When I was a kid and we'd visit places with fragile things, my mom would order me to "look with your eyes, not with your hands." But exactly the opposite is encouraged in a new exhibit called Ghosts, Underpants, and Stars at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, in which kids are encouraged to mess with iconic paintings.


There are no rules in the haunted mansion-style exhibit. Kids are supposed to run and yell and put their little grubby hands all over everything. You know, exactly the kind of thing that would elicit some kind of punishment under ordinary circumstances. In fact, Torafu Architects, which helped create the exhibit, said part of the point is to teach kids the normal rules of a museum "paradoxically." Not sure if kids necessarily will get that, but it's a nice thought.

So for example, there's a backstage area, so little tykes can climb through some of the paintings. Others have fun house mirrors. A few invite tiny hands to add things like googly eyes to a canvas of say, Mona Lisa. Sometimes parents have to trick their kids into appreciating the finer things. This is a pretty good scheme. [Torafu via FastCo]

The exhibit runs through September 8, 2013 in Tokyo. There are tons of awesomely adorable pictures for a preview of what's what here.