MASM’s exhibit hall completed
The keys to Mid-America Science Museum’s new free-standing traveling exhibit hall were symbolically handed over in an appropriately socially distant fashion Thursday after the construction crew finished the project that began last fall.
The new 8,750-square-foot traveling exhibit hall was constructed using the proceeds from a bond issue city voters authorized in September 2018. A resolution approved by the Hot Springs Board of Directors in September 2019 awarded Integrity Construction of Arkansas a $1,578,000 contract to build the exhibition hall. A groundbreaking was held on Oct. 7, 2019.
“The building was intended, and will be used for traveling exhibits, and those are exhibits that we will get mostly every summer, and sometimes more often than that,” Mid-America Executive Director Diane LaFollette
said. “… I think we’ve had a great team working on the project, and I appreciate so much the citizens of Hot Springs voting for us to be able to build this, and I think they’re going to be so pleased with how it looks. It’s gorgeous and so well done.”
“The exhibit space is 5,000 square feet,” she said, “so that will allow us to get 5,000 square feet of science-based exhibits, and sometimes different kinds of topics as well; maybe art, maybe history, all kinds of things that are available to us throughout the country, and we’ll be able to bring these exhibits in and that will make Mid-America the largest venue for science exhibits in the state.”
Although the museum is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LaFollette said they are hopeful to reopen “once the governor lifts the restrictions and allows people to open through the phased plans he has mentioned.”
The new exhibition hall’s first exhibit, “Bionic Me,” will arrive May 22.
“It’s about the technological interface with the human body,” she said. “So it’s how technology can enhance and improve and augment the human body and it’s cutting edge and has a lot of components in it that I’ve never seen before and I’m thrilled to be able to bring it to Hot Springs.”
The exhibit, traveling from Houston, was expected to arrive
May 8 but has been delayed due to the pandemic.
“We will be ready when we’re allowed to reopen and then everyone will be able to come in and see the exhibit,” LaFollette said. “I think it’s going to be a great relief and opportunity for people to get out, and we’ll have something new to offer and we’re so pleased with it.”
“The museum is fun as it is,” she said. “We have some wonderful exhibits and great activities and great opportunities to learn and share with your family, but now we have this new element as well with Bionic Me and I think it’ll just be inviting and a nice break and a nice getaway and a way to continue your opportunities for learning.”