Where the Seasons Whisper

A Sensory Journey Through the Red River Valley’s Changing World...through our Interactive Mural exhibit...

In the Red River Valley, the seasons don’t simply pass. They shape us. They mark our days, color our memories, and teach us to pay attention to the small, remarkable wonders that live alongside us. As the Grand Forks Children’s Museum continues to take shape, one of its earliest creations, a large scale interactive mural, is already imagining the world children will step into when the museum opens.

This mural invites children into the rhythm of the Valley’s seasons, offering a place where cycles unfold across a single wall, alive with movement, texture, scent, and discovery. It’s not just something to look at. It’s something to feel. It’s a landscape that encourages children to slow down, reach out, and notice the world that surrounds them…the same world that has shaped generations of life in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.

Spring arrives first in sound as waterfowl returns to our Valley, filling the sky with motion and the riverbanks with life. In the mural, children meet these travelers up close as they view stylized birds feeding, nesting, and soaring overhead. Dimensional bird panels invite small hands to press a button and hear each species’ call echo softly. It’s a gentle introduction to migration, to the idea that some neighbors come and go with the seasons and that their arrival is a sign of spring’s promise.

Summer in the Red River Valley is a season of touch, with the warm wind, tall grasses, rippled water, and limestone warmed by the sun. Texture panels woven into the mural let children explore these sensations with their fingertips. They can feel the cool, wavy surface of water, the rough edges of stone, the thatch y strands of prairie grass. Nearby, scent stations offer the smells of summer: damp earth after rain, the sweetness of wildflowers, and even the unmistakable warning of a skunk tucked inside a fallen log. Children laugh, wrinkle their noses, and learn that every scent tells a story about the place they live.

As children wander along the mural, they discover that some of the Valley’s residents prefer to stay hidden. Flip panels blend into the artwork like secret doors to discover what’s beneath: the end of a log, the curve of a burrow, the hollow of a tree trunk. When a child lifts a flap, a shy creature appears beneath it, waiting to be found. A beaver lodge reveals its cozy interior. A burrow shows the quiet life beneath the soil. Each hidden animal comes with a name and a small story, turning every discovery into a moment of delight. It’s a gentle reminder that our Red River Valley is full of life we rarely see, and that curiosity has a way of bringing the unseen into view.

Life beneath the river is just as lively as the world above. Simple mazes carved into the mural let children guide fish through winding channels, imagining the busy underwater world that continues even in the coldest months. Barbell shaped pegs become winter active fish, slipping through intersecting paths as children trace their journeys. It’s a playful way to understand that the river holds stories of its own. Stories of movement, survival, and the creatures that thrive beneath the ice.

Autumn in the Red River Valley is a season of transition with animals preparing, plants shifting, colors deepening. In the mural, wildlife moves through this change with purpose. Children begin to notice patterns: who stays, who leaves, who adapts. The mural becomes a field guide to the Valley’s living things. A printed guide nearby encourages young explorers to search for species hidden throughout the artwork. Each discovery becomes a small triumph and a moment of connection between child and landscape.

Winter brings stillness, but not silence. It’s the season that teaches patience, resilience, and the beauty of quiet places. In the mural, winter settles gently across the Valley serving as a reminder that rest is part of every cycle, and that even in the coldest months, life continues in ways both subtle and strong.

The interactive mural is a love letter to the Red River Valley…to its wildlife, its textures, its scents, its seasons, and the way it shapes the people who call this region home. It invites children to explore not through speed, but through curiosity. To notice the details. To ask questions. To understand that the Valley is alive in every month of the year.

As construction continues at the Grand Forks Children’s Museum, this mural is already imagining the world children will soon step into…a world where learning is sensory, seasonal, and rooted deeply in the place we share. When the doors open, children will walk along this mural and feel the Red River Valley beneath their hands. They will hear its voices, smell its stories, lift its hidden doors, wander its river paths, and discover the living things that make this landscape extraordinary. In doing so, they will begin to understand themselves as part of a place that changes, a place that grows, a place that holds wonder in every season.

Katie Mayer, Executive Director, Grand Forks Children's Museum