Rabbit hOle Honors Tomi with Exhibits and Symposium

Village and castle scene from The Three Robbers experience @ Rabbit hOle, in Kansas City, Missouri.

In the center of the United States, a new museum is creating extraordinary experiences inspired by some of the most important and beloved children’s books, including several by Tomi Ungerer.

The Rabbit hOle opened on March 12, 2024 with more than 70 exhibits, and continues to add to its immersive, multi-sensory and radical literary wonderland.

In July 2025 it opened its largest exhibit to date, a cover-to-cover immersive experience based on Tomi Ungerer's picture book classic, The Three Robbers!

The Rabbit hOle’s in-house team of artists and fabricators designed and built the 2500-square-foot exhibit honoring The Three Robbers. Ambitious in scale and technique, the guided experience takes visitors through the entire story, and includes fully-sculpted elements and environs, stop-animation stations, and an original narrative musical score by acclaimed composer Stefan Freund and the American Wild Ensemble.

“To build The Rabbit hOle we’ve developed a lot of methods to bring stories to life, and we utilize all of them and more in The Three Robbers,” said co-director Deb Pettid. 

“I am particularly excited about the opportunities for play and reenactment within the experience – guests will not only be immersed in the story, they’ll also be a part of it.”

Ungerer’s daughter, Aria Ungerer, and publisher Diogenes Verlag were an essential part of the process, providing both permissions and insight.

“Tomi would have been over the moon to see The Three Robbers come to life in this immersive way,” Aria Ungerer said. “The installation reflects all of Tomi’s passions – artistry, craftsmanship and story-telling. The incredible dedication and attention to detail that The Rabbit hOle team has brought to this project has been really inspiring.”  

Ungerer’s picture books often depict challenging social issues, histories with a “don’t look away” approach, and illustrations that teeter between charming and frightening.

Although the planning and design of this immersive has been years in the making, Rabbit hOle co-director Pete Cowdin said it would be hard to think of a more timely book and artist to explore than Ungerer. 

“Tomi’s work, and really his life, focused on the moral ambiguities and attendant hypocrisies that inhabit the world we actually live in, rather than the one we so often imagine or hope for,” said Cowdin. 

“Tomi believed that children not only need but deserve a place where they can safely navigate the spaces between good and evil, truth and lies, joy and suffering. His books provide that haven. At 60+ years old, The Three Robbers has never been more relevant.”

November 14-15, 2025, The Rabbit hOle will host a once-in-a-generation event: Blunderbuss! Exploring the Legacy of Tomi Ungerer. This two-day symposium will feature an all-star lineup of speakers and special guests from all stretches of Tomi’s life and the picture book industry, including Aria Ungerer, Susan Hirschman, Steve Heller, Lisa Brown, Betsy Bird, Jon Agee, Maria Russo, Philip Nel, Kate Feiffer, K-Fai Steele, and others soon to be announced!

In addition to a variety of panels and presentations, the symposium will include a special screening of the documentary Far Out Isn’t Far Enough with an introduction from filmmaker Brad Bernstein. 

Attendees may also add one of several hands-on workshops, which will take place in The Rabbit hOle’s Print Shop and focus on Tomi’s approach to graphic design and poster art. 

Learn more about both The Three Robbers cover-to-cover experience, which runs through December 31, 2025, and Blunderbuss! Exploring the Legacy of Tomi Ungerer at ThreeRobbers.org.

Thanks to Lindsey Foat Content and Communications Director for this Article