It’s been just over a month since Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies opened at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, and the response has been terrific!
Along with the exhibit, which is located in the multimedia gallery, several new dino-themed features were added to the main floor of the Discovery Center, as well. One of those additions – a long, wooden table with a built-in landscape and a painted mural as the background – was created by a pair of employees with a flair for artistic expression.
Maya Beyer, a part-time gallery assistant and student at Johnson County Community College, teamed up with Draque Carver, who has worked for the Discovery Center since 2014 as the exhibit and facilities maintenance manager, to create the popular attraction.
Beyer was commissioned by the Discovery Center to paint the mural, a process that took between 16 and 20 hours to complete. Carver then created the table out of wood and built a colorful landscape for the dinosaur toys to stomp around on.
“I was so thrilled when KCDC asked me to paint for them,” Beyer said. “It’s an honor to have my work featured in the museum. My mural is a landscape that guests can interact with.”
According to Dr. Rachel E. White, playing with objects such as toy dinosaurs gives children a chance to practice both fine and gross motor skills, depending on the size of the objects. It also contributes to cognitive development, including learning about the nature of objects, problem-solving, creativity and foundational skills for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The table is located near the art pavilion at the back of the Discovery Center.