This is a view of the front of the museum from the parking garage across the street. To tell you how much has changed over the years: the building on the left (with the dinosaurs peeking in) is only a couple years old. The yellow facade with the large window used to be the entrance atrium. That was an addition made to the building in the mid-1980s. It also signaled when the museum started charging admission. You take the good and the bad I guess.
This was originally the Cinedome theater, it now houses Dinosphere. This entire wing was built in the late 1990s.
Dinosaur escape! Yes, he is wearing a Santa hat
From the walkway, a closer look at the dinosaurs peeking into the new atrium
A gigantic Bumblebee statue in the atrium welcomes you to the museum
Dressed festively for the season
Infozone is a branch of the local library. This one is themed towards kids books. I love this idea. Bring kids to the museum, let them check out a book about something they just got interested in...not only are they excited about a subject, but they get to come back to return the book!
Oh, if only your movies were better
The new atrium doesn't add in new exhibit space, but it does give access to the Infozone and gift shop without entering the museum itself, which is useful. It also gives a nice new location for lockers and other amenities. I can imagine on extremely busy days, the extra atrium room would be very useful.
This is the "old" atrium area. Obviously, they are set up for holiday activities. The food court is on the lower left, the white thing at the bottom is their Yule Slide...basically, they take a spiraling staircase, and turn it into a carpet slide. It's pretty awesome, though not open at the time of my visit. A couple of the museum's traveling exhibit galleries are also in this area, but more on those later. Let's get to the museum!
LOWER LEVEL
The lower level houses several exhibits, as well as the museum's planetarium, and a theater where short versions of classic stories and plays are acted out. I didn't have time to see any shows on this trip, so let's look at the exhibits.
DINOSPHERE
The first exhibit we went to is Dinosphere. Now, while it's technically on the lower level, you enter from the first floor, near the food court. Back in the 1990s, when large-format movie screens were all the rage, The Children's Museum opened their Cinedome. In the mid 2000s, they decided that a room full of dinosaurs was a cooler idea than a movie theater. I agree.
SUPERCROC!
Dinosphere isn't a huge exhibit, but they sure pack a lot of dinosaur fossil goodness into the location. It's also very atmospheric. Occasionally, there are thunderstorms, and the lighting changes from day to night.
Skeletons are set up in "action" poses quite often. As you see in the picture above, one dinosaur is scaring off others in order to scavenge meat off a fallen victim.
This skull is very interesting. The skull was found to have a fossilized brain tumor!
One thing I love about this exhibit is that they actually show you people who do paleontology as a career doing their work. It's so much more interesting than just reading a panel on the wall. I have to imagine that the museum's close relationship with the Field Museum in Chicago helped bring this area of Dinosphere to life.
A triceratops skull they have been working on for a couple years
Hey! What's a polar bear doing here?
Yes, this dinosaur was named after Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books.
ALL ABOARD
As you leave the Dinosphere, you walk right into "All Aboard" an exhibit all about trains. This also marks our entry into the old part of the museum.
The star of this exhibit is the Reuben Wells. This engine used to push train cars up the steepest track in the U.S. When the engine was placed into the museum, back in 1975, they actually rolled it in on some track, and then finished the walls behind it afterwards.
AH! Creepy plaster conductor! See more about these bizarre creations here
You can see the last track the Reuben Wells ever rolled on here
Looks like a Caboose, is actually a tool car
Today it houses some of the museum's massive collection of model trains
There used to be a giant model train exhibit on the top level. Sadly, it has been relegated to the Lower Level. The arches you see allow children to crawl underneath, and into viewing areas inside the diorama.
SCOTT'S TRAVEL TIP!
At this point in the museum, you come across the National Geographic: Treasures of the Earth exhibit. It's brand new, it's shiny, and I highly recommend skipping it for now, and coming back to it later...I will explain why in a bit.
FIREWORKS OF GLASS
Back in the old days, the center of the museum was a small area for tiny traveling exhibits. One of the unique features of the Children's Museum is a continuous ramp that leads you around to all five levels. Over the years, they would hang streamers and such, but never really had a real hook for this area. That's where Dale Chihuly came in.
Reflection of the glass ceiling on the floor
Part of the glass ceiling
This is a permanent exhbition of some of Chihuly's glass works. There are plates, bowls, and other various items all placed into this massive display just over your heads. There's even a rotating sofa so people can lay back, and just stare into the ceiling. It's one of my favorite resting places in the museum.
That's not all this area holds...to see more, let's head upstairs.
DECISION TIME
After doing the lower level exhibits you have two choices. You can go up to level 1 and work your way up to level 4, or you can take the elevator to level 4, and work down. This time, I decided to go all the way up, and work down. So let's go to..
LEVEL 4
Level 4 has two major exhibits. Carousel Wishes and Dreams, and Science Works.
CAROUSEL WISHES AND DREAMS
The carousel in the Children's Museum was originally built in 1917, nearly destroyed in the 50s and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
I've been on this carousel literally hundreds of times. I've never ridden an animal. There are some very comfy benches that I have always preferred to sit on.
The main attraction in this area is the carousel. Although there is a fun mirror maze, an exhibit on games through the years, and some play areas.
I remember this horse from when I was a kid
Kids play rough with their toys these days...
There's no Power Grid in this display!
SCIENCEWORKS
Across the floor from the carousel is ScienceWorks. I'm not a big fan of the current ScienceWorks exhibit. Mainly because I remember what this area used to be. Back in my youth, this area was called Science Spectrum. A large red neon sign used to greet you to the area. There were exhibits showing all kinds of scientific principles. Everything from levers and pulleys to gyroscopic force and vacuums. This area used to be my favorite in the building. There were days when this was the only exhibit I wanted to visit. I even learned how to juggle here, while being encased in a full body bubble. I do realize though, that perhaps my memories make the exhibit to be better than it was, but it's hard to fight off those memories.
Today, ScienceWorks is kind of a mash up of exhibits.
I can't help but notice... cement ceiling, repeating geometric shapes...is the Children's Museum also an example of Brutalism architecture?
My favorite part of the exhibit is this interactive billiard ball Rube Goldberg-esque machine. I usually spend a good 15-20 minutes watching and playing with this.
Gigantic water table. Shows several aspects of water science principals. You used to be able to design your own boats, but they seem to have gone to plastic boats. Not many people were using this, despite the museum in general being very busy the day I was there.
Wetlands. Many years ago, there was a nature exhibit on the 1st floor. When the 80s atrium was built, that exhibit went away. It's a shame, because I'd love to be able to walk through the Indiana Cave exhibit again. This area takes up the middle of the floor, I saw a few fish and a couple frogs, but that was about it. Didn't really hold my attention.
This SciencePort is a construction themed area that kind of scratches the old Science Spectrum itch. You do get to play with pulleys, levers, and build arches.
To sum it up...ScienceWorks basically jams physical, natural, and health sciences all into one exhibit. I'd like to see a return to the older exhibit style, but maybe I'm in a minority. There's also rock climbing in this area for kids.
Random stuff. I love it. In the corners of the museum where there may not be an exhibit, there's usually one of these small display windows. Often times they are seasonally themed or, as in this case, just about random cool stuff from the museum's collection.
Oh, how we are missing you this season #18
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Remember the Chihuly exhibit on the Lower Level? Well, here's what sits above the ceiling of glass.
This is the Tower of Glass. A 43 foot tall structure designed by Dale Chihuly. This is the largest permanent blown glass sculpture around. And there are over 3,000 pieces in it! I wonder how they dust it?
LEVEL 3
Level 3 holds three exhibits. I have no pictures of two of them from this trip. One is Playscape, the area for children under five to play in. The other is Story Avenue. Story Avenue is a small exhibit that discusses the role of storytelling in the African American community. On a couple previous trips, there were people playing music and telling stories. This time, the exhibit was quiet, so I didn't go in. However, as a point of reference...there is a barbershop set up in here, so if you have friends with you that know the movie Coming to America, you can get rounds of applause from fellow guests.
THE POWER OF CHILDREN
The third exhibit on the level is The Power of Children. This exhibit tells how three children, Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and Ryan White basically changed the world in the 20th Century.
Anne Frank's annex
Through the use of artifacts, live plays, and other interactive elements... the stories are told about how these kids did things that most adults couldn't.
Facade of Ruby Bridges' school
On this day, the live Ryan White show was in effect, and due to some time constraints, I could not get a picture of his area, which includes an exact recreation of his bedroom. This area always gives me a bit of a chill, since he was a kid just a little after I was, so his room is full of stuff that I owned. It always makes you think.
Overall, this is a very powerful exhibit, although not one I visit every time, as it doesn't really change all that much. I do kind of miss the Mysteries in History exhibit that used to be here, but Indianapolis has an entire museum that does history very well (I hope to be able to go back and review it soon).
The obligatory Indy car. A childhood picture spot for decades.
LEVEL 2
Getting back near the entrance, Level 2 has one permanent exhibit, and several temporary galleries.
TAKE ME THERE...EGYPT
The permanent exhibit is called Take Me There...Egypt. It's a relatively new exhibit. It takes over a spot that used to be called Passports of the World. This exhibit took you to different areas of the world, and showed various traditions, celebrations, and other aspects of life. What they've done now is basically taken a magnifying glass directly to Egypt.
You enter the exhibit by taking a flight to Egypt
and if you look out the right of your plane...
Welcome to Egypt!
Egyptian kitchen. A long way from Paula Deen.
I actually really liked this exhibit. It's a nice change from the old exhibit (although I do kind of miss the steel drums). I do wonder why there's an exhibit about Egypt in the middle of Indiana. Unlike just about everything else in the building, this exhibit didn't seem to have much local context built in. I wonder if the way the exhibit is named may mean that every few years they would change the destination. Take Me There... Amsterdam! Take Me There... Russia! etc.
There was an exhibit of Barbie fashions in one of the traveling galleries...moving on.
Ready for the Christmas season!
Hey! Weren't you in the paleontology exhibit earlier?
Need to know what time it is?
If I am reading this right, it is about 2:07 PM
The Yule Slide from above
Traveling exhibit about frogs
Yes, Frogger made the exhibit
A green roof, this is directly over where you used to enter the museum
LEVEL 1
So, here we are, back to where we started. But we've left the best for last. Remember earlier, on the Lower Level, I recommended skipping the Treasures of the Earth exhibit for a while? This is why. The exhibit's actual entrance is on Level 1.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TREASURES OF THE EARTH
Before you enter the main exhibit, there are a few interesting items to kind of whet your appetite for what's ahead. Treasures of the Earth deals with archaeology, and solving mysteries of the past. You will discover the truth about mysterious terra cotta warriors, a shipwreck, and even a mummy.
Overview of the main exhibit floor. Note that much like in the Dinosphere exhibit, they have working Archaeology and Wet Labs in this exhibit.
Dude, it's the Golden Idol!
The part of this entire exhibit that blew my mind the most was the entrance. They actually built a brand new elevator shaft just to show you an intro video, and bring you down to the lower level, and into the exhibit. This is why you don't want to go in from the bottom, you'll miss this funny entrance video!
Your guide to the mummy area, this exhibit has high tech screens all over the place. Also, it's impossible to escape the unmistakable Nat. Geo. presence.
A dig pit for kids to help discover the terra cotta warriors themselves
In the shipwreck area, they have a wet lab with actual relics from Captain Kidd's shipwreck!
Coins!
Into the mummy's tomb. Much of this area was repurposed from the old What If gallery that this replaced
Walk Like An Egyptian...
Pretty sure this says "Eat at Joe's."
My only regret was that I was so into taking pictures, I didn't really read anything in this exhibit. Oops. Guess I'll have to come back!
So, that ends my photo trip of the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. Like I said at the beginning, I've been going to this museum since I was a baby. There's a lot I miss about the museum from back then. I miss the Science Spectrum, I miss the goofy Computer Corner (you had to physically turn a crank a certain number of times for it to load a computer game), I miss the Indiana Caves walk through, I miss the Pastimes exhibit (I think that was a traveling exhibit from 1983). I wonder if any of that stuff is still in the collection anywhere?
Having said that, if all that stuff were still there as it was when I was a child, I doubt the museum would be nearly as good as it is today. It's a simple truth that if you don't evolve, you get left behind (look no further than my Ohio Historical Center page) The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is a great museum. You don't even need children to enjoy it. Just be willing to be a child at heart for a few hours.
