CLEVELAND — For more than 10 minutes, our camera watched as three-year-old named Sam was transfixed to volunteer Stuart Macdonnell and his cart of artifacts inside the newly-opened visitor hall at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
It was a moment of pride for Chief Science Officer Dr. Gavin Svenson, who has worked toward transitioning the museum to cater to the next generation of guests.
"These are some of the most foundational moments where somebody can interact with an authentic real object and ask their own questions," Svenson explained.
As the museum continues its $150 million expansion and renovation project, Svenson told News 5 they had to reimagine the centuries-old way visitors walk through and learn at a museum.
"It’s not just about building a building," he said. "It’s not just about putting new exhibits in. It’s about thinking about how we’re reaching people."
To him, that meant shifting away from reading plaques and exhibits behind glass on a wall, and focusing more on 360-degree exhibits and hands-on experiences.
Mobile carts known as "Please Touch! Carts," helmed by scientists and volunteers, are part of the museum's push in their new space to evolve how guests interact with exhibits.
"I hope museums fundamentally change the way we deliver those messages," he said. "If people aren’t connected with the natural world and connected with science, they’re not going to care as much."
To get a better idea of what looks different at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, check out this News 5 story on from 2016:
Fan favorites such as Happy, the iconic sauropod; Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old partial fossil skeleton; and Balto, the dog, are still on display in the new visitor hall.
However, the new layout also breaks the mold of what's traditional for a museum by shifting away from organizing items and exhibits by a specific time period.
"The problem with that is you can’t connect things that happened millions of years ago with things that are relevant today," Svenson said. "If you break away from the timeline, you can really start to organize information in a way that’s a lot more accessible."
Svenson pointed out that previously, birds and dinosaurs would normally be located in separate areas of a museum. However, given that birds are related to theropod dinosaurs, that's not the case at the newly renovated Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
"People can look at [them both] and see there is a form of similarity between that dinosaur from 120 million years ago and that thing walking around in my backyard and feeding on my feeder right now," he said.
There are still major pieces under construction as part of the museum’s expansion, including "Evolving Life" and "Dynamic Earth." Those are slated to open in late 2024.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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