EUGENE, Ore. -- (July 29, 2010) - The University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History will unveil a new look and new exhibits when it reopens Aug. 4.
Closed for renovations and retrofitting since mid-June, the museum will reopen Wednesday, Aug. 4, for the public. The facility now includes an updated lobby and expanded entryway to the Galleria. The museum store, Past and Presents, has also been freshened up with a new paint job and new goods for purchase.
New exhibits opening in August include, "We Are Still Here - Stephanie Wood's and Grand Ronde Family Basketry Traditions." The exhibit, produced by Stephanie Wood, Grand Ronde tribe member and University of Oregon alumna, showcases baskets and their significance to Native American culture in Oregon.
In addition, "PaleoLab - Oregon's Past Revealed: Horses and Grasslands," will open as the second installation of a three-part series at the museum. Horses, mammoths, mastodons and most other large mammals in North America became extinct about 13,000 years ago. But some of the early ancestors of horses migrated into Asia and then to Europe and Africa, where they developed into the modern horse. Focused on the early horse species of the grasslands, the exhibit features a working paleontology lab, where visitors can observe and visit with specialists as they prepare and conserve fossil specimens for the museum's Condon Collection. "PaleoLab - Oregon's Past Revealed," will run through Dec. 19.
In the Pacific Northwest Artists Gallery, "Solitude and Absolute Form - Photographs by Jon Meyers," will display landscape photography of Oregon and the West. Meyers will attend a free public reception at the museum from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, August 19.
The museum's retrofitting will enable future work that is expected to double the exhibition space in coming years.
The UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors and youths ages 17 and under, and $8 for families (two adults and up to four youths). Museum members, university faculty, staff and students are admitted free. Admission is free for the public on Wednesdays.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 62 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact: Judi Pruitt, MNCH assistant director of visitor services, 541-346-1671, judip@uoregon.edu
Links: Museum of Natural and Cultural History, http://www.uoregon.edu/~mnh/
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