the Sybir Memorial Museum, we will see how many tasks this institution performs. We will go inside the largest exhibit and enter the world of the permanent exhibition. There, we will discover that there are often extraordinary stories behind ordinary objects. For example, we will learn the story of a teddy bear that has traveled halfway around the world, and we will also find out how a doll in a Polish highland costume ended up in Africa. Meetings with ordinary-extraordinary exhibits will encourage us to learn about the stories hidden in family heirlooms.
As part of this path, it is possible to visit the back of the Museum (e.g. conservation workshop, exhibit warehouse) and meet employees dealing with the collections.
