Metro Museums Offer Unique Experiences Over Holidays
Looking for a unique experience over the holidays for your family? Why not try your hand at making a Carrick bend rope mat? Or perhaps you'd prefer to view recently acquired artifacts and specimens, take a shipwreck quiz or design a futuristic plastic model spaceship.
All these opportunities and more are available at the two metro area Nova Scotia Museum sites. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, on Lower Water Street, and the Museum of Natural History, on Summer Street, will be open most days over the holidays.
At the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, visitors have the opportunity to make their own Turk's Head or Carrick Bend rope mats -- the same kind of mats that have been used aboard ships for centuries. Visitors can also try to make a Monkey's Fist knot or help with some net-making.
An interactive computer kiosk, called On the Rocks, also allows people to explore Nova Scotia's coastline for shipwrecks or take a shipwreck quiz. Twenty historic ship portraits and the Families at Sea display in the Masters of the Sea Exhibit are also available.
At the Museum of Natural History, Building Our Collection, Preserving Our Heritage is a new temporary exhibition showcasing the portrait of Susanna Francklin, by John Singleton Copley.
Every Saturday and Sunday participants can enjoy bug cooking, gallery tours and talks, and walks with Gus, the museum's resident 82-year-old gopher tortoise. There are also two workshops for kids: Using your Microscope, on Tuesday, Dec. 28, and Kit Bashing and Model Making on Thursday, Dec 30.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Museum of Natural History will be open regular hours with the exception of the following dates: -- Dec 24 - closed in the afternoon -- Dec. 25 - closed -- Dec. 26 - closed -- Dec. 27 - 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. (Museum of Natural History) 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic) -- Jan. 1 - closed
For more information or to register for workshops call:
- The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 902-424-7490
- The Museum of Natural History 902-424-7353
Information is also available on the website at http://museum.gov.ns.ca .