Young visitors enjoy some of the interactive features of “Amazing Butterflies,” which opens May 25 at the Springfield Science Museum.
Clik here to view.
Each spring butterflies migrate to New England from their winter homes. The Springfield Science Museum will celebrate their arrival with the interactive exhibit, “Amazing Butterflies,” on May 25 and a walk-through enclosure with live specimens called “The Butterfly House.”
The exhibit, on view through Sept. 2 was created by the Natural History Museum in London in collaboration with Minotaur Mazes. Its intent is to introduce visitors to the butterfly’s life cycle and its daily challenges.
“By doing silly things that are really simple, you learn about butterflies in a whole bunch of fun and exciting ways,” said Laura Hartman, exhibition designer and chief preparator at the Springfield Museums.
Each station within the exhibit’s maze, according to the museums’ website, “relates to a different phase of the butterfly’s life cycle, from a caterpillar to a dormant chrysalis and finally to a mature butterfly.” Along the way, visitors are “introduced to some of the butterfly’s enemies and the challenges faced in finding food and a mate.”
Visitors will be able to climb in pupa pods, flap their own butterfly wings, play caterpillar pinball, do the spider web climb, squeeze and sniff nectar and grab hold and take flight on the monarch migration monorails.
Clik here to view.
“As you make it to all the different parts, you have a punch card and get stamps when you solve the little puzzles inside the exhibit, climb around a jungle gym section and pretend you’re a butterfly,” Hartman said of the kid-friendly exhibit.
“When you get them all, you’re done. Then you can visit the real butterflies and even start from the beginning and do it all over again because it will be so much fun.”
In conjunction with the exhibit, museum staffers have constructed a 400-square foot live butterfly enclosure with a bay window area named “The Butterfly House.”
As visitors walk through the house, the website promises, “they will be able to view and interact with native species of butterflies like mourning cloaks, question marks, and painted ladies.”
“We really wanted to make an exhibit that has something to get people inspired to make a butterfly garden at their own house. We will have plants as examples and tags so people can know exactly what to get,” said Hartman, noting that the plants are coming from Sudbury Nursery in Gill and Project Native in Housatonic.
The museum will also have mounted specimens of rare butterflies from its collection on display, a tie-in with the first-floor beehive exhibit and will be transferring the native plants from the house to expand butterfly-friendly habitats on the Quadrangle grounds after the exhibit closes.
Clik here to view.
“We have all these little connections here at the museum and if we can help people see all the things that we’re excited about, then we’re going to feel really successful,” Hartman said.
“We’ve learned a lot about making a happy environment for our pollinators like butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. We’re working with our campus master gardener to pick the best plants so we can help and provide support for them.”
Rounding out the museums’ ancillary programs are guided school tours of the exhibit, with interactive activities and gallery games designed to tie the exhibit to the curriculum frameworks. Many schools will be pairing visits to the exhibit with the museums’ “Incredible Insects” program.
“Twenty two schools have booked so far, with approximately 1,200 students. The school program includes time to explore the exhibition, as well as walk through the butterfly house and an interactive trivia game which will test the students’ knowledge of butterflies and other insects,” said Larissa Murray, manager of museum education.
Over the summer, the butterfly theme will be supported with hands-on art activities and scavenger hunts in the Hasbro Games Art Discovery Center in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum.
“The education department has developed a butterfly activity guide for visitors to take home. It includes butterfly fun facts, a craft activity, and recipes for making nectar at home and a butterfly-themed snack for kids, as well as tips on planting a butterfly garden,” Murray said.
Clik here to view.
The popular Thursday Museums à la Carte lectures, held weekly at 12:15 p.m. in the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, will offer “Butterflies, Climate Change, and You: A Case Study of the Power of Citizen Science” with Massachusetts Audubon Regional Scientist Tom Lautzenheiser on May 30.
Admission for the lecture is $4 ($2 for members of the Springfield Museums) and visitors are invited to bring lunch. For more information, call (413) 263-6800, ext. 488.
The exhibit will be open for a Culture & Cocktails event on June 6 from 5 to 8 p.m. “A Celebration of the Arts” will feature displays and demonstrations by staff artists and Museum School instructors.
Weather permitting, artists will be set up on the Quadrangle, and guests will be able to view the butterfly exhibit inside the museum. The signature cocktail will be a summer sangria and a DJ will spin music.
There is a fee of $5 for all visitors ages 3 and up to view “Amazing Butterflies” in addition to museum admission. General admission to all four Springfield Museums is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and college students, $8 for children 3 to 17, and free for children under three and museum members as well as Springfield residents with proof of address (does not include special exhibit fee or program fees).
The Springfield Museums are located on the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards Street in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free onsite parking is available.
For more information, please call (413) 263-6800 or