Snowflakes and yetis: Exploration Place gets frosty with its newest temporary exhibit
The winter forecast for Exploration Place calls for snowfall and cool activities inside its newly renovated gallery space that normally houses traveling exhibits.
Arctic Adventure, which runs from Nov. 4-Jan. 8, is being billed as an indoor polar playground on the Plains.
It’s also the first time that an exhibition created exclusively in-house is being featured in the science center’s temporary exhibit gallery since Exploration Place opened in 2000. The gallery has showcased more than 60 traveling exhibitions — or about three a year — that have been created by others in the science museum industry, noted Adam Smith, Exploration Place’s president and CEO.
“It’s a big deal for Exploration Place that all our staff created this,” Smith said.
The gallery space recently underwent renovations to remove a double staircase that led to a mezzanine-level display area. That freed up an additional 1,200 square feet. It also freed up wall space to allow Exploration Place to offer more projection-based immersive experiences.
Immersive digital exhibits are becoming more popular, so the renovated space will allow Exploration Place to do more exhibits of that kind.
As a snow machine creates artificial snowflakes to float down in the gallery every 10 minutes, visitors can put themselves inside a snow globe, play several interactive games projected onto the walls and do a little skating in their socks on a special ice rink floor.
Even the Wonderland Walkway, bordered by brightly lit Christmas trees, has projected, interactive floor activities — like what happens when you walk across thin ice. Just keep walking as you hear and see the ice breaking below your feet.
And parents, don’t worry if your kids decide to stick out their tongues to catch a few snowflakes — they’re made of a nontoxic, safe-for-humans-and-animals substance, assured Brooke Rowzee, Exploration Place’s exhibits and programs project manager who oversaw the exhibition’s creation.
On a recent trial run of the interactive games, kids were pretty enthusiastic about using snowballs (white bouncy balls in reality) to knock out snowmen and a yeti snow monster in one game, while in another they used the snowballs to smash digital ornaments.
In another area, kids could try to clean a yeti’s teeth with oversized brushes. Trust me, this one is harder than it looks and will give your arms a workout as you try to dispense with the cavity bugs invading the yeti’s teeth.
The exhibition’s run ties in well with the holidays, noted Laura Roddy, the center’s chief advancement officer.
There’s even a reindeer game, similar to the Hungry Hippo kids’ game.
‘Arctic Adventure’ at Exploration Place
When: Friday, Nov. 4-Sunday, Jan. 8, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily and until 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Exploration Place, 300 N. McLean Blvd.
Admission: $12 for ages 12-64, $10 for youth ages 3-11 and those older than 65, free for ages 2 and under and members, for exhibits only. Add-on options available for other activities. The museum participates in the Museums for All national program, in which families with an EBT card (must be shown) pay $3 per person. The museum also offers military and AAA discounts.
More information: 316-660-0600 or exploration.org
