Karey Rawitscher moved to České Budějovice from New York in 2007 and brought with her a vision of a more progressive way of learning for kids – through fun, experimentation and play. With the České Budějovice educational organisation Objevarium, she has brought interactive exhibits from children’s museums in other countries to ČB and helped create the concept for the Sladovna children’s museum in Písek, as well as developing her own exhibitions. She talked to Milk and Honey about her most recent project, the LEONARDO exhibit in České Budějovice´s newly refurbished Solnice.
Why does Leonardo di Vinci matter to kids in České Budějovice?
I think his personality as well as his thoughts and works make him so important to our times and to this place. He was a real outsider, in terms of his sexuality, his education, his family background. He did not at all fit into the idea of what a successful person should be like. But he overcame all these difficulties, in part thanks to his capacity to be himself at all times, to take risks, to keep trying and not be afraid of making mistakes. Czech society is very normative and people here are not encouraged to be different. Also, the Czech education system often turns out kids who are terrified of making mistakes, because that is all they are judged on. I think Leonardo could teach our kids to be who they are and explore their own capacities, without fear of failure.
Is there a reason you chose Solnice as the venue?
I always knew that for this exhibition to work in České Budějovice, Solnice was the only place it could be held. This was way back in 2011, years before the reconstruction. The owner at the time had plans to reconstruct, but there were various problems and no clear timeline. I had been looking round České Budějovice for possible venues but nowhere had enough space combined with the right atmosphere. I believe in the „genius loci“, the special spirit of a place, and previous exhibitions in Vystaviště or the cultural centre in Vltava had suffered for the lack of it. We came to the current owners in 2015 with the radical idea of holding the exhibition before the building was reconstructed. At first they agreed to this crazy plan, but finally came to their senses and cancelled the project due to safety and comfort issues. So we put the project in the drawer. We would have to wait until after reconstruction.
Was it difficult to have to wait such a long time?
Actually, much good came of it. We ended up realizing the exhibit in Sladovna Písek, which is a special place and with whom I had already cooperated on a number of projects. The team in Sladovna was able to give us a lot of support and we could focus solely on shaping and producing the exhibition without having to prepare the operational aspects. This was important because Leonardo created such a bewildering and astonishing amount in his lifetime, it was necessary to brainstorm all we wanted to include and then shape it into a concrete exhibition. The exhibition toured all over the CR as well as stopping in Slovakia. But I still kept pestering the owners of Solnice as I saw the reconstruction progressing. They were able to see the value of the project and agreed to let us do it. They have been so helpful and great to cooperate with. And Solnice is totally unique: they reconstructed it using the same materials and techniques as would have been used originally, i.e. in the Renaissance. That just makes for an incredible space and so fitting to Leonardo. It was years from the original concept in 2011 until the finalised exhibition. But Solnice was worth waiting for.
Your exhibitions, both in Solnice and Sladovna Písek always make me feel I have been transported to another, more magical world. They travel way beyond the atmosphere of a normal children’s museum. What do you attribute that special, magical factor to?
I always tried to bring that quality to my own personal artwork and a lot of it comes from the places themselves. I also have to give a lot of credit to the artists and theatre people who design and build our exhibitions, especially Lukáš Urbanec. They bring such a fresh artistic approach that you just don’t get from a commercial firm that produces exhibitions. I think it also helps that Czech designers had not been exposed to the idea of a children’s museum before so had no set idea of what it should look like –they just followed their own artistic vision. In the US, children’s museums are absolutely everywhere and unfortunately they can be a bit similar and clichéd, often pandering to mainstream tastes or just focusing on branded characters. Nobody wants to be original or take risks; they just replicate what is successful. We can see this too in the materials used, which play such a huge part in creating a magical space. In the US, it is very common to make everything from MDF or plastic. These materials have no organic quality and the results of their use often feel very commercial. I think it is very important that we are artistic in our approach and expose kids to something beyond their everyday experience. This expands their minds and helps them learn to take risks. I can say this from personal experience, because I visited an interactive contemporary art exhibition with my kindergarten class sometime around 1970. This had a really transformative effect and I trace my interest in art and interactive exhibits to this experience.
How does your experience here compare to working in interactive children’s museums in America?
I always felt that moving to the CR was a huge opportunity, because there was just nothing here like what we have in the US, but also none of the same mistakes had yet been made. I worked in the Children’s Museum of Manhattan in New York and also in the Children‘s Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. I can happily say that I could bring my knowledge from the US of how to create interactive experiences, but at the same time I have learned so much from working with colleagues at Sladovna and from around Europe: there are some very interesting and cutting edge things being done here that I doubt an American children’s museum would try. Being in the CR also provided a revelation to me – that you do not have to spend huge amounts of money on an exhibit. Indeed, it is more powerful if done on a tight budget but in an artisan way with diverse influences. However, the tradition of children’s museums started in the US and is so strong there. They have always had a focus on involving kids and making everything interactive, which is so important. Though museums in Europe are modernising massively and interactivity is now in the forefront, most are still much more traditional, much closer to the dusty old collections of the past. That great confidence to try new things and believe in your own possibilities really is America’s gift to the world.
What can visitors to the LEONARDO exhibit expect?
They can expect to travel back in time, both via the magic of the beautiful space that Solnice has given us and by exposure to Leonardo’s ideas and works which are so of his time and yet so relevant. We want kids to create their own inventions and the exhibit supports that: we provide the materials and allow visitors to explore. Leonardo’s fascinating life and work and our exploration of that as well as the long reconstruction of Solnice demonstrate that most creative journeys are rocky, unpredictable and far from straightforward. The idea is to show kids and adults that the journey is what matters, to make mistakes, be yourself and never be afraid to keep trying.
Natalie Czaban 
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