Catch temporary museum exhibits while you can
The Las Vegas Valley boasts many museums that educate and entertain. A few of them also have traveling and temporary exhibits.
VISITORS CAN BEND THEIR MINDS AT EXHIBIT
At the Children’s Discovery Museum, 360 Promenade Place, visitors are invited test their mettle at “Mindbender Mansion” through April 27.
“It is an unusual traveling exhibit because of the content,” said Denyce Tuller, director of marketing and public relations for the museum. “It’s all about puzzles and brainteasers.”
Upon entering the mansion, visitors will meet Mr. E, the exhibit’s personal puzzle master and the curator of the Mindbender Society. By gathering clues and solving puzzles, visitors may become members of the eccentric society and have their portraits appear on a Wall of Fame.
The puzzles include a variety of challenges, including ones that combine hopscotch and Scrabble. Challenges also include a steel ball maze that requires precision teamwork and one that involves TV trays, a conveyor belt and perhaps hi-jinks.
The first 500 guests are to be admitted free March 9 in honor of the museum’s first anniversary.
For more information, visit discoverykidslv.org or call 702-382-5437.
WORK OF LEONARDO DA VINCI CELEBRATED WITH HANDS-ON DISPLAY
The Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd. is experiencing a renaissance through May 4 with the traveling exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion.”
The exhibit introduces people to the mind of da Vinci with 40 life-sized re-creations of machines he designed. The hands-on exhibit includes models of a printing press, a revolving crane, a hang glider, a tank and a robot.
The models were created using materials available 500 years ago, and the exhibits include reproductions of the sketches they were built from. Some of the machines never made it beyond the sketchbook in da Vinci’s day.
“Da Vinci’s Knots: It’s All About the Dress,” a guest lecture by researcher, screenwriter and producer Caroline Cocciardi, is scheduled from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. March 8. Cocciardi is set to discuss a mathematical mystery she solved by closely studying a knot on the dress of the Mona Lisa.
Also on the list of things to see before they’re gone at the Springs Preserve is artwork from local seventh- through 12th-grade students at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, on display at the Big Springs Gallery.
For more information, visit springspreserve.org or call 702-822-7700.
‘AREA 51’ EXHIBIT HAS STAYING POWER
The National Atomic Testing Museum, 755 E. Flamingo Road, is upgrading its popular “Area 51 — “Myth or Reality” exhibit. The museum has extended this temporary display by more than a year and hasn’t set a closing date.
“We’re revamping it from one end to the other,” said Kathleen Frantz, public relations and development director for the museum. “We’re keeping some elements and rearranging others. There will be new things from now until we finish it around the end of March.”
The museum is conducting the changes by occasionally shutting sections for a day or two, including Feb. 25 and 26, so visitors are advised to call ahead to see if certain exhibits are open.
The museum also has a visiting artist series. It is showing the work of Kristian Purcell, who builds from personal and historic photographs, adding paint to explore relationships. She is working on a graphic history of the Nevada Test Site. The work is set to be on display through March 3.
For more information, visit nationalatomictestingmuseum.org or call 702-794-5151.
EXHIBIT HIGHLIGHTS YOUNG ARTISTS
The Marjorie Barrick Museum at UNLV, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, is showing “Art for Art’s Sake: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation” during regular business hours through April 26. Most of the display’s works were created in the last 20 years by artists who are mostly young and American.
For more information, visit unlv.edu/barrickmuseum or call 702-895-2787.
Contact Paradise/Downtown View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.
