There is a little bus parked near the carousel at The Factory at Franklin on Tuesday afternoons, and if you look through the windows you will see something inspiring: children completely absorbed in their own imaginations.
This is the Department of Curious Things, the brainchild of Franklin's Anna Skates — preschool teacher, children's librarian, former children's pastor, and lifelong creative who has spent most of her adult life working with kids in one form or another. The bus, which she spent the month of May converting into a rolling open-air studio, is stocked with what she describes as a "normal" cabinet and a "weird" cabinet — paper, scissors, pencils, fabric scraps, random game pieces, and materials sourced largely from Turnip Greens Creative Reuse in Nashville, a organization dedicated to keeping usable materials out of landfills.
The philosophy is simple. "Everything's there for you," Skates tells kids when they board. "You're welcome to do whatever you'd like." Then she steps back and watches what happens next.
What happens, it turns out, is magic. Kids have written entire joke books on the bus. One child fashioned an elaborate egg carton and Easter egg game with handwritten questions to help her get to know a new babysitter. "I could have never facilitated that," Skates says.
Her vision extends well beyond the bus. The ultimate goal is a brick and mortar creative hub, a hidden-door, secret-passcode kind of place with rooms for photography, pottery, visual art, and a gallery to display what kids make. For now, though, the bus is a starting point.
"I think kids don't need us to instruct them as much as we may think that we need to," she says. "They have really amazing ideas. They're incredibly thoughtful, incredibly creative naturally, instinctually. And I think something that they need that they don't get a lot of is the space to explore their own ideas."
Tuesday open studio sessions are $12 for 20 minutes, with drop-off available for kids five and older. Parties and book clubs are also available. Find the Department of Curious Things at The Factory at Franklin on Tuesdays to see the bus for yourself. TheDepartmentOfCuriousThings.com
"Kids can rise to the occasion and meet you in spaces and make some really beautiful things that you could never, never imagine in a million years."
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To learn more, reserve a time, or book a party: thedepartmentofcuriousthings.com/bus
Sponsorship (for other businesses who might be interested in adding their name to the back window of the bus): thedepartmentofcuriousthings.com/sponsorship
Sponsors:
Carpenter Bus (title sponsor)
Daybird Creative (founding sponsor)
Thrive Education
Robinson Immigration Law
Apple & Anchor
Donations (always looking for community support! Tax-deductible donations are available at the link on the bottom of this page): thedepartmentofcuriousthings.com/tdoct-donation
More about Anna and her work: annaskates.co