At the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, one of our top priorities is to help our visitors better understand the not-always-obvious natural world of their communities. “We want to remind people that we're not just a concrete jungle,” says Lori Bettison Varga, the museum's director and director. “L.A. is home to nature, and we believe that the more we understand what's in our backyards and neighborhoods, the more we'll understand life on Earth.”
So while life-size dioramas depicting the wildlife of California and the Pacific Northwest remain one of the Los Angeles Museum's signature exhibits, a new area reflecting the latest thinking will soon open. The NHM Commons, a 75,000-square-foot space, features a theater, cafe, and new seating and exhibition areas that serve as a kind of “front porch” to the museum.
“We want to spark a conversation about science,” Bettison-Varga said.
When the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's renovations are complete, the likely conversation starter among visitors will be an exhibit called “We're All Stardust.” This is an interactive light sculpture that is fixed in one of the two new halls and uses an infrared camera. We use technology, a powerful game engine, and projection mapping techniques to create a dramatic simulation of a supernova.
Also part of this exhibit is a feature where visitors can see their own silhouettes filled with suspended particles of stardust on a large screen (a nod to our origins in the star element). (reminds me of that).
But museums know that their community-centered events and high-tech effects won't be as effective without the crowd-pleasing presence of these giant extinct reptiles. In fact, just a few days after Trudy the triceratops was moved to her new perch, her fossilized friend Tony the Tyrannosaurus rex (yes, he even has a nickname) made his grand entrance into the new exhibit hall.
Together, the two dinosaurs peer out through the glass at the outside world, helping to attract visitors to the new building. This new vision for the Natural History Museum brings us even closer.