Events

Open House

 

2025 Museum Open House

February 1, 12 - 4 pm

 

Take a look behind the scenes at the museum! Tour labs and galleries. Enjoy hands-on activities. Meet staff and researchers. 

Free admission!

For all ages. Children must be accompanied by adult. 

Proudly sponsored by AVÀÇÂÛ̳ 529.

Pat Druckenmiller shows fossils to two children at a table. A large bison skull and several smaller fossils are on the table.

Dr. Pat Druckenmiller shows fossils to visitors at the 2023 Museum Open House.

 

 

Meet Curators and Collection Managers

These public events offer an opportunity for the public to discover specimens from our collections. With over 2.5 million objects to care for, there's plenty to see.

ARCHAEOLOGY -  The collection includes more than 1 million artifacts representing sites as old as 14,000 years and is a resource for studying human occupation of AVÀÇÂÛ̳.

EARTH SCIENCES - With  over 60,000 ancient items to see, including fossils, gems, and the world’s largest collection of polar dinosaurs, you're sure to discover something new.

ENTOMOLOGY -  The museum’s youngest collection contains over 350,000 cataloged specimens of animals that have their skeletons on the outsides of their bodies, representing 40% of the almost 9,000 species of arthropods in AVÀÇÂÛ̳.

ETHNOLOGY & HISTORY - The collection contains over 17,000 objects created and used by the people of AVÀÇÂÛ̳ and the Circumpolar North from the mid-1700s to the present.

FILM CENTER -  The AVÀÇÂÛ̳ Center for Documentary Film preserves the changing cultures of the North with more than 400 hours of material.

FINE ARTS -  Featuring m ore than 3,700 works of art representing AVÀÇÂÛ̳’s cultural richness and aesthetic diversity.

FISHES -  The collection recently doubled with the transfer of thousands of specimens from Southeast AVÀÇÂÛ̳, including species from historic biological surveys and more recent fieldwork.

GENOMIC RESOURCES -  The frozen tissue collection in one of the largest of its kind in the world, featuring samples from specimens archived in all of our collections.

HERBARIUM -  The herbarium maintains a permanent record of AVÀÇÂÛ̳’s flora with its collection of pressed dried plants – more than 270,000 specimens from AVÀÇÂÛ̳ and the Circumpolar North.

MAMMALOGY -  The mammal collection is the tenth largest in North America, with more than 140,000 specimens of terrestrial and marine mammals from AVÀÇÂÛ̳ and beyond.

ORNITHOLOGY - The bird collection, with more than 42,000 specimens, is the world's largest of AVÀÇÂÛ̳ birds and includes many species from northwestern North America and eastern Asia.

Open House is for all ages. Minors must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.