Global Shoes encourages children and their families to explore global cultures within the context of a fantasy shoe store and factory. The exhibition incorporates intriguing cultural artifacts from the museum's collection and a variety of hands-on, feet-in activities.

In Global Shoes, visitors:

• Study and try on shoes from a variety of cultures and places
• Step into the shoes of families in Kiribati, Mongolia and Iceland to learn about their lives
• Follow a shoe timeline charting a child's growth from ages 1-12
• Measure their feet
• Weave, make a moccasin, and assemble a Chuck Taylor Converse sneaker
• Order sneaker parts from real international shoe suppliers
• Touch and test different shoe materials and explore different shoemaking processes
• Engage with children's stories and artwork from 16 countries around the world

Global Shoes, a bilingual exhibit for ages 5-12, features an interactive shoe store and a factory complex that "manufactures" shoes from around the world. Through try-on, role play and investigative activities, visitors explore how shoes are clues to people and places. Global Shoes meets national curriculum standards for social studies, geography, and visual art.

Japan and Nature: Spirits of the Season invites children and families to explore through hands-on activities, dramatic play and multi-media experiences how nature is reflected and celebrated in the everyday lives of Japanese children. Filled with stories, artifacts, drawings, photographs, and documentary videos from Japan, Japan and Nature: Spirits of the Seasons invites children to travel to four areas of Japan during the four seasons.

In Japan and Nature: Spirits of the Seasons, visitors:

• Celebrate the arrival of Spring in Fukuoka with a picnic under the bright pink cherry blossoms
• Go fishing and hunt bug in Lake Biwa during the Summer
• Make their own portable shrine, called a mikoshi, and dance and drum to the beat of the rice harvest festival
• Slip out of their shoes and step into the warmth of a traditional tatami living area during the Winter in Sapporo
• Learn how to write calligraphy
• Try on kimonos and getas

In Japan and Nature: Spirits of the Seasons, children ages 5-12 explore how people and their ways of life are shaped by where they live. By experiencing how their counterparts in Japan celebrate the seasons and their natural environment, children discover the commonalties they share. This exhibition meets national curriculum standards for social studies, behavioral studies, geography, and visual arts.

Lied Discovery Children’s Museum has developed a traveling exhibit that provides 8 to 12-year-old children with a balanced introduction to the plight of refugees, and people of all ages an inspiring learning experience and awareness about the importance of human rights.

Some additional learning goals based around the exhibit include:

• Increase understanding among school-aged children, teachers, and youth leaders about human rights and the lives of refugee children and their families.
• Support parents, caregivers, and teachers in their crucial role of facilitating children’s learning through programs, resource materials, and modeling.
• Encourage children of diverse backgrounds and abilities to play together while learning about the issues of conflict.
• Nurture and promote interaction among children and adults about these complex issues.
• Support community programming efforts of local exhibit venues.

This creative and educational exhibition was developed in partnership with Lied Discovery Children’s Museum and international aid organizations including UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Philanthropist Pam Omidyar helped conceive the exhibit and personally provided core funding. “We hope children and other visitors will take away from the exhibition a sense of empathy and insight into the lives of refugee children around the world,” said Linda Quinn, Executive Director of Las Vegas’ Lied Discovery Children’s Museum. “This exhibition will allow them to walk in the shoes of refugee children and reflect on issues such as losing a home and human rights in a creative, educational and interactive way.”