During the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture, Disney hosted a special Princess Tiana-themed brunch experience at Dooky Chase's restaurant to showcase artwork of Princess Tiana, which was first explored in the Disney film “The Princess and the Frog.” The upcoming immersive exhibition, which also builds on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride, will launch at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on March 7, 2026, before traveling to 12 other cities around the country starting in 2027.

Afterwards, a conversation was had with several Disney execs including Carmen Smith, senior vice president of creative development, product content, and inclusive strategies for Disney Parks, Jennifer Pace Robinson (President & CEO, TCMI), and Stella Chase-Reese, daughter of the well-respected Leah Chase, of the notable restaurant Dooky Chase

**Carmen Smith**, senior vice president of creative development, product content, and inclusive strategies for Disney Parks

Carmen Smith: We've got a great collaboration at Wal Disney’s Imagineering with the Indianapolis Children's Museum. And our intention is, we know that the Tiana story is magical, whimsical, and it's giving people a lot of joy. The intention was that there are so many families that may not be able to get to Walt Disney world just yet. So for us, it's about bringing the magic of Tiana to the people across the country.

And so we're kicking it off at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We're working in collaboration on the design, but again, to have an incredible partner that's working on the build of the exhibit and working with us on the selections of cities around the country is, for us, a big deal. When I think about the Tiana character and the kind of response that she's received from audiences, really from every walk of life, it inspired me to say, we need to take this out to the people.

That authenticity with the story, again, Stella, who has been with us from Tiana's Bayou Adventure from day one, getting us grounded so that we knew that we're telling a story that really expresses the essence, the beauty, the glory, the magic of New Orleans and her mother's vision and journey. So that's the why. It's a great story that everybody needs to hear. We open up March of 2026 at the Indianapolis Children's Museum (1:51) and we'll be there through December of 2026, and then it starts traveling around the country.

Tiana's a fantastic character. Disney has hundreds of stories, and Tiana's getting such incredible treatment, traction, and now this exhibit. So what in particular made WDI and Disney say, this is the princess that needs this much exposure?

Carmen Smith: Well, I think, as I was looking at the opening of Tiana's Bayou Adventure, my colleague Sharita Carter was with me as we were watching families go through. When I saw people coming off the attraction, some in tears, whether they were white, black, Latino, South Asian, something moved me to say that this is a character that people identify with. Her attributes are ones that we all want or aspire to have, whether it's kindness, thoughtfulness, a sense of family and community.

Jennifer, can you talk a little bit about what's happening at the museum? Can you talk about that process of taking it there?

Jennifer Pace Robinson: So we have a vibrant traveling exhibit program that has been running for 30 years. We've done everything from ocean adventure to working with National Geographic. We've done world religions. We've done ancient Egypt. But we've also done a lot of partnerships with branded media, so Mattel, Barbie, Warner Brothers. But our dream was always to work with Disney, of course. And in particular within that dream, everything that Carmen has said about Princess Tiana, that we want to make sure that when children come into our museum, they see themselves in the experience. And that's a huge part of what makes us different as a museum, is that push for inclusion. And, you know, I could see it being in the parks. I could see it walking through a toy store, and you're seeing all these wonderful toys around this property.

And what kids want to do is they want to get in and be part of that story. That's our expertise. So we have an existing traveling exhibit program. We know how to build things that are developmentally appropriate to ignite joy, wonder, and curiosity. But we also are experts in family learning. So it's those conversations that parents are having with children. So you're encouraging the child. For us, it's all about motivation and confidence building. Then the other thing we're going to be doing is talking about the real story. So we'll be featuring Stella's family and let people know that this is a real family in New Orleans and what they went through. So we also infuse the history and the real world into what we do.

Stella, is there anything you want to add?

Stella Chase Reese: We are the Glass family. You can clearly say that. But what I like about Disney, and I'll be honest with you, we were given the opportunity to be on a reality show. Oh, it would have been a great reality show without a doubt. But we feel that we owe our community and the history in our building and in our family. We have to project our values, and we're not always about the dollars. And Disney, a partnership with Disney, and now we're in that business, it's just wonderful because they take the values that my mother and my grandparents had, and they make it possible. Everyone likes to go to Disney World. Everyone likes to go to Disneyland. But my mother always said, you have to make things accessible to the people who can't always go.

This really means a lot to me because it means we found just what my mother wanted to do. Because she would ask, so who's going to Disney World? Can everybody go there? But you, Disney, and Annapolis, we see it's bringing it to people who maybe can't go at this point in their lives, but they can experience those same values. They can be motivated to believe that they can do, they can achieve. Their dreams can come true because my mother came from a very humble background, one of 14, and she had a story to tell. So, I think my mother's story can match up with anybody who's maybe not feeling like they can make it through the next step, and the children maybe not feeling this is going their way or whatever's happening in their lives. Disney is now going to bring it so that they can come to everyone.