Fancy meeting YOU here! The next installment in my impromptu series on kids’ museums in Connecticut features the Connecticut Science Center, which opened in June 2009 and intrigues adults who have not yet gone to see it. “I really want to get up there,” they say, and when I tell them I’ve been there they ask what it’s like. “It’s great for kids,” I tell them, and I suppose with a cocktail party on the main level in the evening it would be great for adults, too, but that’s just me. On a random day in the middle of summer, though, you can bet there are summer camps barreling through every exhibit, crowding up the films and shows, and clamoring for front-row views of the demonstrations. With my life so full of Kid already, I can’t imagine visiting the center sans children. But the place does hold catered events, and the location, right in the middle of Hartford on the sparkly Connecticut River, would be a scenic spot for...[more »]

photo courtesy of Yale's Peabody Museum The Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, CT is about one thing and one thing only: the dinosaur exhibit. Duh. Okay, fine. There are rooms of decades-old taxidermy for children to marvel at. One child in particular kept running back to the polar bear, mischievously scheming to get behind the barrier and elude the docent who sat at its side. There are also interactive weather and geography exhibits. Native American artifacts found right in this area. A discovery room where kids can touch things and watch live video taken from inside an ant colony. Oh, there are photos and fossils and diagrams and such that are appealing to adults but if you are a parent of young children you will not get to see, for example, the latest addition to the museum, “Coffee: the World in Your Cup,” which digs deep into the history and story of coffee, that elixir of the morning. The exhibit is sponsored by, among others, Starbucks....[more »]

An installation by Radcliffe Bailey at the Hunter Museum Supplying over 100 years of architecture in just the buildings alone, the Hunter Museum of American Art is a must see. Sitting on an 80-floor bluff overlooking the Tennessee River, the museum is housed in an 1905 mansion, a 1975 wing filled with stark lines and a contemporary 2005 structure composed of steel and glass. The museum focuses on American art from the colonial period to today and hosts many of Chattanooga’s cultural events. The museum’s collections feature a vast array of works on paper, paintings, sculpture, furniture and contemporary studio glass as well as books and multi-media installations, such as Radcliffe Bailey’s stunning “In The Returnal,” installation.The pieceincludes photographs, plant material, wax, acrylic and oil stick on wood among other media. The current exhibit, “Jellies: Living Art”, which is part of a partnership with the Tennessee Aquarium...[more »]