June 5, 2026 (KANSAS CITY, MO) – Care Bears, He-Man, Alvin and the Chipmunks, DuckTales, The Smurfs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers… the 1980s were a golden age of Saturday morning cartoons. Animated characters leapt from television screens into toy boxes, shaping how a generation played and imagined. For many children, cartoons didn’t end when the TV was turned off; they continued on the living room floor through expansive, imaginative worlds brought to life through toys.
Saturday Morning Cartoons, an upcoming exhibition at The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, explores this pivotal moment in American childhood, when television, toys, and marketing converged in powerful new ways. Drawing from the Museum’s nationally recognized collections, the exhibition examines how cartoons and toys worked together to create immersive play experiences, blurring boundaries between entertainment, advertising, and imagination.
The Museum invites qualified exhibit designers or exhibit design firms to submit proposals by July 5, 2026, for the design and development of the exhibition, scheduled to open in May 2027. The selected consultant will collaborate closely with Museum staff to create an immersive, accessible, educational, and visually compelling exhibition that aligns with our mission, interpretive goals, and audience needs.
Learn more and download the RFP at https://toyandminiaturemuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/RFP_Exhibit_Designer_Saturday_Morning_Cartoons.pdf
This project is supported in part by the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF TOYS AND MINIATURES
The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures educates, inspires, and delights people of all ages by collecting, displaying, and interpreting toys and miniatures that illuminate diverse narratives and cultural heritage. Located on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, the Museum exhibits the world’s largest collection of fine-scale miniatures and one of the nation’s largest collections of historically significant toys on public display. For more information, call 816.235.8000 or visit www.toyandminiaturemuseum.org.