A New Discovery for All Ages
The Museum of Discovery unveiled its new look to the masses last month. After closing its doors for nine months for extensive renovations, the museum re-emerged with a whole new mission, new design and exciting new exhibits.
Photography Provided by Museum of Discovery
Since its grand reopening last month you may not recognize the Museum of Discovery (MOD). This facility, widely-thought of as a children’s museum, now caters more to an audience of all ages and rivals exhibits of science museums in neighboring cities.
The first and most obvious change to the MOD is the main entrance, now located at the east end of the building. Complete with a fully-stocked gift shop, it is a work of art in itself. The white tile floor, dark wood-paneled walls and larger-than-life kinetic sculpture hanging above create not only the perfect preview of what’s to come within the museum, but serve as a centerpiece for the excellent event space available for rental.
The sculpture titled “Helix Wave,” by Reuben Margolin, a California-based math major-turned-sculptor, is a series of beautiful wood planks suspended by wire and connected to two motors that are in constant motion, shifting into a multitude of shapes above the heads of museum patrons or partygoers. The sculpture really captures the idea behind the new MOD — it is unique, interesting, science-based and appeals to all ages.
“We really want to focus on serving all people,” Nan Selz, MOD executive director, said. “For some reason the community has always seen us as a children’s museum. We are a family museum, a great place for families, single people, older couples and younger couples to come, learn a lot and enjoy themselves.”
The museum consists of three primary exhibit halls: Discovery Hall, Amazing You! and Earth Journey. Each of the 80 to 90 new exhibits within the halls was hand-selected by MOD board members and carefully planned out.
“We talked about what we wanted the museum to be — a science center and a resource to the community — and we found [other museums that] do this and do it well. We visited science centers all over the country and asked them about their exhibits, which ones were most popular, and we had them recreated for our purposes,” Selz said.
The Discovery Hall is the museum’s largest gallery. It focuses on aspects of physical science such as motion and force. Get hands-on with the interactive exhibits — see what it’s like to lay on a bed of nails, lift your body weight from the ground with a pulley, and more.
Amazing You! exhibits cover everything you’ve ever wondered about the human body. One of its biggest attractions includes a look inside a real human body’s complete inner workings illuminated behind glass. Other notable exhibits show the effects of the digestive system on a granola bar at various stages of digestion, and the up-close-and-personal differences between a smoker’s lung and a healthy one as you inflate them both with air.
Earth Journey is all about the land, air, sea and animals of the region. The reptile and insect observation area will remain full of spiders, roaches, snakes and more. An enormous globe using information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the course of past weather experiences around the world, and “Tornado Alley” will leave you shaking and rethinking your severe weather safety plans. This tornado simulator exhibit recreates the 1999 tornado that wiped out much Little Rock’s Quapaw neighborhood. File into a basement and “feel” the weather change as the sky darkens, lights flicker and meteorologist Ed Buckner’s real newscast from that fateful night plays on the television. Real, very emotional accounts are told over the speaker by those who lived to tell the tale.
Other highlights include: the “Window of Wonder,” a 3,000 square-foot traveling exhibition space — the first exhibit features dinosaurs from the American Museum of Natural History; “Room to Grow,” for children 6 and younger will remain intact with a few updates; a 1,000 square-foot Arkansas Discovery Network traveling exhibit space will rotate shows every three months with partnering Arkansas museums; a new theater/conference room/multipurpose room available for rental; an onsite resource room for teachers; a snack room with vending machines that offer healthy options; a “tinkering room” where adults and kids can design, build and work with tools and crafts; and much more.
All of these exciting new renovations were made possible by a $9.2 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, for which the MOD board is very grateful. “Ultimately, we hope that with this renovation, the Museum of Discovery will be seen by the community as a science center. When new information comes out or issues with the environment develop, we want to be able to give people the facts and have them see that we have the credibility to answer them. We would like to be seen as a resource for science information as well as a fun place to learn,” Selz said.
The MOD is located at 500 Pres. Clinton Ave., Little Rock; for more information, call (501) 396-7050 or log onto museumofdiscovery.org.
