Sponsor Update: Virginia Museum of Natural History

 Our friends at the Virginia Museum of Natural History miss our smiling volunteer faces.  Zach Ryder sent an article to let us know what has been going on since we have been gone. 

While the Virginia Museum of Natural History's operations have altered significantly in the eight months since the current pandemic changed daily life nationwide, 2020 has still been an eventful and successful year for the museum. However, we greatly miss being able to open our doors to visitors each day and deeply miss being able to interact with our dedicated volunteers and supporters, who are an integral part of the museum's success and day-to-day operations.

Currently, the museum is open Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed all other days. To fill the void of being unable to open our doors each day, the museum has placed an emphasis on virtual offerings, which have turned out to be highly popular with audiences.

Back in March, VMNH was forced to close the museum to visitors and immediately looked for ways to engage with audiences remotely. As a result, two new series of virtual programming were launched that have since proven to be huge hits on social media.

#BenInNature, which resides on the museum's official Facebook page, follows the museum's Administrator of Science Ben Williams as he ventures outdoors each day to record a snapshot of the unique sights that can be found in the natural world. From the colorful Northern red salamander (Psuedotriton ruber ruber) to the intimidating (yet, largely harmless) Wolf spider, Williams provides intriguing facts and unique humor to highlight the wide diversity of flora and fauna found within the Commonwealth.

Tales of Ancient Life, which also resides on the museum's official Facebook page, as well as YouTube, is a series of videos hosted by the museum's Assistant Curator of Paleontology Dr. Adam Pritchard, who puts the spotlight on a different paleontological specimen residing within the museum's scientific collections or exhibit galleries. From highlighting Virginia's state fossil, Chesapecten jeffersonius, to listing his personal top 10 dinosaurs of all time, Dr. Pritchard combines his scientific expertise and wit to bring Virginia's rich ancient life to center stage.

Other virtual programming has been offered since March, such as live science talks and live feedings of the museum's resident animals, such as Reggie the ball python. The museum's educators recently began a new social media series titled "Museum Minute", which highlights a new display inside the museum's exhibit galleries each week.

Additionally, the museum's education department has transformed its popular Homeschool Science & Engineering Academy into virtual programming. The academy is a bi-weekly program offered to homeschool students throughout the school year that focuses on a variety of STEM topics. Because students don't have to physically travel to the museum, the program now attracts students throughout Virginia and beyond.

Educator Terri Robertson shows students various seeds and how they are dispersed during the Virtual Homeschool Science & Engineering program on October 7

The success of the virtual offerings - and the plan to ramp up production - recently resulted in a $20,000 grant from the Helen S. and Charles G. Patterson, Jr. Charitable Foundation Trust in support of the development and implementation of the museum's "Virtual Outreach Initiative". The initiative is designed to develop and deliver a library of STEM-based virtual programming tailored to students and school groups throughout the 2020-21 school year, as well as provide additional science-based, virtual programming for children, adults and families throughout the Commonwealth. 

As successful as the museum's virtual offerings have been, staff also realize that virtual content can never replace experiencing museum programming in-person. To help fill the void of its popular science festivals, which had to be canceled due to the health situation, VMNH began offering drive-thru experiences for visitors.

In June, the museum offered the Drive-Thru Reptile Experience in lieu of the previously scheduled Reptile Festival and the Drive-thru Dinosaur Experience was offered in July in lieu of the annual Dinosaur Festival. For both events, museum staff offered numerous booths featuring a variety of fossils and other specimens from the museum's scientific collections. In the case of the Drive-thru Reptile Experience, live snakes were featured. The free events allowed attendees to simply drive their vehicles through the museum parking lot going from booth to booth without ever having to get out of their vehicles. As recently as October 10, museum staff took the Drive-thru Dinosaur Experience on the road to Waynesboro. While the event was free to attend, tickets were required and the event became fully booked within days of offering tickets. The event was a huge hit with attendees. 

Alicia Lantz helping with the dino drive-through

One of the most impactful events of 2020 came in August, when Dr. Hayden Bassett officially began his tenure as the museum's Assistant Curator of Archaeology. In this role, Dr. Bassett is fostering the museum's long tradition of zooarchaeology, while shepherding the program along new avenues, such as studies of enslaved communities in Virginia. Dr. Bassett holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from William & Mary and comes to the museum after serving as an archaeologist for the United States Department of Defense. As a DOD archaeologist, Dr. Bassett spent the past two years surveying cultural sites from around the world.

Dr. Hayden Bassett 

Museum staff are anxious to welcome visitors back without limitations, but until then, we encourage everyone to keep up-to-date with us on Facebook (a Facebook account is not necessary to view museum content), YouTube, and even Instagram. VMNH also has an ongoing series of science articles published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and museum scientists are frequently highlighted by popular media, such as Dr. Adam Prtichard in the National Geographic feature story, How the world's deadliest mass extinction actually helped the rise of dinosaurs.

Stay safe and we hope to see you at the museum soon!