15 hours ago
Museum in Seymour opens new wing with annual festival
SEYMOUR (KFDX/KJTL)— The Whiteside Museum of Natural History is celebrating the opening of a new museum expansion through their annual Permian Fest.
This year's Permian Fest kicked off with the grand opening of the museum's new wing, which doubles the size of the original building. So, while families and prehistory enthusiasts could come and check out guest lectures and shop outside the museum, the views inside the building's new wing were another sight to behold.
While Permian Fest is usually a big driver for fundraising on its own, the new wing is generating a lot of enthusiasm for the museum's future from the guests and museum staff, like assistant director Holly Simon.
'Locals here don't get to experience going to big museums, and our museum was definitely very popular with the local community,' Simon said. 'But now that we have a giant Ceratosaurus skeleton and a big mammoth skeleton, it's really cool that we get to bring that big city museum experience to the locals.'
The expansion adds a total of 9,000 square feet to the museum's footprint, and the new space allows for reorganizations of old exhibits and the expansion of others. The new Bakker Dinosaur Hall and the Sundell Mammal Hall are two such examples. The fossil preparation lab also got a major expansion.
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