Museum of Science and Industry

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 2009 SCHEDULE

2009 Hours of Operation

Regular Museum hours are Monday through Saturday 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. The Museum is closed on Christmas Day.
On the following dates, the Museum will offer special extended hours from 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. on Sunday:

• January 1
• March 21-29
• April 4-19
• May 22 – September 7
• November 20-22 and 27-29
• December 5-6, 12-13, 19-24 and 26-31

General Admission Prices

Adults: $13; Seniors: $12; Children (3-11): $9. City of Chicago residents receive a discount. Omnimax® films and certain special exhibitions are not included in general admission. On-board tours of the U-505 Submarine are $6. Parking in the Museum’s underground garage is $16.

2009 Free Days

General Admission to the Museum is free on the following days: Jan. 5-31; April 22 (Earth Day); June 1-5; June 19 (the Museum’s Anniversary); weekdays October 8-30; November 11 (Veterans Day).

Buy Online

The Museum encourages guests to make their Museum visit a breeze by planning ahead. All Museum tickets—general admission, Omnimax and special exhibition—can now be purchased online at www.msichicago.org.

2009 TEMPORARY EXHIBITS

BLACK CREATIVITY PROGRAM

Jan. 15 – March 1, 2009

The Museum’s Black Creativity program began in 1971 in order to present exhibits that recognized African-American achievements. In this year’s featured interactive exhibit, Green Revolution, explores green technology and innovation and features African-American architects, designers, engineers and business leaders in the green movement. Bring your family to see some of the latest innovations in renewable energy, organic agriculture and sustainable building, while trying your hand a fun activities like testing soil samples, building a playground from recycled materials—and more. As part of the program, Green Revolution will be supported with a juried art exhibition, a family day, educational workshops, special events and more. Please check the Museum’s Web site, www.msichicago.org, in January for a complete listing of events.

SMART HOME: GREEN + WIRED, Powered by ComEd

RE-OPEN AND UPDATED for 2009!
March 19, 2009 – Jan. 3, 2010

The “Greenest Home in Chicago” re-opens March 19, 2009. The home—designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs™ and built by All-American Homes™—will showcase the ways people can make eco-friendly living a part of their lives, and will also focus on what the future may bring to consumers. Discover the new Smart Home interior, featuring bold colors, fresh green stories, products and furniture. New and unique home technologies are also on display, courtesy of WIRED magazine. Explore the home’s updated landscape, which offers techniques for urban gardening, including vertical gardens and EarthBox planting.

PLEASE NOTE: This exhibit is not included in general admission and requires a ticket and specified entry time. Tickets, which include Museum general admission, are $23 for adults, $22 for seniors and $14 for children 3-11. Discount for City of Chicago residents. Tickets are on sale at www.msichicago.org.

WONDROUS COLD

March 21 – May 31, 2009

For centuries, Antarctica has captured the imagination of explorers, scientists and travelers. Its starkly beautiful landscape, extraordinary wildlife, and bitter climate are just the beginning of the wonders this amazing continent holds. Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey is an exhibition that features 50 color and black and white photographs taken by photographer Joan Myers over several trips to Antarctica. Her work juxtaposes highly detailed panoramas of Antarctica’s beauty with scenes of its wildlife, people, and historic sites, and it is supplemented by her compelling personal stories of what she describes as the world’s “most hostile continent.”Wondrous Cold, an exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), has been made possible through the generous support of Quark Expeditions.

CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS SCIENCE FAIR

March 27 – 29, 2009

In this 59th year of the Chicago Student Science Fair at the Museum, see more than 300 amazingly inventive math and science projects that have been developed by students from the Chicago Public Schools!

HARRY POTTER: THE EXHIBITION— WORLD PREMIERE!

April 30 – Sept. 27, 2009

Harry Potter fans will finally have a chance to get a first-hand look inside the famous wizard’s magical world through Harry Potter: The Exhibition, which will hold its world-premiere run at the Museum of Science and Industry. Guests will get an up close and personal look at the artistry and craftsmanship that went into creating the iconic props and costumes that appeared throughout the Harry Potter™ films. More than 200 authentic artifacts will be displayed in elaborate settings inspired by locations from Hogwarts™ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry including the Gryffindor™ common room, Hagrid’s hut and the Great Hall.

PLEASE NOTE: Harry Potter: The Exhibition requires a timed-entry ticket. Combination tickets (good for general Museum admission and Harry Potter: The Exhibition) are $26 for adults, $25 for seniors and $19 for children ages 3- 11. This exhibit will also have extended hours from Museum closing until 9 p.m. each night. Between Museum closing and 9 p.m., exhibit-only tickets are $18 for adults and seniors, and $15 for children ages 3-11. Advance tickets are currently only available online at www.msichicago.org.

HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © JKR. (s09)

YOU! THE EXPERIENCE—NEW PERMANENT EXHIBIT!

Opening October 2009; permanent exhibit

YOU! The Experience, a 15,000-square-foot exhibit, will celebrate the body, mind and spirit and inspire us all to optimize our personal health and well-bring through interactive experiences that provoke questions and invite debate. Whether testing their physical capability with a few boxing moves with a virtual coach or playing Mind Ball, a game in which players win by controlling their brainwaves—guests will see themselves—and their health—in new and fascinating ways. They will examine real human embryos and fetuses illustrating the wonders of human development as well as other amazing human specimens that showcase the extraordinary complexity of the human body. The Human Patient Simulator—a computer model-driven, full-sized mannequin that simulates real-life medical scenarios—will allow guests to diagnose and treat medical conditions And guests can make the Museum’s new giant "Heart” come alive—as they transmit their pulse to the Heart and make it beat in time with their own. Through a series of “SmartVisit” opportunities, guests can also save a range of experiences linked to the exhibit—from images of their face “aged” 25 years to digital photos of their own veins. Later, they can access these images on the Museum’s Web site as well as additional content and other community resources connected with their experience in YOU! This exhibit is included in general admission.

CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD and HOLIDAYS OF LIGHT 2009

Nov. 20 – Jan. 3, 2010

A Museum of Science and Industry time-honored celebration, Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light began in 1942 as a United Nations Day salute to American allies during the war and now, in its 68th year, features more than 50 dazzling trees and displays, decorated by members of Chicago’s ethnic community, that celebrate holiday customs from around the world. Holidays of Light showcases various global holidays that celebrate light or enlightenment, such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Diwali. Additional festivities throughout the duration of both displays include ethnic dancing and singing, storytellers and school choirs. A detailed schedule of special events and performances will be available in November 2009. Displays and performances are included in general admission.

SHOWING AT THE HENRY CROWN SPACE CENTER OMNIMAX THEATER THROUGH FEB. 12, 2009

GRAND CANYON ADVENTURE

Set against the immense backdrop of the majestic Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk takes audiences on an exhilarating river rafting adventure down the Colorado River in the company of a team of explorers committed to bringing awareness to global water issues. As the expedition journeys down river, audiences will learn about the challenges we face and the many opportunities that exist for conserving and restoring our watersheds.

WILD OCEAN

Wild Ocean is an explosive, symphonic giant-screen film about man and nature that captures one of the world’s greatest spectacles—the massive feeding frenzy takes place in the oceans of South Africa as billions of fish migrate up the KwaZulu-Natal Wild Coast. Breaching whales, frenzied sharks, herding dolphins and diving gannets compete in an epic underwater struggle for survival. But while the migration has provided a food source for both life in the sea and the people living along the African shores, global warming trends and over fishing have threatened the very existence of it.

OMNIMAX: STARTING FEB. 13, 2009

WILD OCEAN (see above description)

MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES

Mysteries of the Great Lakes explores the beauty of North America’s “inland seas.” It takes a drop of water nearly 400 years to travel from the headwaters of Lake Superior to the edge of Lake Ontario. Along the way, the water passes by towering cliffs dotted with early Native American pictographs, caribou and moose grazing on the shores, over giant prehistoric sturgeon lurking among thousands of shipwrecks and past nearly 40 million people who live along the more than 10,000 miles of coastline. It is a dramatic journey through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

PLEASE NOTE: Films and schedules are subject to change; additional film titles may be added. Omnimax films are not included in general admission. Please check the Museum’s Web site, www.msichicago.org, throughout the year for up-to-date features and showtimes.

# # #