BUTTERFLY PAVILION LIFTS THE LID ON STATE’S BACKYARD
New exhibit heralds big changes at the internationally unique zoo
The funny thing about some of the metro area’s biggest cultural exhibits is that they have little to no Colorado ties.
Sure, local curators and designers help customize traveling exhibitions — often to stunning degrees, such as the Denver Art Museum’s “Dior: From Paris to the World” and “Star Wars and the Power of Costume,” or the Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s Dead Sea Scrolls and Leonardo da Vinci exhibits. But most them were not created with Colorado in mind.
There’s at least one, however, that is an exception.
“If you are interested in the bugs that are underneath your trash can or in your garden, come on out and visit us,” Ken Hoke, exhibits director at the Butterfly Pavilion, said as he walked through the new Colorado Backyard exhibit last week.
Hoke’s pitch — however off-putting to those with insect phobias — neatly sums up the research and education mission of the Butterfly Pavilion, which sits just off U.S. 36 at 6252 W. 104th Ave. in Westminster.
Ninety-seven percent of all life on Earth is invertebrate, Hoke said, paraphrasing a David Attenborough quote about how quickly the planet’s ecosystems would collapse without the billions upon billions of tiny waste-removers, fertilizers and pollinators hidden around us.
As the world’s only accredited, standalone invertebrate zoo, the Butterfly Pavilion’s job is to remind people of that while removing the negative stigma from insects, crustaceans, snails, jellyfish, leeches or the pavilion’s most
resident: Rosie the Tarantula.
“It’s such an intricate system,” Hoke said as he toured Colorado Backyard, a 3,500-squarefoot exhibition space and play area that opens March 23. “There are animals up in the Colorado mountains that haven’t even been classified yet. And that’s not the bottom of the ocean. It’s our backyard.”
Colorado Backyard is largely a kid’s play area, to be sure, and it keeps some of what made its previous incarnation so popular (and often congested), while streamlining and updating it.
Gone are the quirky “No Bone Zone” specimens that bisected the room and contained all manner of preserved creepy-crawlies, replaced with a treehouse made to look like a cottonwood tree, interactive digital projections, virtual-reality experiences, a rotating learning area and a modest gallery of local photography.
And, yes, there are still live animals. A “black box” designed to be changed out currently includes a miniature apartment building whose windows are populated with tiny four-legged guests, as well as touch-screen learning and other educational elements.
“We asked our members, ‘What are you looking for in an exhibit?’ ” said Russ Pecoraro, vice president of marketing and communications. “They told us they wanted a bigger play area, and a place where exhibits could change more frequently. They wanted to know more about the animals in their own backyard. We do a great job with tropical exhibits here, but what about what’s going on in Colorado?”
Known for its massive, greenhouse-like butterfly enclosure, the Butterfly Pavilion arguably has the opposite problem of the Denver Zoo: hardly any cute faces to look at (or worry about), and an unnervingly close proximity to the live animals, given that visitors are often encouraged to hold tarantu- las and let insects land on them.
While the nonprofit, 23-yearold Butterfly Pavilion counts fewer than 5,000 members, that membership is growing, Pecoraro said. Excitement is also building over the institution’s $30 million new building, which is scheduled to break ground in 2022 as the Butterfly Pavilion at the Center for Invertebrate Research and Conservation, with a projected opening in 2023. Already, the pavilion funds and manages scientific research in places like Nepal and Mongolia, as well as along the entire Interstate 76 corridor, where it’s creating “a pollinator district.”
Those types of programs will continue once construction on the new building gets underway, Pecoraro said. In the meantime, the Butterfly Pavilion wants to offer new experiences for the visitors and schoolchildren who arrive at the 11-acre complex by the busload on weekdays — and who may have seen everything in there already.
Designers studied exhibits in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and within Colorado for inspiration on Colorado Backyard. They jumped on progressive trends by including multiple USB charging stations, a separate and cozy nursing room for mothers, and a low-sensory area for kids who need a break.
A miniature RV camper, replica prairie dog hills and a “river” (complete with canoe, life vests and fishing poles) allows kids to step into the wilderness, while a toddler-friendly area lets unfamous steady walkers bash around self-contained. But you can’t please everyone.
“I have 3- and 4-year-old daughters and they were like, ‘Dad, we want to see ladybugs!’ ” Hoke said. “Of course, I was like, ‘Well, it’s lady-beetles … .’ ”
Always the educator. But that’s the point, Hoke said as he demonstrated a touch-screen display that lets visitors sign up for conservation and education programs (which the pavilion will then email you about).
Hoke said there are small but impactful actions we can take every day that “will ensure these hidden heroes are protected for the future.”
With muralist Tom Ward’s massive art of Colorado landscapes covering the walls, visitors will never be confused about where they are. Hoke promised that everything learned here will be put into the new location.
“As an exhibit designer and director, I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, (and) where to spend my money and where not to worry about it so much,” he said. “This is definitely a step up into our larger growth.”