2009 Museum Exhibits in the US

From July 9 to August 16, 2009, the Japan Society will present a rare collection of Japanese tin-toys in Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the American Automobile, The Yoku Tanaka Collection. Drawn from a previously unknown private collection in Tokyo, Buriki focuses on toys made for the U.S. market during the 1950s and early 1960s, with the emphasis on models that celebrate, in faithful detail, the Golden Age of American automobile styling. These never exhibited before toys are in mint condition, many still in their original packaging and are sure to delight parents and children alike.

Winterthur is the ancestral home of Henry Francis du Pont, and houses the world's foremost collection of American decorative arts, including furniture, textiles, ceramics, metals, and paintings and sculpture. They host an exhibition called K is for Kids, it is an alphabetic exploration of their museum's collection (which consists of more than 85,000 objects). They've got an A through Z display of some of the most fun, fabulous or just plain weird things that make up the collection - everything from a child's corset (U is for underwear) to a hair cap (W is for Wig). Each object is presented in an ABC-rhyme in keeping with the theme of the exhibition which explores how Americans have relied on alphabet rhymes to teach reading from the earliest primers to today's most modern technology (see, they're sneaking in that educational subtext just when you least expect it!). It's a great way for kids to understand how museum collections develop, and also explores all the different types of things that you can collect (our Mr. du Pont started out collecting as a young boy and it remained a lifelong passion).

Harry Potter Exhibition till September 27, 2009 This world-premiere exhibit is your chance to experience the craftsmanship of more than 200 authentic artifacts from the Harry Potter films, displayed in settings inspired by the film sets. Along the way, fans will get an up-close and personal look at some of their favorite props and costumes from the Harry Potter films. Harry’s original wand and eyeglasses, elaborate outfits from the Yule Ball, and Gryffindor™ school uniforms are just some of the iconic items on display. They will also be able to take a tour through Hagrid’s hut, enter a Quidditch™ area to toss a “Quaffle,” and may even encounter a few creatures like Buckbeak™ or a giant Acromantula spider along the way.

Revolutionary Spy Summer Program This summer kids will enjoy being a Revolutionary Spy when they visit Colonial Williamsburg's Art Museums. George Washington put spy techniques into practice long before 007. From programs like Crack the Code, to World Turned Upside Down kids can learn about secrets and more during all the family programs offered this summer at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. Below I have included a few of the programs: Crack the Code: Kids use the codes and ciphers used by George Washington and other leaders during the American Revolution and using spy techniques to crack the codes themselves. Art Adventures: Allow children and their parents to explore the art galleries and then create their own masterpiece to take home with them. Magical Creatures: This special guided tour, explores the galleries for griffins, phoenixes, mermaids, dragons and unicorns while recording your discoveries in a book to take home. World Turned Upside Down: Kids will explore the exciting events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. Then create a patriotic souvenir to take home. Additionally, there is a dedicated space for hands-on activities for families. The Education Studio is specifically designed to allow guests to create a work of art to take home with them after participating in any of the museum family programs.

Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs,” a touring exhibition featuring more than 100 authentic artifacts from the tomb of the celebrated pharaoh King Tutankhamun and other ancient Egyptian sites opens in Indiana. The exhibition will be on display at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis till October 25, 2009, its first Midwest showing following the U.S. premiere in Atlanta. Most artifacts in the exhibition have never visited the U.S. prior to this tour. “Tutankhamun's magic still captures the hearts of people all over the world, even though more than 85 years have passed since the discovery of his amazing tomb,” said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. “America has welcomed the golden king, and now he is bringing with him all the great pharaohs of Egypt. This exhibition will raise much-needed funds for the preservation of Egypt's monuments and the construction and renovation of museums throughout the country. I always say that Egyptian antiquities are the heritage of the world and that we are only their guardians.”

The Indiana State Museum has one main temporary exhibit that is particularly appealing to all ages in a family called Footprints: Balancing Nature’s Diversity. It features over 600 “preserved specimens”. It is all about the animals that have roamed this part of the country from the Ice Age until now and their habitats. You can learn about your own footprint and what you can personally do to preserve Indiana’s habitats. There is interesting information to be learned; for instance, there are over 300 places in Indiana where bones or teeth of mastodonts have been found. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100 watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3, or a TV for 2. Possession of any migratory bird or even a part of one, included feathers picked up off the ground, is illegal.

Dinosaur Trail Exhibit opens on July 25th. It’s an unforgettable journey into the Late Cretaceous period, 100 million to 65 million years ago. Weave along the half-mile forest path to bear witness to a prehistoric fight for survival. Come within reach of life-sized dinosaurs, including the 65-foot-long Alamosaurus. It's a must see experience for all ages. Fossil Dig Site The fossils are 23 - 5 million years in the making and yours for the taking! So grab a shovel, a sieve, and a bucket to find and keep a variety of marine fossils.

Changing Places through February 28,2010 The exhibition explores the cultural transformation occurring in the region as a result of new arrivals from across the country and around the world. Changing Places features interactive activities and environments throughout and video, music, and more. A park-like setting at the center includes “recipes for conversations” at a picnic table, a multicultural game of hopscotch and breakdance floor. The end of the exhibit features a “video-talkback” booth, where visitors’ stories and responses to the exhibit are recorded, then later incorporated back into the exhibit

Cleve Gray: Man and Nature through September 27, 2009 This 30-year retrospective of noted American painter Cleve Gray illustrates the full progression of Gray’s career as he developed his signature gestural style between 1970 and 2004, the year he died at age 86. Man and Nature is the first comprehensive touring exhibition of Gray’s work and is the only museum exhibition to date to focus on his mature abstraction. The 47 paintings in the show follow the development of the artist’s color-infused abstractions, his responses to his extensive travels, and his deep understanding of European and American modernism and Asian sources. Visitors to the exhibition will have an opportunity to experience abstract art in new ways. Among related programs and classes offered, visitors can create their own Haiku poetry in response to Cleve Gray’s colorful artwork, take yoga classes in the galleries, learn to paint using subconscious associations, and attend a jazz concert.

EdVenture Children's Museum in Columbia, SC, is the largest children's museum in the Southeast. It is 100% kid friendly and very interactive Team Up! Explore Science & Sports. through Sunday, January 03, 2010 How fast is your fastball? How should the face of your tennis racquet be angled to achieve the shot you want? The answers to these questions and many more are waiting for you at “Team Up! Explore Science & Sports.” This exciting hands-on exhibition will give you an in-depth look at the many scientific principles of athletics. Children, families and groups alike are invited to check out the fun and fascination that is involved in becoming a winning athlete. Come visit us on “opening day” and go home with free sports cards!

Exploring Trees Inside and Out exhibit at Imagine It! Through September 13, 2009 The spacious, 2,500-square-foot exhibit is designed to create a better understanding among children about the significant role trees play in the environment. A variety of inventive and interactive activities allow children (and their parents!) to explore trees in a multi-sensory way, fostering a sense of stewardship and respect among all generations. Children will be able to crawl through a log and experience it as a habitat for other living things, help a seed “grow” into a young oak inside a huge acorn, explore the “heart” of a tree trunk and move the “blood” of the tree up and down its “veins”, smell scents from various trees, then discover just a few of the many products we get from trees, hear the sounds of animals that live in trees, and even become a forest creature in a “green screen” experience that allows children to fly like a bird and soar over the treetops. This exhibit offers valuable environmental education to children and is part of a nationwide effort to inspire kids all over America to care for the Earth. For more information about the everyday importance of trees and the “Exploring Trees Inside and Out” Traveling exhibit, please visit www.doubletree.com/thinktrees.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition through Aug. 23 Kansas City’s Union Station is currently playing host to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition. The visitors can explore the science and wonder of the make-believe world of Narnia and the blockbuster movies it inspired. Children can even walk through the fabled wardrobe, touch a frozen waterfall or sit on the Queen’s icy throne. Through Aug. 30, the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum will host a new exhibit, School House to the White House: The Education of the Presidents. The exhibit displays school memories and mementos from the Commander in Chiefs, including LBJ’s report card and Richard Nixon’s eighth grade autobiography.

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature museum is hosting an amazing pop-up book exhibit by renowned pop-up book illustrators Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. “The Wizards of Pop: Sabuda & Reinhart” exhibit is on display until September 2009. These unique displays (never before seen in the United States!) of beloved characters such as Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland were flown in from Japan for their debut in June. Walking through the display at the museum, children and parents alike will be blown away by the grandeur of these oversized illustrations.

The Children’s Museum at the Grace Museum dedicates an entire floor of the museum to accommodate children of all ages. The museum features everything from a fully-padded Toddler Exploration Area to a life-sized, interactive “Operation” game table. The Grace is based around entertaining discovery, and aims to enhance children’s learning ability while having fun.

At the Heard Museum, kids and teens will like the exhibit Remember the Indian School Days: The Boarding School Experience. This experience replies on images, voices and props to tell the story of how Indian children were forcibly sent to boarding school in an attempt to decimate Native cultures.

The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) runs a gallery devoted to the creative work by youth called Young @ Art gallery. (Located inside the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts building, which is adjacent to SMoCA). Currently, the gallery features an exhibition called Juxtapositions, created by SMoCA’s ongoing art program for teens called “Visions”. Visions, SMoCA's art program for teens, encourages creative self-expression and civic engagement. This exhibition titled Juxtapositions features art created by participating teens from Central, Coronado, McClintock, Desert Mountain and Shadow Mountain high schools. The students' work, which spans a variety of media, is the result of their conversations and workshops with professional artists over the course of the year. Starting July 18 through January 24, 2010, the Museum will open an exhibition titled “Unexpected Wegman” which will prominently feature a family-friendly educational children’s area inside the gallery. The exhibition will feature forty-five William Wegman prints. These unexpected, light-hearted renderings of the artist’s studio, quirky narratives and an array of animals offer an unusual window into this important conceptual artist’s playful and questioning thinking. The exhibition will also feature some of the more familiar portraits of Wegman’s beloved Weimaraners, his drawings on photographs as well a special children’s area of the gallery. An education program featuring his early videos from the 1970s will accompany the exhibition.

Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television is an exhibit of 30 costumes from science fiction films and television programs such as, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Terminator, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Batman. The exhibition examines how costume design incorporates color, style, scale, materials, historical traditions and cultural cues to help performers and audiences engage, in new or accepted ways, with the characters being portrayed.

Jim Henson’s Fantastic World through August 19, 2009 Jim Henson's Fantastic World offers a rare peek into the imagination and creative genius of this multitalented innovator and creator of Kermit the Frog, Big Bird and other beloved characters. The exhibition features 100 original artworks, including drawings, cartoons and storyboards that illustrate Henson’s talent as a storyteller and visionary. Among the variety of exhibition objects are puppets and television and movie props, photographs of Henson and his collaborators at work and original video productions, including excerpts from Henson’s early career and experimental films.

Animal Grossology through September 7, 2009 Oozing with disgusting science and interactive learning games, Animal Grossology contains solid science and introduces it in a way that makes kids giggle. You may think leeches are pretty gross but they're used after some surgeries to assist in the healing process. Did you know that cows are one of the gassiest animals on Earth? Learn why the dung beetle is nature's living pooper scooper and why scientists are studying slug and snail slime production for clues in treating cystic fibrosis.

Thru Sep 7, 09 Visitors will explore the extraordinary giant planets orbiting our Sun and learn what they tell us about the formation of solar systems, Earth, and the conditions necessary for life. Learn about the formation of our Solar System and the role that gravity plays in how planets, asteroids, and comets behave. This exhibition also presents the beauty and mystery of the giant planets and describes how they behave (atmosphere, weather, seasons, magnetic environment, and auroras). Through this exhibition you will learn more about these amazing worlds.

Through August 16,2009 The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is pleased to present the largest retrospective of Brett Weston's work in over 30 years. The exhibition surveys Weston’s nearly 70-year career presenting more than 130 photographs that range from early vintage prints made in Mexico and California in the 1920s and 1930s; East Coast images from the 1940s; to later landscape and nature photographs as well as prints made shortly before his death in Hawaii in 1993.