
This time 7 years ago we had just opened our doors and were beginning to welcome the first of hundreds of thousands of visitors that would eventually come to visit us over the following years. But what do our visitors really think about Imaginosity? Why do they love coming back to the museum? And what are their favourite things to do when they are here? In order to figure out all of the above, we interviewed three 7-year olds who have been very frequent visitors to the museum over the last number of years.
Sienna Patterson is 7 years of age and from Dublin. Eabha Murphy is 7 years old but nearly 8 and also from Dublin! Luca O'Shea Breen will be 8 in 5 and a half weeks (but he's definitely still 7!) and from Co Wicklow.
Q1: WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF IMAGINOSITY?
SIENNA: I like the roof garden because you get to play outside and get fresh air. It's cool. I love looking at the pretend badger, or not pretend???! He's funny because he snores but he doesn't know he smores.
EABHA: The Supermarket because everything is there: fruit, bread. You can learn how to scan the food, because it beeps, so if you wanted to be a cashier than you could. There's also a beanstalk and it reminds me of when I went to the pantomime to see Jack and the Beanstalk. And there's a treasure chest and funny mirrors.
LUCA: The car! I think it helps kids in learning what it's like to drive on a real road. I also like the roof top garden, with the Badger's House and the toadstools that you can jump from one to the other. I'd give it 10 out of 10.
Q2: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IMAGINOSITY TO A CHILD WHO HAD NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
SIENNA: It's a fun museum for children with loads and loads and loads of toys to play with. There are 3 floors, you can go up and up. There's a supermarket where you can shop and a boat with pirates and Rapunzel's hair right at the top that you can wave about. You can play the whole time and have fun.
EABHA: It's a museum with 3 levels and it has a climbing frame to go up and down all the levels. You can get drinks and food and muffins in the cafe. There's a place where you can shoot the news, work the camera and be the newsperson. There's a pirate ship that you can pull the flag up and down.
LUCA: It's a really fun place and you'll have a really good time. There are 3 brilliant, fun, fantastic floors, each with different things to do. There's a climber with different chambers all the way up which you can climb through. There's a rocket, there's dens and there's a ship.