Your Kansas City virtual fun planner: A challenge for kids, beer dinner for adults
The opening of The Rabbit Hole’s much-anticipated Explorastorium — an interactive museum celebrating children’s literature — is still at least months away. Meanwhile, husband-wife co-founders Deb Pettid and Pete Cowdin are forging ahead with a major virtual project.
The Rabbit Hole recently announced “The Hole Lotta Time Exhibit Design Challenge,” in which children ages 5-12 can make models showing how they would transform their favorite picture books into a real exhibit. Submissions can be individual or from teams of up to three. The deadline for entry is May 15.
For details and submission requirements, go to rabbitholekc.org/exhibit-design-challenge.
Prizes will be awarded, with the possibility that one of the designs will be built in the Explorastorium, a $14 million attraction that is expected to draw visitors from across the country. It was scheduled to open in 2021.
Pettid and Cowdin have been focusing on developing the Explorastorium since closing the area’s premier children’s bookstore, Reading Reptile in Brookside, in 2016. Work on the site, a 165,000-square-foot warehouse in North Kansas City, began in 2018.
Meanwhile, a national online competition should attract the interest of music fans: the American Pops Orchestra’s “NextGen: Finding the Voices of Tomorrow” (theamericanpops.org).
Beginning at 8 p.m. April 24 and 25, 30 semifinalists from university programs will compete virtually, with the winners to be announced April 26. Suggested donations to view the live event are $25 for adults and $15 for students. Sorry, no Kansas City area colleges are included.
Here are 10 more online ways you and your family can spend your coronavirus-induced stay-at-home time:
▪ Virtual rides on Worlds of Fun attractions along with other activities are available at worldsoffun.com/blog.
▪ Lakeside Nature Center director Kimberly Hess presents “Live at Lakeside,” 11 a.m. April 23 (and every Thursday) at kcparks.org.
▪ The Free State Festival and the Paper Plains Literary Festival will screen the new documentary “The Booksellers,” an ode to rare-book lovers, 7 p.m. April 23 ($10) at lawrenceartscenter.org. Tivoli at the Nelson-Atkins, rechristened Tivoli at Home, will show the documentary, as well as “The Times of Bill Cunningham,” starting Friday at nelson-atkins.org/tivoli.
▪ Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” free on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel, 7 p.m. April 23 (available through April 30) at nationaltheatre.org.uk/nt-at-home
▪ Live watch party of Owen/Cox Dance Group’s production of “Love Songs,” with artistic director/choreographer Jennifer Owen and singer/songwriter Krystle Warren, 7:30 p.m. April 24 at facebook.com/owencoxdance.
▪ Singer/songwriter Zack Mufasa will perform as part of the KC Online Live Music Series, 8 p.m. April 24 at do816.com.
▪ The virtual AIDS Walk, with messages and streams of participants from their homes, will begin at 9:30 a.m. April 25 at aidswalkkansascity.org.
▪ Reserve a virtual beer dinner ($50, $75 for couple) from the Boulevard Brewing Co. and District Pour House at facebook.com/events/707862883378773. A Facebook Live event at 6:30 p.m. April 25 walks participants through the three-course pairing meal. Pick up everything 4:30-8 p.m. April 24 and starting at 11 a.m. April 25.
▪ 2020 Earth Festival Online of the Climate Council of Greater Kansas City will wrap up with a Climate Festival Party, 7 p.m. April 26 at climategkc.org/ef20.
▪ “At-Home Learning: Ending the War in Japan” through the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, 2 p.m. April 28 at trumanlibrary.gov/events/72222.
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
