Monsters! The Good, The Bad and The Cuddly
17 March 2018 – 6 January 2019
Our monstrous family-friendly exhibition was the third major exhibition here at The Word and attracted over 20,000 visits in the first 2 weeks.
The exhibition looked at what ‘monster’ means to us, from those written about in early mythology to the creatures digitally created by Pixar and Disney, and their ability to capture our imagination throughout the ages.
Marking 100 years since the publication of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the exhibition included our very own Dr Frankenstein’s laboratory with a replica of Boris Karloff’s classic movie monster. It also featured a giant King Kong hand which visitors could stand inside of as well as a Dracula costume.
Monsters! The Good, The Bad and The Cuddly covered a range of popular culture’s monsters of all shapes and sizes including some children’s favourites. From a life size replica of Sulley from Monsters. Inc – which children (and adults) could cuddle and take a selfie with – to movie clips from A Monster Calls, Shrek, Monsters vs. Aliens and more. Not forgetting of course, a section dedicated to Julia Donaldson’s popular character – The Gruffalo.
Hollywood’s golden age was also represented with Wolf Man, the Mummy and the Invisible Man.
The exhibition was given a refresh in the run up to the festive period to show some of the favourite Christmas monsters – including Jack Skellington in the Nightmare Before Christmas to the most famous Christmas monster of all time – The Grinch.
At the end of the exhibition, visitors were asked to leave feedback about what ‘monster’ meant to them or tell us their favourite monster.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
October 2018
To tie in with the Monsters! exhibition we added an installation to our ground floor pod based around Halloween monsters. The space included a selfie opportunity with a cardboard cut out of the mysterious and spooky Addams Family, as well a section for children to stick some of their spooky drawings and artwork onto a spiders web.
WHOVILLE
November 2018 – January 2019
Following Halloween, the ground floor pod was transformed into ‘Whoville’, from the well-known book and movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The exhibition space featured a Whoville background and visitors had to find multiple Grinch characters hidden on the walls. There was also an opportunity for children to write a letter and post it to Santa and decorate a bauble to hang on the Christmas tree.
