Museum of Discovery + Heifer Village

I wanted to (finally) wrap up my trip to Little Rock by taking a look at two other places I spent some time exploring.  The first is the Museum of Discovery.  It is directly next door to the Clinton Museum Store.  It had just reopened after being closed for a year-plus renovation.  The Museum of Discovery is a cozy little science museum. It is broken up into several different exhibition areas.  We're going to start out in the entrance area.

This waved around in the breeze when the doors opened, it would occasionally hit a string, and play a musical note.

This is the centerpiece of the museum.  It's powered by vacuums.  Kids can put handkerchiefs and soft rubber balls into ports near the base, and the items will meander wildly around the tubes until the get ejected near the top, for kids to try and catch.  This is an absolutely wonderful display.

The first permanent exhibition area you walk into is called Discovery Hall.  This is by all accounts a fairly standard science exhibit.  You talk about forces, and motion, and simple machines, and magnets etc.  The things that really struck me were A) How beautiful everything was (granted, it was pretty much new) and B) How engaging they were able to make even simple experiments. 

Fancy wood floors!

Electromagnet wheel.  Next to this was an extremely fun, yet challenging electromagnet wheel that you had to try to get spinning by timing your magnetic pulses.  I think I spent 15 minutes playing with that one.  I got so engaged, I forgot to take a picture of it.

Square wheels (an exhibit that should be familiar to my COSI Columbus friends)

I loved this one.  What better way to show wavelengths than by plucking differently tuned guitar strings?

How many is 1 million? Turn the crank one million times, and the glass on the left breaks.

There was a lot more to this exhibit hall, I spent nearly an hour in just this one room.

Next up is their temporary exhibit hall.  At this time (and for another month or so after I write this) there was an exhibit on newer discoveries surrounding dinosaurs.  It's not a big room (this room more than any other looked like an old mall store front).

Video screens showing the muscle and bone structures of long-neck dinosaurs

Metal long-neck dinosaur sculpture

Next up is the kid's play area.  I did not go in, as I suppose a random guy on his own taking pictures would be seen as kind of creepy.  I really like the fairy tale theme to the entrance.  Later, I walked by, and the door was closed.  I suspect it's supposed to be that way all the time, and kids have to ring the doorbell to get in.

The final exhibit on the top floor of the museum is a fairly typical health exhibit.  There were some suitably disgusting exhibits (smoker's lung, and one that let you see your tooth plaque up close) that churned my stomach a bit.  I didn't find this area as engaging as the Discovery Hall, but to still has a lot to think about.  

I guess video gaming isn't enough exercise *sigh*

I submit that every health exhibit needs a display like this to show how long your intestines are if you stretch them out.

Heading downstairs, we start out with a couple smaller exhibits, as well as the base to the great vacuum machine.  That's worth playing with at any age.  

Off to one side is a small area dedicated to the local public media, and a workshop "Tinkering" room.  Sadly, that wasn't opening until later in the day, but it had a lot of neat stuff inside.  I suspect for regulars, this is a great area to explore repeatedly.

Oh My God, they're all dead!!  I blame Oscar the Grouch.

The tinkering workshop

The rest of the lower floor is basically an Arkansas natural history museum.  It talks about the climate, the animals, plate tectonics in the area...even why Arkansas is so tornado prone.  In a bit of irony, the night before I visited the museum, the town I was staying in had 8 tornadoes hit within a 10 mile radius.

I have seen these in dozens of museums...this is the first one that worked.  

The outside of a dramatic theater area talking about a tornado that hit the area

Inside the theater

Dramatic lighting and sounds give you a sense of what it would be like to ride out a tornado in a shelter.

I greatly enjoyed visiting this little museum.  If you happen to be in Little Rock, spending the morning at the Clinton Museum, and the afternoon in the Museum of Discovery would be a very nice day.  

But that's not quite all.  Just across the parking lot from the Clinton Museum is a little building called Heifer Village (next door to the Heifer International headquarters), and I would be remiss if I didn't spread a little love for this nifty little building.  

Heifer International has a noble goal of trying to end hunger worldwide, but to do it in a sustainable manner.  To teach skills, rather than to just give people food.  The world headquarters building is absolutely gorgeous...and one of the most "Green" buildings around.

Heifer Village is a small museum of sorts where you can learn more about their mission, and the methods that they teach around the world.   This is maybe a 45 minute stop at most, but one well worth taking.  They also have a fully sustainable cafe inside that serves some yummy looking food.

This display shows how they use different areas of the village to raise animals, store manure, and maximize their farming areas

A place for groups to sit around and discuss things they've seen.

My favorite out of order sign ever.

School in a suitcase.  For remote villages to help educate children.

Cool wall art

A board game that discusses ways to change the way we do things to make the world a better place.

An extremely clever device that allows people to roll gallons of water around instead of carrying them.

Brick walkway

View of the backside of the Clinton Museum

So, that wraps up my official look at Little Rock.  Overall, I think downtown Little Rock is a pretty nice place.  There were several museums I didn't get a chance to visit.  Maybe another time.  

As I get ready to wrap this up, a couple final pics of some of the other random sites in Little Rock.

The Chocktaw Building - houses the Bill Clinton School of Public Service

The State Capitol Building is in the middle.  It's modeled after the Capitol in Washington DC, and is often used as a "stunt double" when the Capitol building needs to be blown up in movies.

 

Central High School.  Home of the Little Rock Nine back in 1957.  

Julia Sugarbaker's house from Designing Women

Formerly the Little Rock Arsenal, this is the building General Douglas MacArthur was born in.  It is now the Arkansas Military Museum.

William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum

Recently, I had a chance to travel to Little Rock, Arkansas.  When researching the trip, the Clinton Library & Museum came up as THE thing to see in town.  Of the things I saw (there will be a couple future posts), it was by far my favorite.  I actually went to the museum twice.

From the outside, it's a very unusual building.  A lot of people derisively call it a trailer on stilts.  It's actually a very open building.  Lots of nice views of Little Rock, and the surrounding areas.  It's also extremely environmentally friendly.  From what I understand, they even have a "green" roof, where they grow many of the vegetables for the cafeteria inside.

It's really a beautiful campus.  I like the building, it's right by the Arkansas River, they have a couple of very nice reflecting pools that give a strong, but soothing water fall type sound.

This building is the actual library.  There's a long hallway leading to this,but you need special access to enter.  Most of the archives are actually underground, to protect items from the abundant sunlight the building lets in.

The old rusty bridge in the background is now part of a long walking trail that circuits much of downtown Little Rock

There's a special LEGO exhibit running right now, more on that later.

As you walk in the door, you are met by a very friendly greeter, and pointed to the security area.  As this is a federal building, they do have a metal detector...so be prepared for that.  After that, you head into the main atrium where you get tickets, and see Clinton's limo.

Ticket desk.  

I have to note one oddity in the building design at this point.  In the atrium picture above, you see a set of stairs.  There are 13 stairs.  They lead to a landing that leads to...escalators.  You have to climb stairs to get to the escalator.  I'm going to guess that the architect was making a statement about the original 13 colonies...but that's just a guess.

Once you hit the 2nd floor, you are pointed towards a small, circular theater.  In this theater, you watch a 13 or so minute long film (what is it with this museum and 13?), narrated by Bill Clinton, about his life and presidency.  It's a nice set up to the rest of the museum, and worth watching.

Outside of the theater, showing assorted items from Clinton's first presidential run.

The next room is one of the two real showpieces of the museum.  It is a full-sized replica of Clinton's cabinet room.  In this room, you can sit at the table, and read up on some of the more important policies of his time in office, such as balancing the budget, and the Kosovo crisis.  This is a great room, both for photo opportunities, and for reading up on just how complex certain aspects of the job are.

The Presidential Chair...it's comfy.  It's also about two inches taller than the other chairs

Policy touchscreen computers

Finally, we get to the real meat and potatoes of the museum.  This area is what they call the Timeline and Alcove Exhibit area.  Sorry for the dark looking pictures, there's a lot of natural backlighting here, I can assure you in person that the light levels are always quite comfortable.

The Timeline is exactly what you'd think it would be.  A year by year timeline of major world events, and special dates related to the Clinton Presidency.

These binders hold photocopies of Clinton's daily schedules

My birthday, 1996... part of the day had been redacted...ooh.  I have to admit, I felt rather spy-like holding this binder, taking pictures of the schedules.

Marshall Applewhite and Comet Hale-Bopp even made it in!

Across from these timeline panels are the "alcove exhibits".  Each of these exhibits focuses attention on a different policy area.  You'll read about everything from budget and racial issues, to the Lewinsky Incident, to space travel.

These pillars run the length of the building, on both levels.  They are filled with White House correspondence.  The papers in all these pillars COMBINED is only 3% of all the paperwork created during Clinton's terms in office.

Fancy carpets on hardwood floors in the alcove areas

These are letters from Buzz Aldrin and John Glenn.  John Glenn's was written from space.

At the end of a level is a tall staircase going to the 3rd level.  However, if you take this staircase, you kind of walk in to the wrong side of the upstairs exhibit, in my opinion.  It is a nice place to stop though, and look out onto the surrounding area.  You also miss out on the rest of the 2nd floor.  So let's look out the window, and then head back to the backside of the timeline.

The backside of the timeline panels show some of the letters written to and from Bill and Hillary Clinton during their stay in the White House.  Across from these are more (and larger) alcove exhibits.

Letter from Mother Teresa

                                     

Letter from the Dalai Lama

Pages from the final draft of a State of the Union Address

Letter From Arsenio Hall, I love the fact he has his face as a watermark on his own stationary

Dom DeLuise

Mr. Rogers!

Across from these letters, are more alcove exhibits.  These are much larger than the others (seemingly dealing with more worldwide issues).  One of the aspects of these that stand out more than the other alcove style exhibits are that they show off a lot more of the actual artifacts that were given to the Clintons.

Northern Ireland caricature chess set

A book of Biblical lithographs, given by Yitzhak Rabin

Building a Global Community exhibit

The 1994 Budget.  No wonder these things are so hard to balance!

At this point, you wander back to the escalators, and head up to the third floor.  Once there, you start out with the other showpiece exhibit.  A recreation of the Oval Office.  Now, sadly, you can't actually walk in to the room (many of the artifacts are real, though there are several reproductions as well), but you can see it from many angles, and it does give you a real sense of the room.  

The obligatory museum moon rock...

And now for something completely different...

After looking at the Oval Office for a while, there is a small travelling exhibit gallery.  On this trip, there was an exhibit of LEGO sculptures. "Nathan Sawaya: The Art of the Brick" is a neat exhibition.  Honestly, after I left this exhibit, I went and bought myself a couple sets to build.  The artist used to be a lawyer, but found out he could make more money being happy, and doing these wild sculptures... here are a few.

According to some of the workers, Sawaya said this was the hardest to build.

Sadly, this exhibit is only going to be there a couple more weeks.  Still, if you have a shot...go check it out, it's worth it.

After leaving the traveling exhibit hall, we reach the main third floor exhibit.  This is much more lighthearted fare.  "Life in the White House" is a collection of items used in the White House, and items given to the President over the years.  Everything from sports memorabilia, to unique works of art.

Overview of entire museum from the third floor.

A Dale Chihuly sculpture

An actual Olympic torch

Cool handmade chess set

Nightmare fuel.  The Hillary Clinton was not added by the museum, it was made by the chair maker as well.

Presidential Easter Eggs

Some of Clinton's saxophones.  I know one of these (I believe it's the second one from the left) is the one he played on Arsenio Hall's show.

Socks the Cat art

Bill didn't look too happy in this portrait

Some of the sports items.  

One final overview of the museum

Arkansas River

Down the other side of this level were several showcases of some of Bill and Hillary's items from their youth.  From Bill's Student Council campaign poster, to pics of the couple in college in the 1970s.  I don't have any pictures of this area, mainly because I didn't think anything really stood out.

Regardless of your political leanings, I think this is quite an interesting way to spend a few hours.  It's not as big as I would have imagined, so for most folks 2-3 hours should be sufficient to tour the museum.

There is a cafe in the basement that is only open most days from 11 AM - 2 PM.  As for a gift shop, it's a couple blocks away.  Apparently, there are some rules about selling items in federal buildings.  Thankfully, the Clinton folks run a free shuttle to the store.  This shuttle also drops you off near an area with several other museums, and lots of great places to eat.  

In all honestly, because parking is free at the museum...my best travel tip for Little Rock is to park at the Clinton Library, and take the little shuttle into downtown, and either walk, or use the trolley system.  The trolley only costs a couple dollars, and gives you a great tour of Little Rock, as well as easy access to most of the interesting sites.

I have one more Little Rock post, hopefully in the next week or so.  It will cover a science museum, an organization trying to end world hunger, and the site of one of the 20th Century's most important civil rights struggles.  

Thanks for reading, please comment if you enjoyed it...and if you have other suggestions for places I should visit.  I'm nearest central Ohio.  I have a few more places in the immediate area (including where I work!) to visit, but can always use more ideas in the surrounding area, or other places in case I get to travel.