Crawl Out
An exhibition for families with children
19.09.2025. - 01.02.2026.
At a time when an increasingly large part of childhood is spent in front of screens and our sensory skills and habits are shaped by digital experiences, Pauls Stradiņš Medicine History Museum comes bearing good news. Starting 19 September 2025, we invite families with children to visit See the World on All Fours, an exhibition created to be explored at a leisurely pace, sometimes even on all fours. Created with the younger visitors in mind, the exhibition tells the story of our senses and the role they play in exploring ourselves and the world around us. Getting all of our senses involved during the visit to the exhibition will also help explore the sensory talents of other life forms existing in nature and imagine the world as we would experience it if we possessed similar superpowers.
The exhibition is an encouragement to become more aware of the often neglected senses that cannot be accessed by clicking or scrolling but are instead exercised in various mundane ways of exploring the environment around us: shaking hands with our friends; trying to find our way home by following smells; listening to musical pieces that stimulate our tastebuds; challenging our family to an onion chopping race or switching off a light to rescue a moth that has been trapped in it. Diverse and unmediated sensory experiences are a source of deeper understanding of the ways the world works. The exhibition will offer the young visitors their first glimpse into the science called ecology. The display is an introduction to natural history collections and explorers who assembled them, encouraging children to start a collection of their own or perhaps choose other ways of exploring the living world.
Scientific, trivial, quiz-show-worthy or sometimes seemingly bizarre questions will guide you as you navigate the exhibition, fumbling about for answers that matter most as we think about a generation growing up at a time when the future of the planet is so hard to predict in terms of ecological changes. You will encounter snails that feel about with their eyes, a scientist who sees with his fingers, a collector owl and a toad sporting an adhesive bandage on its belly. It is an opportunity for the curious to consider questions like what a mummy of fish found inside an ancient Egyptian tomb can reveal to researchers, why they show stuffed animals as if they were alive at museums, and why a millions-of-years-old fossil provides clues about future events.
The creators of the exhibition hope to spark interest in museum collections as a source of knowledge that can assist in forming a healthy relationship with the world as an existentially fragile home shared by plants, animals, humans and other beings. Like dominoes falling one after another, the choices we make every day also have an impact on the world around us: we change the environment, and the environment shapes us. The new exhibition offers ways of noticing it.
The Exhibition Team:
Curator – Kristīne Liniņa
Exhibition texts by Kristīne Liniņa, Ieva Salna
Research support by Ieva Salna, Anna Žabicka, Anta Straumēna, Vineta Blitsone, Zane Alika, Iluta Dauškane
Availability of collection and loans by Antra Skripste-Špāka
Design by Tatjana Raičiņeca
Graphic design by Zigmunds Lapsa
Animation by Zigmunds Lapsa, Andrejs Brīvulis
Communication by Agita Birziete, Māris Šteinbergs, Kristīne Kupcāne
Education by Elīna Pekšēna, Paula Eglīte, Samanta Kancāne-Mūrniece
Restoration by Iveta Daugule-Balode
Project management by Kristīne Liniņa, Gerda Čevere-Veinberga
Copy editing by Ilze Jansone
Technical installation by Armands Grūbe, Dekorāciju darbnīca, VPT Grupa, Reklāmu darbnīca PLUS, Romāns Medvedevs, Magnum NT, Posmaster
Loans from memory institutions and private collections:
Latvian National Museum of Natural History; Latvian National Museum of Art; Museum of the University of Latvia; Ģederts Eliass Jelgava Museum of History and Art; Riga National Zoological Garden; Library of the University of Latvia; Ludvigs Eglītis Neiburgs; Miķelis Fišers; Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences of the University of Latvia
Collaboration partner and supporter:
Rietumu Banka
Supported by:
Latvijas Finieris; VivaColor; Samsung; Riga City Council; State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia; Support Society for Medical Museums
Informative support by
Delfi
