[Noozhawk’s note: First in a series sponsored by the Hutton Parker Foundation.]
After the summer debut of a plethora of improvements — from major overhauls of decades-old dioramas to improved access, inside and out — the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History recently unveiled a few more treasures for visitors to enjoy while visiting the oak-studded property along Mission Creek.
Following the past year of renovations, refurbishments and revamping, and as part of the Museum of Natural History’s $20 million centennial campaign, a transformed Backyard and Nature Club House and a new Sprague Butterfly Pavilion opened Sept. 22.
“It was literally our backyard,” Briana Sapp Tivey, the museum’s director of marketing and communications, said of the newly transformed outdoor space adjacent to the new butterfly pavilion, filled with nearly 1,000 live butterflies, butterfly-friendly plants and native landscaping.
The new exhibit — Butterflies Alive! — features butterflies of varying shapes, sizes and colors, including red admiral, painted lady and mourning cloak, all species found in Santa Barbara County, and runs through Oct. 14. It is open daily from noon to 4 p.m., when the winged beauties are most active, and is free with paid admission to the museum.
Frank Hein, the museum’s director of exhibits, said the campus formerly was home to a butterfly pavilion, where individuals could walk freely inside the structure as the butterflies gently flit about the air around them, but the structure had “long outlived its due date.”
“(The exhibit) could also only run every other year,” Hein said, noting that a common question from visitors was, “When are the butterflies coming back?”
Starting next year, the Butterflies Alive! exhibit will be open annually from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
“People can count on it now,” he said. “It’s going to be every summer.”
The new pavilion, which was designed to mimic the shape of a butterfly wing, also is available for event rentals, such as weddings. Inquiries can be directed to Meridith Moore at mmoore@sbnature2.org.
The museum has always had outdoor areas for visitors to enjoy and for kids to play, get dirty and learn through nature, although the spaces may not have been the easiest to access for all. That has changed with the museum’s renovated Backyard and Nature Club House, a nature play area nestled in the oak trees along the creek. It’s accessed via an elevated boardwalk that’s both Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant and accessible to strollers.
“It’s now more organized,” Sapp Tivey said of the Nature Club House, adding that there’s also a new ADA-accessible restroom outside the nature-based play facility.
The newly renovated backyard area also is home to a Santa Barbara Audubon Society aviary, where seven rehabilitated raptors, including a great horned owl, peregrine falcon, barn owl, Western screech owl, red-tailed hawk and two American kestrels, make their home. The aviary is the society’s key wildlife education program, featuring birds of prey no longer able to survive in the wild, according to museum staff.
Tory Milazzo said his two daughters, ages 7 and 5, are drawn to the backyard and club house area every time the family visits the museum.
He believes the experience is unique to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, which he lauded for being a facility where his children — and so many others on the Central Coast — can learn about science, nature and how it’s all connected to them in a hands-on way.
“It’s so easy to be disconnected in this day and age,” Milazzo said, adding that the museum strives to engage kids, something he values as a parent and believes is important as it helps to inspire children to want to learn about the world around them and how they are connected to it.
“There’s a lot of value to that,” he said.
For the first time, the museum also undertook a new exhibit that examines climate change. The exhibit, which features videos, images and statistics, debuted earlier this year and is part of the multimillion-dollar overhaul of the museum.
“It’s hard to find reliable information (on climate change) … and to know who to trust,” Hein said of the exhibit. “We pushed that forward with what science has to say. We aren’t going to get political. That isn’t who we are.
“(But) this is a great place to (come) and find out about content that can change monthly. It’s a big step and real change from where we have been.”
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History at 2559 Puesta del Sol is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Click here for more information about the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, or call 805.682.4711. Click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk contributing writer April Charlton can be reached at news@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
