The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is located on 1600 Gendy Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76107 in the city's Cultural District. It was opened in 1945 as the Fort Worth Children's Museum and moved to its current location in 1954. In 1968, the museum adopted its current name.[1] Attractions at the museum include the Noble Planetarium, the Omni Theater, and the Star's Café, in addition to both traveling and permanent science and history exhibits.
In the fall of 2007, the museum was closed for renovations. During construction the museum had a limited presence in the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame next door, with a temporary "2 museums, 1 roof" campaign. The entire museum was moved into a new building at the same site in 2009. The new building was designed by architects Legorreta + Legorreta with Gideon Toal and consists of 166,000 square feet. The original Omni Theater and lobby were refurbished but left mostly intact. In addition, the museum left one tree from the original museum courtyard undisturbed and built the museum around it, leaving the tree in an open area called the Heritage Courtyard. The total maximum occupancy is 3,369 individuals. The museum's opening after renovations was on Friday, November 20, 2009.
Permanent exhibits
Fort Worth Children's Museum
The Children’s Museum gallery targets the Museum’s youngest guests – age birth to 8 – and those who care for them.
DinoLabs & DinoDig
Cattle Raisers Museum
A "museum within a museum," the Cattle Raisers Museum is located on the second floor of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The 10,000-square-foot exhibition tells the story of the cattle industry.
Energy Blast
Innovation Studios
Innovation Studios are located off the Museum’s central corridor. These five glass-walled studios – which surround Innovation Gallery – are called "Inventor," "Doodler," "Designer," "Imaginer," and "Explorer." They are 6,000 square feet of learning spaces.
150 Years of Fort Worth
"150 Years of Fort Worth" traced Fort Worth's development, from its beginning as a frontier outpost, through its youth as a cattle town, to the present day. Created by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, in cooperation with City Center Development Co., the exhibit was housed in the historic Fire Station No. 1, which was built in 1907. Fire Station No. 1 is located in the City Center complex at the northeast corner of Second and Commerce streets. This exhibit closed on February 19, 2016.[2]
Noble Planetarium
The Noble Planetarium is named for Charlie Mary Noble, an educator, astronomer, and scientist. The 80-seat planetarium shows a combination of live and recorded shows, including "Dream to Fly," a show about the history of aviation. The newly-renovated Noble Space Gallery hosts a collection of artifacts from the space race, including many that traveled to space.
Museum School
For seventy-five years, Museum School™ has introduced children to the wonders of the world around them. Founded in 1950, the program was first called the “Frisky and Blossom Club.” Today, Museum School™ continues to be a national model for informal science education.
The program’s intimate classroom surroundings foster a love for learning . . . from the wondrous science specimens and historical artifacts in the Museum’s large teaching collections to the early-childhood master teachers who brilliantly connect children’s imaginations to nature in their own backyard and times long ago. Young children are encouraged to discover and dream of one day becoming astronauts, engineers, historians, paleontologists and so much more through their encounters with real objects and real stories.
See also
Fort Worth Flyover, a short IMAX film commissioned by the museum and traditionally shown before Omni Theater movies
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