The Traveling Exhibit – Rube Goldberg: The World of Hilarious Invention is Coming to The Please Touch Museum
From February 4, 2022 to May 8, 2022, the Please Touch Museum (4231 Avenue of the Republic) will host the traveling exhibit Rube Goldberg: The World of Hilarious Invention. The exhibit showcases Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist and inventor Rube Goldberg’s iconic contraptions and celebrates his humorous storytelling and inventive cartoons. Inspired by Goldberg’s original illustrations, the exhibit contains a collection of 3D, life-size machines and hands-on, interactive components that connect Goldberg’s iconic cartoon contraptions to the way things work in the physical world. These experiences provide insight into the legacy of Rube Goldberg and how classic engineering principles can be reimagined as entry points for deeper exploration of STEAM concepts for 21st-century learning.
The exhibit was created by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in partnership with the Heirs of Rube Goldberg.
The exhibit will invite visitors to activate and create crazy chain-reaction contraptions that use everyday objects to complete simple tasks in the most overcomplicated, inefficient, and hilarious ways possible. In this exhibit, visitors can:
- Move balls and ramps to trigger chain reactions in Wall Machines, then figure out how they work by resetting each part.
- Get inspired by Rube Goldberg’s drawing techniques to create your own comical cartoon in the Art Studio and then see how it looks at the Revolvometer.
- Pull ropes to start a series of musical chain reactions in the large-scale sound animation Music Machine.
- Step into one of Rube’s iconic wearables, “Self-Operating Napkin”®, for a one-of-a-kind photo op.
Masks are required in the Museum for all in attendance over the age of 2.
