Inaugural ‘Bionic Me’ closes at Mid-America this weekend
Visitors to Mid-America Science Museum only have a few more days to experience “Bionic Me,” the inaugural exhibit of its new traveling exhibit hall, which opened in May 2020.
“Sunday is the last day to come see this one,” said Casey Wylie, director of education.
The expansion of the museum was authorized in September 2018, but Wylie said plans for the exhibit hall go back to at least 2015. When asked if the new hall met her expectations, Wylie said, “it’s exceeded it, absolutely exceeded it.”
Wylie said the debut exhibit for the hall is a popular one, getting good feedback from both children and adults.
“Bionic Me” is a medical exhibit that shows how bionics are used to help people. For example, there is a component that allows visitors to run down a track to see if they can run faster than a Paralympian with prosthetic legs.
The Paralympian component, Wylie said, has been the most popular part of the exhibit, “without a doubt.”
Wylie said children have not been able to beat the Paralympian, but they are getting close. Wylie’s favorite part of the exhibit, she said, is a component where the user is able to control a ball with their brain.
While adults have enjoyed the interactive parts of the exhibit, Wylie said they also enjoy watching the videos and reading about the exhibits.
As the exhibit’s entire time in Hot Springs was during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wylie said it was good for the museum to have a medical exhibit, noting, “I hope that it helped make people more comfortable with (the medical community).”
Wylie said attendance has “been pretty good,” noting they are seeing between 40 to 50% of their normal attendance, which is “quite spectacular.”
After the exhibit closes, Wylie said it will be shipped back to its home in Australia before being sent to Saudi Arabia.
The next exhibit in the hall will be an art exhibit by local artist Longhua Xu and his grandson, Han Xu. Wylie said the exhibit will feature paintings the elder Xu has painted that are based on the drawings of his 6-year-old grandson. She said it will include a lot of “dinosaurs and chickens. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs and chickens?”
Diane LaFollette, the museum’s executive director, praised the paintings. “They make me very happy to look at, they are colorful and fun,” she said, also noting the exhibit will feature “lots of chickens.”
She said she asked the younger Xu why he drew so many chickens, and he told her “Because I like chickens.”
The exhibit, Wylie said, will also be an educational exhibit and will show the science behind creating artwork. “Science
is in everything, even in things you don’t think about,” she said.
The upcoming exhibit does not have an announced opening date yet.
Wylie said the museum expects to have “at least one major exhibit every summer.”
In addition to local exhibits, such as Xu’s, she noted the museum is a Smithsonian affiliate and the new hall meets the requirements to house Smithsonian exhibits.
“We are now able to take part in (Smithsonian) exhibits as well,” she said.
The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and from 1-5 p.m. Sundays.