The Gateway Science Museum is opening to the public on Saturday February 27th – with a ribbon cutting at 10:00 am and grand opening celebration activities for adults and children alike throughout the day – throughout the whole museum. Photo: The Gateway Science Museum’s logo is derived from the skylight at the top of the front tower of the new building’s entrance. That tower represents a volcano – such as the historic Mt. Yana or Lassen Peak or Mt. Shasta, which have been ‘wayfinders’, or directional markers, for people in the North State for 1000s of years.
“The activities will be festive and geared toward fun and education,” Acting Director Rachel Teasdale told me in an interview last week. Among other activities geared toward highlighting the museum’s mission to “create a life-long learning environment that enables people to explore, interpret, and celebrate the magnificent natural heritage of our region through science, research, and education,” Teasdale mentioned that “we will have face painting – and the face painters will create motifs from regional plants, animals and insects for their designs.” So you could get a Pipevine Swallowtail wing or a bouquet of yellow Mariposa-lilies (Calochortus luteus) painted on your cheek.
“The 16 year journey to the opening of the Gateway Science Museum has been noteworthy,” Judy Sitton President of the Gateway Science Museum Board told me. “As a member of the community/campus partnership for this landmark, I look forward to us all experiencing science and regional natural history in a fun, stimulating, interesting and memorable way. We have so much to celebrate and hold dear in the North State. The Gateway Science Museum is a key to the ‘gateway to learning.”
The first of the museum’s traveling exhibitions will also be in place for the opening. Being installed all of next week, the first exhibitions (beyond the state of the art building and eco-regions based landscapes themselves), as described on the museum’s newly revamped website www.gatewayscience.org, will include:
Backyard Monsters: The World of Insects
will be in the museum’s two main galleries: Photo: a real Praying Mantis on a rose in the garden.
Step into the fascinating world of insects at Backyard Monsters, where visitors can catch sight of towering bugs such as a nine-foot-tall praying mantis and insects that are up to 96 times their normal size! These hi-tech, robotic insects not only appear real, but their actions are simulated to show real-life movements as well.
Interactive education stations are also available for exploration. Visitors can view the world through the eyes of a multi-faceted insect, create rubbings of insects which can be taken home, learn the methods of insect flight, discover how common fleas survive and adapt, and more.
Another eye-catching feature of Backyard Monsters is a world-class insect specimen collection that features numerous insects and bugs such as longhorn beetles, butterflies, arachnids, moths, and insects.
Witness: Endangered Species of North America will be in the long central Valley gallery:
The most strikingly beautiful, yet tragically endangered, species of North America are documented in Witness, an astonishing collection of photographic portraits by Susan Middleton and David Liittschwager, organized by the California Academy of Sciences.
Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the various plants and animals currently on the Endangered Species List of North America such as the California condor, Arizona agave, northern spotted owl, grizzly bear, and more.
Each photographed plant and animal is isolated with a stark background to visually explain that these species are becoming endangered, and in one way or another, losing their natural habitats.
River Voices: A Photography Exhibit on The Confluence of Culture on the Sacramento River Watershed Photo: A Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly and its wing patterns.
Photographer Geoff Fricker documents one of the most important rivers in California, the Sacramento River, and its diverse role in the region.
Seven 6-foot by 9-foot photographic panels record the diverse layers of culture in the landscapes that intersect along the Sacramento River. Here, 500,000 acres of historic riparian habitats once existed, but today, only 25,000 acres of the original habitats remain.
Additional panels provide quotations about the relationship between humans and the land. Other images reveal years of scouring, deposition, and tree growth along the meandering river system, as well as areas of the floodplains adapted to farmland throughout the history of humans in Northern California.
After March 1st, the Gateway Science Museum will keep regular hours.
Museum Hours
Wednesday – Friday:
Noon to 5 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday:
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Directions & Map
The physical address of the museum is
625 Esplanade
Chico, CA 95929-0545
Photos and Article by Garden Writer Jennifer Jewell, visit www.jewellgarden.com for more North State garden news!, Gateway Science Museum art by Gateway Science Museum
Filed under: General by GoLocalChico |
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I called a couple of friends and set up a beginning beading class with Carol. She spent several hours with us helping us to create necklaces, bracelets and earrings- then we shopped with a class discount and got ourselves set up with a few more projects! We had such a great time- spending time with girlfriends and being creative. By the time we were done for the day we had some new skills and fun new jewelry. Well, of course it started me on a whole new obsession, but at least it is one that packs up out of the way. As my friend Lisa says- we can whip out a pair of earrings while we watch the Olympics!
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