CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is opening its new Sears Dynamic Earth wing this week.
News 5 has been following along with the project’s progress over the past five years.
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Upon entering the new Sears Dynamic Earth wing, the stunning dinosaur displays may grab your attention, but the space is much more than a visual feast.
“I wanted to figure out how we could tell new stories with these animals and make it a little more exciting,” said Dr. Kaitlin Collaery, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Through interactive exhibits, someone can easily understand difficult topics like space and time. Collaery spent the last five years curating the new wing that explains our planet and the processes that make life possible.
“Those can kind of be complex topics, but we put them in context with Ohio and we have really interactive ways in explaining them,” Collaery said.
Collaery made it a point to have Ohio's unique history woven through, like highlighting the gnarly fossil fish that used to swim around Rocky River.
“It’s an Ohio state fossil fish, a very distinguished fish,” Collaery said.
Instead of just walking around reading like typical museums, patrons are encouraged to touch, turn and in some cases, even shake.
“Everyone loved the old earthquake simulator, so we had to bring it back,” said Collaery.
The entire wing was created in celebration of curiosity, paleontology, and, above all, our history.
“After people walk through and they get the whole experience, what is one thing you want them to take away?” asked New 5's Bryn Caswell.
“The fact that so much has changed over the course of earth's history and so much is going to continue to change,” said Collaery.
Opening day is December 15.
