The newly opened Museum of Immersive New Art/MINA in Bucharest expanded with a space dedicated to children. MINA Kids covers 1,000 sqm and features several interactive and educational installations.

The first exhibition hosted by the new space is called Explorarium: Digital Educational Journey.

MINA Kids is a sensory space specially designed to arouse children's curiosity and introduce them to the fantastic world of art, museum representatives said. The play space guide is Sara, one of the Animaterra characters, who becomes a conversational avatar.

One of the central interactive installations is Feed the Dragon, through which children learn to differentiate between healthy foods and those they should eat in small quantities. They discover these things by feeding a fantasy character, a baby dragon, who reacts according to the children's choices.

Then, there is also the smart avatar of financial education for kids. The tutor is an AI-based avatar trained to learn the entire financial education curriculum and be able to provide real-time and personalized answers to children's questions. And to make the whole interaction even more fun for kids, the avatar took the form of a squirrel.

Meanwhile, at Lumiroom, children can become co-creators of a large-scale collaborative drawing, which they can create in real-time. They can influence the outcome with their imagination, colouring 2D digital drawings that will come to life with the help of technology.

Another immersive space is the Enchanted Forest, where Fluturama is also found, the place where nature merges with art and technology. Here, children can control elements from different scenes in the forest through interactivity sensors; for example, they will be able to influence the wind or attract butterflies or flower petals towards them.

Other installations include the interactive Aqua Safari slide, the Pirate Ship, the trampolines at the Cosmos Launch Station, the Marathon of Fantastic Animals, and the Odyssey of Time and Animated Choreographies.

Tickets can be purchased online from the museum's website.

MINA, the first immersive space in Romania and the largest new media art centre in Southeast Europe, opened about a month ago in the building that once housed the first Romanian computer factory.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: MINA)