Florida Museum renovating exhibit galleries, pausing featured exhibits program

Press release from Florida Museum of Natural History

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Museum of Natural History is rejuvenating its exhibit galleries to upgrade components and technology and freshen up the visitor experience.

The featured exhibits program will be paused beginning Sept. 3 while the gallery space for temporary exhibits is updated after the closing of “ Science Up Close: Incredible Insects .” Construction on the space will begin this fall and continue into 2025.

“It is vital to engaging visitor experiences that we maintain our exhibits in excellent condition,” said Dale Johnson, project manager at the Florida Museum. “Both our permanent and temporary exhibits play a key role in inspiring our visitors to care about our natural world, and after 20-plus years on display, the design and components need refreshing.”

The upgrades — including state-of-the-art lighting equipment, new flooring, and other enhancements — will boost energy efficiency, ambient lighting, and visibility for objects on display. This crucial update will allow the museum to strengthen the infrastructure supporting changing exhibitions, opening the doors for innovative technologies to present fresh topics and experiences for all visitors while improving safety and accessibility.

Other notable enhancements to the museum gallery spaces include new lighting and graphics for the “ Wall of Wings ,” which welcomes visitors to the “ Butterfly Rainforest ” exhibit. The mangrove and underwater immersive dioramas within the “ South Florida People & Environments ” exhibit will also get upgraded lighting, flooring, and interpretive graphics.

These changes continue the renewal of the museum’s permanent exhibit spaces that saw the opening of the “ Water Shapes Florida ” exhibit in March 2024.

The Florida Museum hosted its first temporary exhibit at Powell Hall in the spring of 1997 titled, “Dinosaur Families: The Story of Egg Mountain” and has hosted more than 50 exhibits over the last 27 years.

The post Florida Museum renovating exhibit galleries, pausing featured exhibits program appeared first on Alachua Chronicle .