The Island of Toys – November 16 to April 5, 2015, McCord Museum

The Island of Toys

Explore a fantasy island

Adventure awaits children aged 3 to 9

Young visitors to the 5th edition of the annual Toys exhibition at the McCord Museum will search for a crew of shipwrecked monkeys who have taken refuge on an island of lost toys. The highly anticipated annual event is entertaining for young and old alike. “We are happy to offer once again a family activity that will create great memories for children and parents. The exhibition and its particularly original staging will allow them to have fun and discover toys and decorative art objects from our collection, most of them on display for the first time,” says Suzanne Sauvage, President and Chief Executive Officer of the McCord Museum.

Captain Gustav, known by his real name Yes/No Bellhop Monkey, is a mechanical monkey from the German company Schuco who navigates the oceans selling fruit. His vessel hits an iceberg during a northern voyage, and he is shipwrecked. The children set out on a mission to find the crew members who have taken refuge on The Island of Toys. Once they set foot on the island, they enter a fantastic world – a forest with amazing characters worthy of fairy tales that will delight visitors from 3 to 9 years old.

The exhibition brings together some 170 toys, selected from 10,000 in the McCord Museum collection, spread around different parts of the island, such as the seashore, the magic forest and the giant’s garden. After arriving on the island, the children are given a mission to find scattered crew members. Equipped with a map of the island, they cross a bridge between the real and the imaginary and discover a magic forest full of amazing characters, a world out of a fairy tale. The children must search this fantastic world to find crew members hidden among toys from the collection. Their expedition ends in the kingdom of the crab Lancelot after they have found the missing officers and sailors.

Exploration activities are suggested to the children throughout their visit. They observe displays to find the missing monkeys, but also use their dexterity, test their knowledge of fairy tales and engage their imaginations to create fictional characters. The quest allows children to discover a museum while having fun.

Admission to The Island of Toys is free for children 12 and under, thanks to the generosity of the Fondation J.A. DeSève.

For more information: www.mccord-museum.qc.ca 514-398-7100

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