Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 19, 1991 TAG: 9104190181
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Tracie Fellers
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As a result of the state budget crisis, the Martinsville museum lost $1.6 million in state funds and received only $300,000 for emergency building repairs.
The budget cuts set back the museum's plans for major renovations that would have substantially increased exhibit space.
But with the help of a few foundation grants, the museum managed to put together six new exhibits, some of which use pieces from old displays.
The centerpiece of the new exhibits is "Buried Treasures: Caves of the Virginias," which features a 8 1/2-foot tall model of a ground sloth - fashioned to resemble an actual sloth that lived in Virginia during the Ice Age. Models of a bat, other cave-dwelling animals and cave formations create an underground ambiance.
Other exhibits include: "Wildlife Exposed: Virginia Wildlife Photography by Lynda Richardson"; "The Age of Reptiles," which has life-size dinosaur models and actual dinosaur tracks from Culpeper; "Diversity Endangered," which focuses on threatened wildlife; and "Images of Vanishing Nature," a traveling art exhibit from the Endangered Species Media Project in Houston.
The museum also has obtained a Bioscanner, a video camera with a zoom lens that projects images of living creatures on a 32-inch color monitor. Visitors can maneuver the museum's new "toy" with appropriately fun tools - joy sticks.
The museum opens 10 a.m. Saturday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Gov. Douglas Wilder and Elizabeth Haskell, Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources, will dedicate the facility.
A variety of educational programs, games and demonstrations is scheduled for the weekend, including an open house in the museum's laboratories: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.
Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
by CNB